Valparaiso emerged as the Max Truex Invitational team champion Friday night at Warsaw’s Fisher Field. The Vikings finished with 122.5 points, outpacing LaPorte by 18. Defending champion Warsaw finished third in the eight-team invite with 97 points. Valparaiso set the tone early in the meet, winning the first three events in the books, and four of the first five. The Vikings won the 3,200-meter run with 32 seconds to spare over Penn, then edged Warsaw by eight-tenths of a second in the 110 hurdles and Homestead by .57 seconds in the 100. Valpo went on to claim first place in half the 16 events contested in the meet. Warsaw distance runners Owen Glogovsky and Daniel Messenger broke the Viking streak by combining to take the 1600-meter run. Glogovsky finished second individually and Messenger seventh, but the combined time of 9:90.99 was more than two seconds faster than the tandem from LaPorte. The Max Truex Invitational is scored differently than other meets, as an emphasis is placed on team depth. Two times, heights or distances are added together for each team in each event. Glogovsky teamed with Lucas Howett to get the Tigers a fourth-place finish in the 3200. The Tiger duo of Ben Plummer and Dylan Childers finished second and third individually, but Hobart’s Nick Ray was first and Brad Potts fourth, and outdistanced Warsaw in the shot put by more than 2-1/2 feet. Ray and Potts also combined to take the discus title, with Tigers’ Andrew Scheidt and Jaceb Burrish finishing third and fourth individually and combining to finish second in the event. Among the benefits of the unique scoring system for a relatively young team like Warsaw is the chance to see how far the team has progressed and measure itself against top-level competition. “You learn what kind of depth you have. You understand and learn the youth you have coming up,” said Warsaw head coach Matt Thacker. “You look at a kid like Trent Thompson or Leytan Perry, and you see a lot of positive signs of good kids coming up. “It’s a great meet, and I think the word’s spread through northern Indiana, If you look at the teams that were here, you look at quality opponents; quality guys to run against. You have Brayden Law from Homestead; it’s a great experience for Owen (Glogovsky) who finished second but got a (personal record) in the 3200. Next year Carroll’s coming in, so the competition gets even better. “Its a great ... kind of a pre-meet interlude for the conference meet and the tournament coming up.” Thacker singled out Lucas Cone for putting team ahead of self. Cone recorded a personal best 10-foot pole vault Friday night. “Lucas is someone we took off the 4x100 and replaced him with a freshman, He was very receptive to that. He understood Will (Garvey) has got a lot better,” Thacker said. “But instead of internalizing it, maybe pouting about it, he grew from it. “To be honest with you, as soon as our meeting was over, I went out to the track, looked over and he had a pole vault pole in his hand, and was practicing pole vault. He didn’t tell me; didn’t say anything to anybody else, and within a week he’s PR’d at nine feet, and he went 10 