In big meets, every point matters. That was the story of Wednesday’s Northern Lakes Conference boys track and field championships, and the Warsaw Tigers benefitted from it. Hosting the eight-team meet – which was postponed Tuesday because of the weather – Warsaw won just four events, but scored in all 16 as it racked up 176 points to claim a sixth-consecutive championship. Goshen and NorthWood won four events each, while Northridge won three events and Plymouth one. Goshen finished second in the team standings with 148 points, followed by NorthWood (118.5), Northridge (110), Concord (58.5), Plymouth (50), Elkhart Memorial (36.5) and Wawasee (35.5). “We talked about points, coming in after spring break,” said Warsaw coach Matt Thacker. “Third place matters. In big meets, seventh and eighth place matters. It’s just finding it in you to do it. “Take kids like Brandon Reinholt and Landan Perry, they’re both sick. They couldn’t give us their best efforts, but they still got us two places in the 200. We pulled Landan out of the 4x400, and Bishop Harrison stepped up and did a great job. “We’re fortunate with depth. We’re still young, but we’ve answered a lot of questions.” Individual winners for the Tigers included Rane Kilburn in the long jump (20-4.5), Owen Glogovsky in the 3200 (9:48.37), and Ross Armey in the 300 hurdles (39.12). Armey’s win in the 300 hurdles was one of the most exciting races of the night, as he edged NorthWood’s Derek Parker at the line by just one-hundredth of a second. Armey and Kilburn teamed up with Reinholt and Will McGarvey to win the 4x100 relay in 43.23 seconds. Three of Goshen’s wins came in the field events, as Jordan Holley won both the shot put and discus, and Brenn McKee won the pole vault competition. The RedHawks’ team of Juan Perez, Jason Barahona-Rosales, Colton Potter and Zachary Oyer beat the Tigers in the 4x800 relay by a little more than one second. NorthWood claimed wins with Parker in the 110 hurdles, with Bailey Gessinger in the 100 and 200, and in the 4x400 Brayton Yoder, Ryan Price, Garrett Griffin and Gessinger. Northridge was a winner with Conner Sandt in the 1,600, in the 400 with Ben Zuecher and in the 800 with Nathan Blyly. Plymouth sophomore Nate Patterson was the winner in the high jump with a record-breaking height of 6-11 3/4. Patterson’s effort beat the previous NLC record of 6-9 1/2 set in 1983. While this season’s meet was closer than in recent years, the Tigers still proved they were the class of the field. “The first one, you never forget that, because it kind of came out of nowhere,” Thacker said of his team’s six-year stranglehold on the NLC hardware. “To fight for them like we have been, with the teams in the NLC as competitive as they were this year, to step up and do it again still means a lot. “I’m proud of the kids. We don’t have the Jake Poyners, the Robert Murphys or the Ellis Coons running around the track, or the Mike Millers or the Tristan McClones that we’ve had, but we’ve got guys that just wanna compete and continue to listen to the coaches. They just come together and do a good job.” Wawasee’s evening was highlighted by a pair of fifth-place finishes. Dylan Elpusan was fifth in the discus with a distance of 135-5, while Luke Griner ran a fifth-place time of 42.45 seconds in the 300 hurdles. Warsaw and Wawasee will be in action again May 19 in the sectional at Goshen High School.
