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SYRACUSE - In a word, veteran Wawasee swim coach Roger Karns summed up Tuesday evening's Northern Lakes Conference clash with rival Warsaw as "classic."
It certainly was, and when the water at the Wawasee Middle School natatorium settled, the host Warriors took with them a split with the Tigers.
In front of a packed house, both the boys and girls meets came down to the final event - the 400 freestyle relay.
Warsaw's girls finished second in the 400 freestyle relay, but had a 10-point lead heading into the event and remained undefeated on the season after escaping with a 95-91 victory.
The Tiger boys trailed by four going into the final event and needed to at least place first and third to avoid their first loss of the season.
Warsaw's quartet of Steven Lowrance, Nate Long, Thad Wallin and Nate Taylor won the event in a time of 3:19.63, a time 12 seconds better than Wawasee's runner-up foursome, but second- and third-place finishes by the Warriors gave them a thrilling 94-92 win.
"Classic," Karns said of the meet. "You couldn't ask for a better meet."
The win improved the Warrior boys teams to 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the NLC, while the 15th-ranked Tiger boys fell to 7-1 and 4-1.
"It can't get much better," said Warsaw coach Terry Aukeman. "They're strong in some events and we're strong in some others. We knew it would come down to the relay. It's disappointing, but to swim as well as we did, we couldn't have done a whole lot more. We did everything we could."
With the four-point win in the girls meet, the Tigers improved to 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the NLC, while the Warriors fell to 5-4 and 2-3.
In the girls meet, Warsaw came away with the win because of its depth.
The Tigers took first in only three of the 12 events, but a number of second- and third-place finishes allowed them to hang on and remain unbeaten.
"Because of some illness, we had to make some lineup changes for the girls," said Aukeman. "There were some people that stood up and took the challenge. Saturday is going to be a big meet for the conference championship."
Both the Warsaw boys and girls teams host Concord Thursday, and then turn around and entertain Northridge Saturday.
The three first-place finishes for Warsaw's girls came from Katy Taylor in the 200 individual medley (2:22.58), Tracy Thallemer in the 500 freestyle (5:52.35) and Jalyn Haughee, Melissa Dick and Thallemer and Taylor in the 200 freestyle relay (1:47.66).
In the boys meet, it was much of the same story, as the Warriors won only four events, but strong finishes and depth came through.
Because of Warsaw's strong team and how close he thought the meet would be, Karns split up his team's relays, putting two swimmers from his A team on his B team.
It paid off as the Warriors took second and third in the 400 freestyle relay to hand the Tigers their first loss.
Wawasee's four first-place finishes in the boys meet came from Aaron Phillippe in the 200 freestyle (1:47.740 and 500 freestyle (5:02.68), Steve Dingledein (:57.18) and Chris Szynal, Jordan Rantz, Brian Doty and Phillippe in the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.69).
BOYS - WAWASEE 94, WARSAW 92
200 medley relay - 1. Warsaw (Wallin, Taylor, K. Marose, Lowrance) 1:40.91, 2. Wawasee 1:43.82, 3. Wawasee 1:48.64
200 freestyle - 1. Phillippe (Wawa) 1:47.74, 2. Long 1:47.87, 3. McClintock (War) 1:55.30
200 individual medley - 1. Taylor (War) 1:59.29, 2. Dingledein (Wawa) 2:06.78, 3. Rantz (Wawa) 2:07.36
50 freestyle - 1. Lowrance (War) :22.42, 2. Szynal (Wawa) :23.07, 3. Doty (Wawa)
Diving - 1. Wishart (War) 195.30, 2. Cavell (Wawa) 190.75, 3. Wilson (War) 179.15
100 butterfly - 1. Dingledein (Wawa) :57.18, 2. Long (War) :57.35, 3. K. Marose (War) :57.68
100 freestyle - 1. Lowrance (War) :48.67, 2. Doty (Wawa) :50.24, 3. Gunderson (Wawa) :53.13
500 freestyle - 1. Phillippe (Wawa) 5:02.68, 2. McClintock (War) 5:19.67, 3. Hoffman (Wawa) 5:28.52
200 freestyle relay - 1. Wawasee (Szynal, Rantz, Doty, Phillippe) 1:32.69, 2. Warsaw 1:37.01, 3. Wawasee 1:37.28
100 backstroke - 1. Wallin (War) :58.62, 2. K. Marose (War) 1:00.15, 3. Wear (Wawa) 1:00.53
100 breaststroke - 1. Taylor (War) 1:00.55, 2. Rantz (Wawa) 1:01.83, 3. Smith (Wawa) 1:04.84
400 freestyle relay - 1. Warsaw (Lowrance, Long, Wallin, Taylor) 3:19.63, 2. Wawasee 3:31.66, 3. Wawasee (Hoffman, Wolf, Dingledein, Phillippe) 3:32.87
GIRLS - WARSAW 95, WAWASEE 91
200 medley relay - 1. Wawasee (Gunderson, K. Spearman, Froebe, J. Spearman) 1:58.07, Warsaw 1:58.72, 3. Warsaw 2:06.61
200 freestyle - 1. Froebe (Wawa) 2:07.63, 2. Thallemer (War) 2:09.12, 3. Haughee (War) 2:11.90
200 individual medley - 1. Taylor (War) 2:22.58, 2. Munsch (War) 2:26.74, 3. Gunderson (Wawa) 2:26.89
50 freestyle - 1. J. Spearman (Wawa) :25.98, 2. Dick (War) :26.62, 3. K. Spearman (Wawa) :27.21
Diving - 1. Sands (Wawa) 176.55, 2. Stayer (War) 167.05, 3. White (War) 133.95
100 butterfly - 1. Froebe (Wawa) 1:05.70, 2. Munsch (War) 1:06.67, 3. Durcholz (War) 1:09.65
100 freestyle - 1. J. Spearman (Wawa) :58.08, 2. Haughee (War) :59.07, 3. Dick (War) 1:00.04
500 freestyle - 1. Thallemer (War) 5:52.35, 2. Walgamuth (War) 6:06.42, 3. Cook (War) 6:10.53
200 freestyle relay - 1. Warsaw (Haughee, Taylor, Thallemer, Dick) 1:47.66, 2. Wawasee 1:54.14, 3. Warsaw 1:56.33
100 backstroke - 1. Gunderson (Wawa) 1:06.81, 2. Whitefield (Wawa) 1:09.38, 3. Cook (War) 1:09.71
100 breaststroke - 1. K. Spearman (Wawa) 1:12.02, 2. Taylor (War) 1:13.82, 3. Wallace (Wawa) 1:15.73
400 freestyle - 1. Wawasee (Froebe, Gunderson, K. Spearman, J. Spearman) 3:58.47, 2. Warsaw 3:58.92, 3. Wawasee 4:14.91
