As they’ve done their entire senior seasons, Robert Murphy and Jacob Poyner led the Warsaw Tigers to a win. Dating back to the cross country season when the duo, joined by junior Ellis Coon, helped the Tigers win the Northern Lakes Conference title, followed by the Culver Academies Sectional, the Culver Academies Regional, a second-place finish at the New Prairie Semistate and ultimately a fourth-place finish at the state finals. On the track, with Poyner having already signed to run at Wake Forest next year and Murphy headed to Vincennes, they’re at it again, leading the No. 8 Tigers to their second-straight Max Truex Invitational title Friday. On a rare pleasant spring evening, the Tigers won the 31st annual Max Truex Invitational at the Tigers Athletic Complex with 122 points, followed by Penn (105), No. 19 Hobart (89), No. 20 Fort Wayne Wayne (88) and Fort Wayne North Side (85) to round out the top five. “It just feels great to see us compete the way we did,” Warsaw coach Matt Thacker said. The meet is scored using combined times and distances of two teammates in each event. For example, Warsaw junior Stephen Kolbe’s leap of 6-foot-6 in the high jump was combined with freshman teammate Brock Riley’s 5-8, resulting in a final height of 12-2, which was good enough for second place. With two of the state’s top two distance runners on the same team, the outcome of the 1600 was decided before it even began. In the 1600, Murphy and Poyner were close throughout and it appeared Murphy would get the win, as well as a new meet record, but Poyner gave it his all in the final 15 meters, edging out Murphy. “I had to work on my kick, because I have a bad tendency with about 150 (meters) to go, when I kind of doubt myself,” Poyner said. “To be able to pull it off at the end was good.” Poyner’s time of 4:12.91 broke the previous record time of 4:16.16, which was set by Elkhart Central’s Chris Cozort in 1994. However, even Murphy’s second place time of 4:13.05 was faster than the previous mark, and the duo’s combined time of 8:25.96 shattered the 1994 time of 8:45.35, set by Cozort and Mark Ermis. “To be able to run with Robert and be able to run the two fastest times in the state so far (is great), not that that matters as much as our about getting personal bests,” Poyner said. Poyner’s late push did take away a win from Murphy, who was hard on himself following the second-place finish. “To see the competitive spirit, which I think you saw with Robert in the 1600 (is great),” Thacker said. “He did some great things, but still wasn’t satisfied – that kind of summarizes our team.” Murphy eventually cooled down and was in much higher spirits after setting a new meet record in the 3200 with his first-place time of 9:28.96. “It was much easier to get first in the 3200, compared to the 1600,” Murphy said. “Since I went so hard in the 1600, I took (the 3200) just a tad bit easier. My heart wasn’t into kicking it all out.” Seeded 11 seconds faster than the previous meet record time of 9:30.0 set in the first running of the invitational in 1982 by Carmel’s Dan Boston, Murphy wasn’t pushed too much. The record time in the 3200, which helped Warsaw get first in the event with freshman Owen Glogovsky’s 10:10.11, combined by his finish in the 1600, made Murphy the meet’s Most Outstanding Distance Runner – not that it was an honor he was shooting for. “I didn’t really have any goals,” Murphy said. “I’ve never had time goals, especially this year. It was really just about running my heart out in both races, but once I looked at the seed times in the (3200), I just wasn’t feeling it as much.” Even if he wasn’t feeling it, his teammates were. When his name was announced for the honor, his teammates began chanting “Ro-bert Mur-phy.” “Where he’s come from since his freshman year, with the improvement he’s made, it’s just incredible,” Poyner said. “It’s really cool to be a part of that story. It’s really cool to be his friend. I know all these guys feel this a little bit, especially me, (senior) Brysten (James), Ellis and some of the other guys, just to be able to be his friend and be a part of his process.” Poyner was able to help his teammates get into that jubilant mood base on his anchor leg of the 1600 relay. Running in Group B, which is the slower of the two, Poyner found a way to track down the runner in front of him, nipping him at the finish line, just as he had done to Murphy in the 1600. With his strong anchor leg, Poyner helped the Warsaw B relay post a time of 3:35.98, clearing the way for the win, as the Warsaw A relay also took first in 3:22.91. At the end of the night, Poyner led by example, running out every meter he ran, including a second-place finish in the 800 in 1:58.41, which was combined with junior Ismael Calderon’s 2:02.58 to qualify for first place overall. “Bottom line is – he wants to win and I have no problem with that and I don’t think any coach would,” Thacker said about Poyner. The Tigers return to Northern Lakes Conference action Wednesday at Elkhart Memorial, where they’ll look to wrap up a 7-0 season, joining Goshen at the meet. And with runners like Murphy and Poyner, and hopefully with the injured Coon joining the action soon, the Tigers may be looking past winning an NLC title. “When you have guys that are going to give you all they have – no matter what – we’re going to be a position to compete and do some special things,” Thacker said.