feet tonight. “We didn’t plan on having two 10-foot pole vaulters at this time of the year. So that’s going to be a big bonus going into the (Northern Lakes Conference meet) and the sectional.” The Tigers will return to NLC competition on Thursday when they travel to Nappanee to take on Plymouth and NorthWood. MAX TRUEX INVITATIONAL Team Standings – 1. Valparaiso 122.5, 2. LaPorte 104.5, 3. Warsaw 97, 4. Homestead 80, 5. Penn 66, 6. Hobart 63, 7. Fairfield 62, 8. Fort Wayne-Wayne 12 4x800 relay – 1. Valparaiso 16:55.20, 2. Penn 17:27.93, 3. Homestead 17:36.59, 4. LaPorte 17:54.76, 5. Warsaw 18:39.52, 6. Fairfield 18:47.54, 7. FW-Wayne 19:03.44, 8. Hobart 19:05.78; 110 hurdles – 1. Valparaiso (Wallace, Staples) 31.39, 2. Warsaw 32.19, 3. Hobart 32.43, 4. Homestead 32.47, 5. Penn 32.99, 6. Fairfield 34.19, 7. LaPorte 34.60; 100 – 1. Valparaiso (D. Johnson, Bartolomeo) 22.32, 2. Homestead 22.89, 3. LaPorte 22.96, 4. Warsaw 23.25, 5. Fairfield 23.34, 6. Hobart 23.50, 7. Penn 23.58; 1600 – 1. Warsaw (Glogovsky, Messenger) 9:09.19, 2. LaPorte 9:12.18, 3. Valparaiso 9:13.57, 4. Homestead 9:14.34, 5. Penn 9:35.18, 6. Hobart 9:55.62, 7. Fairfield 10:06.44, 8. FW-Wayne 10:34.33; 4x100 relay – 1. Valparaiso 1:29.36, 2. LaPorte 1:30.21, 3. Warsaw 1:30.58, 4. Homestead 1:31.07, 5. Fairfield 1:31.69, 6. Hobart 1:35.51; 400 – 1. Valparaiso (McGrath, I. Smith) 1:44.09, 2. LaPorte 1:44.52, 3. Homestead 1:45.45, 4. Penn 1:47.94, 5. Warsaw 1:48.59, 6. Fairfield 1:51.82, 7. FW-Wayne 1:52.38; 300 hurdles – 1. Hobart (Robison, Tam) 1:24.53, 2. Homestead 1:26.85, 3. Fairfield 1:26.99, 4. Valparaiso 1:27.24, 5. Warsaw 1:27.43, 6. Penn 1:27.96, 7. LaPorte 1:28.81; Shot put – 1. Hobart (Ray, Potts) 96-0.5, 2. Warsaw 93-4, 3. Valparaiso 85-7.25, 4. LaPorte 85-5.75, 5. Homestead 85-0.5, 6. Fairfield 83-7.5, 7. Penn 76-11; 800 – 1. Valparaiso (Martinez, McChristian) 4:06.94, 2. Warsaw 4:12.52, 3. Penn 4:15.68, 4. LaPorte 4:16.07, 5. FW-Wayne 4:23.57, 6. Fairfield 4:30.67, 7. Homestead 4:34.97, 8. Hobart 4:36.35; 200 – 1. Valparaiso (D. Johnson, McGrath) 46.28, 2. Homestead 46.40, 3. LaPorte 46.58, 4. Penn 46.97, 5. Fairfield 47.18, 6. Warsaw 47.77, 7. Hobart 49.89, 8. FW-Wayne 52.25; Discus – 1. Hobart (Ray, Potts) 281-3, 2. Warsaw 276-6, 3. LaPorte 267-5, 4. Homestead 242-1, 5. Fairfield 224-9, 6. Penn 215-7, 7. Valparaiso 210-8; High jump – 1. Fairfield (Azzarito, S. Miller) 12-6, 2. Warsaw 12-3, 3. (tie) Valparaiso 11-8, LaPorte 11-8, 5. Penn 11-6; Long jump – 1. LaPorte (D. Williams, Cave) 40-9.5, 2. Warsaw 39-7.5, 3. Penn 38-6, 4. Valparaiso 38-4, 5. Fairfield 37-0.25, 6. Homestead 36-8.75, 7. Hobart 35-9; 3200 – 1. LaPorte (Flannery, Griffin) 19:49.68., 2. Valparaiso 19:56.74, 3. Homestead 20:16.59, 4. Warsaw 20:31.70, 5. Penn 21:27.49, 6. Fairfield 22:15.00, 7. Hobart 22:36.68, 8. FW-Wayne 23:26.74; Pole vault – 1. LaPorte (Payne, Yandek) 25-4, 2. Hobart 25-0, 3. Penn 24-4, 4. Valparaiso 23-0, 5. Homestead 21-6, 6. Fairfield 21-0, 7. Warsaw 20-0; 4x400 relay – 1. Valparaiso 7:06.12, 2. LaPorte 7:13.51, 3. Warsaw 7:25.24, 4. Homestead 7:26.02, 5. Penn 7:26.56, 6. Fairfield 7:45.52, 7. Hobart 7:52.21, 8. FW-Wayne 8:13.54
