Lady Tigers extend streak to 10; Tigers up to 5 straight
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
At some point, if not already, there may be a trivia question in regards to the last team other than Warsaw to win a Northern Lakes Conference track and field championship. The Tigers and Lady Tigers have had a stranglehold on the other seven teams in the league, and Tuesday night was no different. With 169 points, beating runner-up Elkhart Memorial by 59 and third-place teams Goshen and Plymouth by 83, the Lady Tigers won their 10th straight conference championship. Warsaw’s boys team scored 146.5 points Tuesday, outdistancing runner-up Goshen by 16.5 points and third-place Northridge by 34.5 points, extending its conference title streak to five. On a chilly overcast evening, both Warsaw girls coach Scott Erba and boys coach Matt Thacker had plenty to smile about. “Kind of amazing,” said Erba when asked if he could put into words what it means to win 10 straight NLC titles. “It’s a longevity thing, how many girls have come through who have contributed to that, coaches that have been part of the staff to help those girls ... that’s pretty tremendous to be at that level of consistency for 10 years.” Said Thacker, whose team staved off strong challenges from Goshen and Northridge, “The expectation is there to compete and give our best effort. I didn’t wanna get keyed up on ‘Ok, we gotta do this, we gotta do that.’ If we go out and give our best effort, things are gonna play out the way they play out, and we scored more than I figured we’d score when I scored it out (Monday night).” In the girls meet, the Lady Tigers won seven of 16 events, led by two record-breaking performances. The quartet of Mariah Harter, Samantha Alexander, Abbi Curtis and Audrey Rich won the 4x100 relay in a blistering time of 49.53 seconds, breaking the previous NLC record of 49.58 set by Warsaw in 2006. Rich came back later and won the 200 in a time of 25.74 seconds, breaking the school record of 25.83 that she shared with Mercedes Plummer. “We’re starting to see some of our strength areas come through,” said Erba. “The 100, 200 ... the 300 hurdles was a fun race to watch. The 4x100, we’ve had that record up on the board since the beginning of the season, and we thought ‘hey this is a possibility’, especially since they ran so well at Kokomo a week and a half ago. So, that was a nice record to take down, and that’s a boost for them, knowing that last year’s team that placed so well at state didn’t break that record. That’s a good thing, and then to have Audrey Rich come back and run as fast as she did, going 25.7, getting that school record all by herself, is outstanding.” Other winners for the Lady Tigers included Harter in the 100, Nicole Eckert in the 300 hurdles, Allison Miller in the 3200, Samantha Alexander in the long jump, and the team of Eckert, Brooke Rhodes, Jazzmine Brown and Rich in the 4x400. All of Warsaw’s first-place finishers were named All-Conference, while Rebecca Lemon, who was second in the 300 hurdles and third in pole vault, was voted an at-large selection, and Tennie Worrell, who was the top seed in the 400 but is sidelined with an injury, was an honorable mention selection. The Lady Tigers finished second in four other events with Alexie Day (high jump), Curtis (100), Mia Beckham (1600), and the 4x800 team of Anna Craig, Hannah Dawson, Rhodes and Miller. Northridge finished fifth in the girls team standings with 83.5 points, followed by Concord (81.5), Wawasee (61) and NorthWood (56). Hannah Winters led Wawasee’s girls team with a second-place distance of 102-9 in the discus competition. In the boys meet, Warsaw took first place in six events. Owen Glogovsky won the 1600 in 4:26.45, and then won the 3200 in 9:42.15. Ross Armey won the 300 hurdles in 40.22 seconds. Daniel Messenger won the 800 in a time of 1:57.68. Brock Riley was victorious in the high jump with a height of 6-4. And the 4x400 relay team of Armey, Landan Perry, Messenger and Riley Rhoades crossed the line in 3:26.93. “Today was the healthiest we’ve been, and I said something to Coach (Rob) Peters last week, ‘I don’t think we’ve run our best meet yet.’ And I don’t know if this was our best meet, but it’s pretty doggone close.” Glogovsky, Riley, Armey, Perry, Messenger and Rhoades were named all-conference, while Brandon Reinholt was named honorable mention. Wawasee finished fourth in the boys team standings with 89 points, followed by Elkhart Memorial (86), NorthWood (75.5), Concord (65) and Plymouth (37). While Warsaw’s teams were the class of the field, the top individual was without question Wawasee senior Clayton Cook. Cook, who has signed to play football at Ball State University, put on a show Tuesday evening. He won the 110 hurdles in 14.74 seconds, won the 200 in 22.37 seconds, and anchored the 4x100 relay, teaming with Tyler Courter, Cole VanLue and J.J. Gilmer to win in 43.81 seconds. Wawasee coach Scott Lancaster said the Warriors haven’t won the 4x100 conference crown since the late 1980s. And it wouldn’t have happened Tuesday night if not for a great effort from Cook, who took the baton from Gilmer and erased a sizable lead to pass Elkhart Memorial’s David Doyle. “It feels good,” said Cook. “Tonight, I came in hoping to get the meet record in the 110 hurdles, and in the 200. It feels good to win, but I fell short of those records.” To go with his three wins, Cook also finished third in the long jump with a leap of 20-3. “It’s hard to put into words,” Lancaster said when asked what Cook means to the program. “He does what he does. He’s good at what he does. Sometimes, you kind of take that for granted ... you think to yourself, ‘well, he should get first here, and he should get first in this.’ It’s one thing for the coaching staff to say it, it’s another thing for him to go out and do that. You don’t get too many kids that can perform at that level, and do those sorts of things. He will be sorely missed, but it’s neat to see an athlete like that, and be close to them and watch them do the things they do. He’s a hard worker. He’s earned everything.” Gilmer won the long jump for Wawasee with a leap of 21-1 and was also second in the high jump at 6-4. Jaxon Bame (400) and Jon Walker (discus) recorded third-place finishes for Wawasee’s boy team.