MAX TRUEX INVITATIONAL Team Scores – Warsaw 122, Penn 105, Hobart 89, F.W. Wayne 88, F.W. North Side 85, LaPorte 68, Mishawaka Marian 26, S.B. Career Academy 6 (Top 3, Warsaw Results) 3200 Relay – 1. Penn (8:36.26, 8:16.13) 16:52.39, 2. Hobart (8:35.78, 8:18.04) 16:53.82, 3. Warsaw (8:34.88, 8:19.23) 16:54.11; 110 Hurdles – 1. F.W. Wayne (Devon Stone 15.05, Carrington Robinson 15.91) 30.96, 2. Penn (Tim Deal 15.03, Max Weaver 17.95) 32.98, 3. Warsaw (Taylor Cone 16.44, Dylan Campbell 17.04) 33.48; 100 – 1. Penn (Tommy Grant 11.09, Zach Oakley 11.70) 22.79, 2. F.W. North (Tyvon Kelley 11.42, Desmond Gaston 11.80) 23.22, 3. Warsaw (Wyatt Jones 11.50, Tristan McClone 11.82) 23.32; 1600 – 1. Warsaw (Jacob Poyner 4:12.91*, Robert Murphy 4:13.05) 8:25.96*, 2. LaPorte (Anthony Didion 4:19.48, Nate Gerick 4:36.60) 8:56.08, 3. Penn (Kyle Irvin 4:39.29, Taylor Neff 4:54.73) 9:34.02; Discus – 1. Hobart (Ernie Ray 153-05, Gerald Valenzuela 152-08) 306-01, 2. Penn (Seth Rassi 134-5, Sam Daggy 134-3) 268-8, 3. F.W. North (Russell Collins 146-10, Tyler Peden 104-1) 250-11, 4. Warsaw (Andrew Schiedt 121-6, Tim Perkey 108-5) 229-11; 400 Relay – 1. Warsaw (46.38, 43.39) 1:29.77, 2. F.W. North (45.91, 44.07) 1:29.88, 3. Penn (48.34, 44.57) 1:32.91; 400 – 1. F.W. North (C.J. Jackson 51.04, Tyvon Kelley 48.50) 1:39.54, 2. F.W. Wayne (McCoy Lucas 53.54, Shamarcus Ford 48.81) 1:42.35, 3. Warsaw (Chad Goon 52.03, Gabe Furnivall 51.76) 1:43.79; 300 Hurdles – 1. Penn (Max Weaver 44.89, Tim Deal 38.86) 1:23.75, 2. Warsaw (Taylor Cone 42.92, Ryan Goon 41.08) 1:24.00, 3. F.W. Wayne (Andrew Moore 46.70, Devon Stone 39.55) 1:26.25 800 – 1. Warsaw (Ismael Calderon 2:02.58, Jacob Poyner 1:58.41) 4:00.99, 2. F.W. North (Ali Souleimane 2:05.61, Jose Rodriguez 2:04.76) 4:10.37, 3. LaPorte (Kevin Huckstead 2:12.51, Anthony Didion 1:57.88) 4:10.39; Pole Vault – 1. Hobart (Nick Stack 15-3, Logan Allen 13-0) 28-3, 2. Warsaw (Jeff Coulter 12-0, Jake Fayed 11-06) 23-06, 3. LaPorte (Jake Payne 12-0, Tyler Ott 10-6) 22-06; High Jump – 1. F.W. Wayne (Tyrese Eaton 6-5, Carrington Robinson 6-2) 12-07, 2. Warsaw (Stephen Kolbe 6-6, Brock Riley 5-8) 12-2, 3. Hobart (Matt Stewart 6-6, Reno Erving 5-6) 12-0; Long Jump – 1. F.W. Wayne (Carrington Robinson 21-3.5, Dontell Parker 19-4.25) 40-7.75, 2. Penn (Tim Deal 20-9.75, Sabin Gorsett 18-2.75) 39-4.25, 3. Warsaw (Nathan Kolbe 19-2.25, Caleb Ray 18-2.75) 37-5; 200 – 1. Penn (Christian Hill 23.99, Tommy Grant 22.08) 46.07, 2. Warsaw (Tristan McClone 23.78, Nathan Kolbe 23.11) 46.89, 3. F.W. Wayne (Thomas James 24.47, Shamarcus Ford 22.61) 47.08; 3200 – 1. Warsaw (Robert Murphy 9:28.96*, Owen Glogovsky 10:10.11) 19:39.07, 2. Hobart (Alex Cordova 10:00.67, Zach Spain 10:03.94) 20:04.61, 3. Penn (Billy Holbert 10:04.60, Collin Elek 10:33.38) 10:37.98; 1600 Relay – 1. Warsaw (3:22.91, 3:35.98) 6:58.07, 2. F.W. Wayne (3:23.51, 3:42.45) 7:05.96, 3. F.W. North (3:30.21, 3:36.49) 7:06.70; Shot Put – 1. F.W. Wayne (Jari Dada 47-10, Jyron Gunn 44-5.75) 92-3.75, 2. Hobart (Gerald Valenzuela 48-9.5, Ernie Ray 41-11) 90-8.5, 3. Penn (Isaiah Cook 49-8, Nate Barna 38-6.5) 88-2.5, 4. Warsaw (Ben Plummer 42-8.5, Josh Hueber 42-3.5) 85-0 * – Meet Record
