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SYRACUSE - For Wawasee's boys cross country team, Saturday's trip to the state finals at Indiana University in Bloomington may have come a year late. At the same time, it may be a year early.
Warrior coach Dave Stookey, he who has been involved with Wawasee cross country for 30-plus years, says he thought his team was good enough to make it to the state finals a year ago. But for whatever reason, after winning the sectional title Wawasee didn't advance past the regional.
The Warriors came back this year and advanced to the state finals - Wawasee's first trip since 1988 - with one upperclassman, senior Rob Chalfant, who competed individually at last year's state meet.
And his team's youth is why Stookey says Saturday's appearance in the state finals may be a year early.
Early or not, the 19th-ranked Warriors will line up for Saturday's 1:30 p.m. race with 19 other teams vying for a state championship. Thirty-four individuals, including Triton junior Nathan Gephart, from non-advancing teams will also compete.
"It's really been a goal for the last three or four years to get to state," Stookey said. "Two years ago we made it to the semistate but didn't get out. The kids saw how much of a step up it was. Last year we really figured we had a good chance to get to state but a couple kids had bad races at the regional. It really was a bummer, I guess we looked ahead."
Saturday's talented field of 20 includes top-ranked Valparaiso and second-ranked Carmel, which won semistate champsionships a week ago. The other two semistates were won by sixth-ranked Brown County and seventh-ranked DeKalb.
Stookey knows Saturday's scenic course at IU will be no walk in the park.
"There's a heckuva lot of outstanding teams there that will be difficult to beat, even on our best day," Stookey said. "To be honest and realistic, I'm hoping we can finish 11th, 12th, or 13th, considering the teams that are going to be there. I told the kids we don't want to finish 20th."
Wawasee finished 14th out of 16 teams in 1988.
The Warriors advanced to Saturday's race by finishing fifth at the Manchester Semistate with a 201. Of the 20 teams running in the state finals, Wawasee had the highest semistate score.
No matter the outcome, Stookey says his team will gain valuable experience. The Warriors return everyone except Chalfant for next year's team.
"I've seen very few teams that haven't been there in a while go down there and run their best race," Stookey said. "It's like running at semistate, you have to be there to know what it's like. That's what we're doing, we're gonna go down there and use this experience. We have the majority of our guys coming back."
For Triton junior Nate Gephart, this past year has been an experience.
After finishing 64th in the state finals as a sophomore, he tore his anterior cruiciate ligament (ACL) playing basketball. That was in February, Saturday he'll line up and run in the state finals again.
"He tore his ACL," Triton coach Curt Kreft said. "He had reconstructive surgery, and by the end of May he was running a mile. He's really come a long way."
Gephart advanced to Saturday's state finals with a fourth-place time of 15:56 at the New Prairie Semistate. He has never run a faster time. Gephart's semistate time bested his regional time by 26 seconds.
"He's always had the state meet as a goal," Kreft said. "He handled the pressure really well, at the semistate he wasn't a bit nervous. He just goes out and does everything. The best thing about him is his mental toughness, not his athleticism."
Portage's Michael Taylor, who finished second in last year's state finals, won the semistate Gephart ran in with a time of 15:40. Winamac's Michael Haschel, who finished fifth in last year's state finals, finished one spot ahead of Gephart at the semistate.
