SYRACUSE – The Northern Lakes Conference dual meet between the Warsaw and Wawasee cross country teams didn’t produce much drama Tuesday in Syracuse. Packed with so much talent and depth, the Warsaw programs used the meet as more of a primer for upcoming competitions, as the fourth-ranked Warsaw boys won 20-41 and the 14th-ranked girls won 24-33. “We knew coming in that Warsaw, on both sides, was very strong,” Wawasee boys and girls coach Jerid Stoffel said. “It wasn’t about beating them tonight, I told them it’s about individually running their best race. If everyone did that, as a team, we’d be very pleased with ourselves.” Wawasee’s Reid Stichter did finish third (16:18) in the boys’ race, followed by Adam Doll’s fifth-place finish (16:47). Wawasee’s Courtney Linnemeier (19:32) was third in the girls race, while Bre Robinson (19:58), Jen Slabaugh (20:13) and Madison Miller (20:18) were fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Despite the solid performance from the Wawasee runners, Warsaw got the wins and prepared for tougher competition in the coming weeks. First up is Saturday’s Culver Academies Invitational, which Wawasee will also be at, followed by an NLC dual-meet in Nappanee against Northridge and NorthWood. In that dual meet, Warsaw and Northridge will both enter at 5-0 in the conference. On the girls side of things, the Lady Tigers will look to knock off the ninth-ranked Lady Raiders, a team that had won nine-straight conference crowns before Warsaw’s win last year. “Culver will be our last kind of practice invitational,” Warsaw girls coach Scott Erba said. “We obviously want to do well, but it’s not that big, meaningful race. It’s not NLCs, it’s not the tournament season. Next Tuesday, with Northridge being undefeated and us being undefeated, that’s going to determine at least a share of the conference title. We have it and I know they want it back.” Four days following the meet with Northridge and NorthWood, the conference meet will be at Goshen’s Ox Bow Park to decide the NLC champion. “This is different for us,” Warsaw boys coach Jim Mills said. “We’ve always been fighting our way up through the conference. I noticed the state rankings had us at No. 4, so I know that’s not something we’ve dealt with. We approach meets a little bit different than we did in the past. It’s fun.” The Warsaw boys also claimed the NLC crown last season, their first since 1985, and they return everyone back from that team, including last year’s champion Jacob Poyner. After winning Saturday’s New Prairie Invitational, Poyner didn’t run in Tuesday’s meet, taking a rest after getting home late Monday from a college visit. Even without the senior, Warsaw cruised as Ellis Coon crossed the finish line in 16:04, followed by runner-up Robert Murphy in 16:06. “He was going to try to hammer two hard miles out then sort of put the brakes on a little at the end,” Mills said about Coon. Warsaw’s Brysten James was fourth (16:22), while Michael Compton (16:52), Nate Haller (16:54), Daniel Messenger (16:58), Tyler Houvener (16:59) and Owen Glogovsky (17:01) were sixth through 10th, respectively. “Some of our top guys, guys running the mid- to low-17s, cracked 17 (minutes) today,” Mills said. “I’m guessing now, we may have 10 or 11 guys running under 17 now.” For the girls, defending state champion Ashley Erba bounced back from her first loss since her sophomore season Saturday at the New Prairie Invitational. At the invitational, Erba was stunningly defeated by Mishawaka sophomore Hannah Rohrer, who won in 17:14.1, while Erba was second in 17:25.1. “She has really improved,” Scott Erba said about Rohrer. “I was just looking today and she dropped two minutes from what she did at New Prairie last year. She went from a 19:14 to a 17:14, running the fastest time ever in Indiana.” The two runners will meet again Saturday in Culver, adding a little more to not only that meet, but the postseason as well. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing because it keeps motivation high, because there’s someone else out there,” Ashley’s father/coach said. “There’s several other girls out there who have broke 18 (minutes) so far. It’s just a phenomenally fast girls season. Records aren’t just being broken, they’re being crushed in all sorts of races, with some of the best girls to ever run in Indiana setting those records. They’re just being demolished. “I think it was a little shocking to everyone, but it can be a good thing, because, what’s the bigger picture?” he added about the loss. “Ashley has to picture this season, to collegiately, to past college. She says, ‘Am I really going to look back and say, boy getting second at New Prairie was tough.’ But for now, it stings. She’s put it behind her and she ran a great race tonight. I think it’s going to make an exciting postseason, getting to state, because there’s other girls who can run some fast times.” Along with Erba’s first-place (17:43) performance Tuesday, Sarah Ray was second (18:51) and Hannah Dawson finished fourth (19:56), making Scott Erba optimistic. “We should do well all the way through semistate, and the way things are looking, we should get out of semistate, which is one of our team goals — which we want to make our expectation,” he said.
BOYS WARSAW 20, WAWASEE 41 Top 5 – 1. Ellis Coon (War) 16:04, 2. Robert Murphy (War) 16:06, 3. Reid Stichter (Waw) 16:18, 4. Brysten James (War) 16:22, 5. Adam Doll (Waw) 16:47 Warsaw – 1. Coon 16:04, 2. Murphy 16:06, 4. James 16:22, 6. Michael Compton 16:52, 7. Nate Haller 16:54, 8. Daniel Messenger 16:58, 9. Tyler Houvener 16:59, 10. Owen Glogovsky 17:01, 16. Dominic Kurosky 17:40, 17. Ryan Goon 17:42, 18. Matt Anthony 17:43, 20. Jacob DeBoest 17:49, 22. Brandon Lee 17:53, 23. Nick Bergen 17:56, 25. Jacob Adley 18:05, 26. Duncan McCammack 18:08, 27. Taylor Anderson 18:09, 29. Eric Cusick 18:24, 31. Aaron Halton 18:48, 32. Nathan Miller 18:49, 33. Nolan Haines 19:00, 34. Zach Taylor 19:02, 36. Ethan Cook 19:13, 37. Cameron Hershberger 19:15, 38. Jake Fayed 19:18, 40. Eric Jagger 19:27, 42. Brady Myers 19:32, 45. Evan Hansen 19:45, 46. Nick Light 19:49, 47. Chris Hollopeter 20:11, 48. Javier Hernandez 20:25, 49. Andrew Thrasher 20:35, 50. Brenden Bement 20:52, 51. Taylor Pletcher 20:58, 52. Connor Hershberger 21:10, 53. Michael Blue 21:35, 54. Colton Andrews 21:37, 55. Luis Cervantes 22:38, 56. Moses Marandet 22:41, 57. Nate Mills 22:44, 58. Andrew Wade 22:46, 59. Cole Cummings 22:50, 61. Nicolas Hawn 23:46, 62. George Chesterfield 24:06, 63. Blake Winters 27:23 Wawasee – 3. Stichter 16:18, 5. Doll 16:47, 11. Zach Cockrill 17:03, 12. Austin Yoder 17:15, 13. Troy Carolus 17:15, 14. Austin Krizman 17:19, 15. Joey Bornman 17:39, 19. Jaxon Bame 17:46, 21. Bailey Yoder 17:50, 24. Jacob Tucco 18:00, 28. Sebastian List 18:11, 30. Adam Baker 18:31, 35. Ronnie Shortt 19:08, 39. Ben Slabaugh 19:19, 41. Devan Coulter 19:28, 43. Chuck Impey 19:37, 44. Logan Brugh 19:44, 60. Spencer Gilbert 23:36 Records: Warsaw 5-0 NLC, Wawasee 1-4 NLC
