Home was certainly sweet Tuesday evening for Warsaw Community High School’s boys and girls cross country teams. Hosting a meet on the WCHS campus for the first time in nearly a decade, the No. 16 Tigers and the 25th-ranked Lady Tigers christened their new 5K course by winning their own invitational. Senior Ellis Coon won the boys race in a time of 16:24.63, leading the Warsaw boys to a five-runner team score of 31 points. Huntington North was a distant second with 66 points, while Columbia City (116), Northfield (119), NorthWood (123), Fairfield (123), Angola (167), Wabash (222), Tippecanoe Valley (249), Whitko (258) and South Bend Career Academy (349) rounded out the 11-team boys field. “It's a good start,” Warsaw boys coach Jim Mills said when asked what it meant for his team to win the first meet on the new course, as the Tigers and Lady Tigers have competed at Grace College’s Miller Field course for approximately a decade. “Of course this means Ellis has the course record,” Mills added with a smile. In the nine-team girls invitational, the Lady Tigers won the team championship with 45 points and were led by freshman Allison Miller's third-place time of 19:45.10. Huntington North finished second in the girls event with 52 points, followed by Northfield (94), Fairfield (110), Columbia City (112), Angola (156), Whitko (182), NorthWood (208) and Wabash (274). Tippecanoe Valley competed in the girls event but only had four runners and didn't have a team score. “It’s been kind of strange not having Ashley around,” Warsaw girls coach Scott Erba said of his daughter, a four-year standout and 2011 state champion who is now running for Providence University. “We lost a lot of talented runners, girls like Ashley and Sarah Ray, but that opens the door and creates opportunities for other girls to step up.” Tuesday evening it was Miller leading the way for the Lady Tigers, finishing third behind Northfield junior Jenna Halderman (18:52.60) and Columbia City senior Samantha Roush (19:05.50). “She ran a good race tonight,” Erba said of his talented freshman. “She ran up front with two state-qualifying girls. She had great success in middle school, and it’s nice to see her transition to the high school level.” Senior Madeline Hooks finished seventh for the Lady Tigers in a time of 20:26.50. Other scoring runners for Warsaw were sophomore Hannah Dawson (9th, 20:31.30), sophomore Brooke Rhodes (11th, 20:49.30) and senior Alethia Burritt (15th, 21:09.30). “The strength of this team will be packing it up,” Erba said of his team staying together and running in packs. “This is the best group we’ve had as far as staying together. Before we didn’t always do that.” Sophomore Brigit Nemitz led the Whitko Lady Wildcats with a 13th-place time of 20:54.40, while junior Michelle Kelsey finished 46th in 23:09.10. No other runner for Whitko finished in the top 50 of the 113-runner girls race. Sophomore Brooklyn Conley paced the Tippecanoe Valley Lady Vikings with a 41st-place time of 22:42.20, while freshman teammate Sierra Rudd was 88th in a time of 27:21.40. In the boys race, it was all about the Warsaw Tigers. Not only did Coon, who missed the majority of the track season in the spring with an injury, win, but three of his teammates also finished in the top six of the 164-person race. Sophomore Owen Glogovsky (16:36.00) was fourth, while senior Tyler Houvener (16:43.14) was fifth and junior Daniel Messenger (16:44.18) was sixth. The Tigers’ fifth scoring runner was junior Nick Bergen, who finished 15th in a time of 17:31.82. Like Warsaw’s girls team, the boys squad is much different from last year when they finished fourth in the state meet in Terre Haute. Graduated are standouts Jake Poyner (Wake Forest) and Robert Murphy (Vincennes), among others. According to Mills, five other runners chose not to come out for the team this year. Still, the talented Tigers had all five of their scoring runners finish in the top 15. And Coon, well, Mills says his prized senior is capable of winning a state championship. “I’m not concerned about Ellis,” said Coon. “He’s ready to rock, no question. He’s one of the top five runners in the state. We’ve got a good group to compliment him, but we’re thin. Five guys not coming out hurt us, but that’s the way it is, and we’ve got guys that are capable.” Senior Brandon Maull led the Tippecanoe Valley boys with a 43rd-place time of 18:29.96, while sophomore teammate Jesse Floor was 53rd in 19:05.73. Junior Derek Miller paced the Whitko boys with a 39th-place time of 18:23.65, while freshman teammate Josh Wright crossed the line 56th in a time of 19:11.16.
