FORT WAYNE - Competitors have tried, and failed, all season to beat Ashley Erba.
Warsaw's fresman phenom was the class of the field again Saturday at the Plex in Fort Wayne, where nothing stood between her and a semistate championship - not the other 158 runners in the girls' 5,000-meter race or the terribly muddy conditions."I thought I ran pretty well, considering I didn't feel good, and the conditions," said Erba, who won in a time of 18:57, nine seconds ahead of runner-up Kaylee McClanahan of Carroll. "The conditions were terrible. It was like running through a lake."
Twenty boys teams and 20 girls teams, as well as a number of indvidual competitors, participated in the semistate, with the top six teams and top 15 individuals from each race advancing to Saturday's state finals at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
Three local teams - Warsaw's boys and girls teams and the Whitko boys team - competed Saturday. Of those 21 runners, only two advanced to the state finals, Erba and teammate Cendall Ogle.
Ogle advanced with a ninth-place time of 19:32.
As a team, the Warsaw girls finished 10th with 232 points, 50 points behind sixth-place Columbia City.
"The course was very horrendous," said Warsaw girls coach Jerry Gackenheimer. "There were very sloppy conditions. And it got sloppier during the boys race, so when we ran on it, it was worse. They were by far the worst conditions we've had this year. I'm very pleased with the girls' effort. The conditions weren't very ideal. Overall, I'm pleased with their effort."
The Carroll Lady Chargers, who had three girls finish in the top seven, won the team championship with 57 points.
Also advancing are West Noble (122), Northridge (129), DeKalb (144), Huntington North (158) and Columbia City (172).
"It would have been great to have a breakout race from all the girls, but we didn't have that," said Gackenheimer. "We still ran very well, and I'm very pleased with the girls' effort."
Also for the Lady Tigers, Brooke Kline finished 62nd (21:21), Amber Plummer 104th (22:18), Creigh Ogle 106th (22:20), Lilly Fleming 115th (22:41) and Beth Plummer 129th (23:16).
In the boys team standings, the Warsaw Tigers finished 11th with 266 points, while the Whitko Wildcats finished 16th with 406 points.
The Tigers were 54 points behind sixth-place Pendleton Heights.
"We didn't run that bad," said Warsaw boys coach Jim Mills. "We just weren't as good as we needed to be. We had some guys who didn't run as well as they had, and some that ran better."
In the 155-competitor boys race, Nate West led Warsaw with a 46th-place finish in a time of 17:22.
Jordan Scroggs was 61st (17:34), while Trevor Callahan finished 62nd (17:35), Jeremiah Stichter 74th (17:46), Zach Hollopeter 89th (17:57), Marcos Aguirre 118th (18:58) and Ryan Connors 119th (19:00).
Of the seven boys who ran for Warsaw Saturday, only West and Stichter are seniors.
"I'm sure this is the best team at Warsaw in the last 20 years," said Mills. "We only lose two seniors. We'll have plenty of experience coming back next year."
The Concord Minutemen, whom Warsaw finished runner-up to at the Northern Lakes Conference Meet, won the team championship Saturday with 103 points.
Other boys teams to advance included Huntington North (125), Dwenger (128), St. Joe (131), Snider (178) and Pendleton Heights (212).
Carroll junior James Martin won his third semistate championship, winning this time in 15:55.
Junior Brian Minzie led Whitko with a 41st-place time of 17:18.
Also for the Wildcats, Trapper Mize was 85th (17:54), Sean Eberly 100th (18:30), Trent Walther 101st (18:31), Dallas Asher 104th (18:37), Jude Stieglitz 106th (18:38) and Dylan Cozad 150th (19:50).
Of Whitko's seven runners, only Eberly is a senior.
GIRLS
(20 teams competed)
Advancing teams - Caroll 57, West Noble 122, Northridge 129, DeKalb 144, Huntington North 158, Columbia City 172
