GOSHEN- The Warsaw boys track team put itself in position Saturday to win the championship of the prestigious Goshen Relays.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, a familiar foe and nemesis kept that from happening in the end.

Perennial power Penn, paced by individual high point man Tim Deal, edged the No. 6 Tigers 84-83 to claim the Class A team title on a windy and cold day at Foreman Field.

Fort Wayne Wayne scored 67.5 points to take third in the 16-team field in Class A. No. 7 Fort Wayne Carroll, which shared the team title with Warsaw in 2012, placed fourth with 64.5 points.

The Kingsmen also defeated the Tigers by a single point (83-82)  to claim the Kokomo Regional championship in 2012.

“This is truly not discouraging,” said Warsaw coach Matt Thacker. “That regional last year stuck with me for a long time.

“This is our second meet this season (due to the weather) and our guys competed and put us in a position to win. We just happen to come out on the short side today.

“Our goal was to be in a position to win and we were right there. Our guys rose to the occasion. Sometimes you just don’t have enough points at the end. We have bigger and better things that are ahead of us.”

Warsaw was competing for just the second time outdoors due to the recent run of cold and wet weather. The Tigers, who had their first three meets of the season cancelled including one at Penn, defeated NLC foes Wawasee and NorthWood on Monday.

“It’s tough, but we talked about it (the weather) Friday and there’s no point in complaining about it,” Thacker said. “Everyone is in the same situation. It’s just been tough because we haven’t been able to have enough quality practices.”

The Tigers did have plenty of impressive performances Saturday.

The Warsaw 1-2 distance punch of stellar seniors Jake Poyner and Robert Murphy knocked out the competition with their normal outstanding efforts. Poyner won his 1,600 race in a time of 4:22.84 and Murphy then followed in the next 1,600 with a top time of 4:20.77 as the pair of seniors racked up 20 big points.

“I wanted to have a good race today and I’m not satisfied with my time,” said Poyner, who will run at Wake Forest. “It was too slow. I’m just trying to get back into the groove of racing. I just feel like last year I was so much farther along than I am now. My fear is not getting back to that spot. We’ve been training well, but I need to work on racing well.”

Warsaw was without distance ace Ellis Coon. The junior, who teamed with Poyner and Murphy to lead the Tiger cross country team to a fourth place finish at State in October,  has been sidelined for the last week due to a foot injury. Thacker says that Coon is training and is hopeful that he may return in about a week.

“All three of those guys (Poyner, Murphy, Coon) are special,” said Thacker. “They work hard and they love to run.

“Robert is phenomenal. Nothing phases him. He just runs to win. Jake is just very consistent and a true leader for us.”

The Tigers also got a championship effort from its 4 X 400 relay team. The foursome of Chad Goon, Gave Furnivall, Nathan Kolbe and Ryan Goon blazed to an easy win in 3:26.85.

Warsaw also got a victory in the high jump competition from standout Stephen Kolbe. The junior, who tied for sixth place at the State Finals in 2012, cleared 6-4 for the win.

“I came here to win today, but it’s not really that big a deal to me,” said the mild-mannered Kolbe. “I wanted to go as high as I needed to today to win. It’s been hard to practice with the weather, but I still have time before the sectional. I want to get the school record (which is 6-9) and I want to win State.”

Kolbe’s personal best is 6-7, which he cleared in the sectional his freshman year and at the regional last year.

The Tigers also got a second-place finish from the 4 X 800 relay team of Murphy, Daniel Messenger, Tyler Houvener and Poyner. Thee 4 X 100 relay team of Wyatt Jones, Nathan Kolbe, Furnivall and Tristan McClone also earned a runner-up finish.

Deal tallied 20.5 points for Penn to earn individual high point honors. He won the 110 meter hurdles, placed second in the long jump and ran a leg on the winning 4 X 400 relay team for the champion Kingsmen.

Warsaw is scheduled to host conference foe Northridge Monday in a make-up meet.

 

CLASS A

Team scores: Penn 84, Warsaw 83, Fort Wayne Wayne 67 ½, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 64 ½, Elkhart Memorial 59, Northridge 54 ½, Mishawaka 48, Goshen 47 ½, Fort Wayne North Side 44, LaPorte 34, South Bend Riley 33, South Bend Adams 32, Elkhart Central 30, Concord 23, South Bend Clay 16, South Bend Washington 10.

4 x 800 relay: 1, Carroll (Eric Claxton, Will Ottenweller, Alex Hess, Jonathan Harper) 8:01.17. 2, Warsaw 8:08.80. 3, Goshen 8:19.12. 4, Elkhart Memorial 8:21.33. 5, Penn 8:23.13. 6, LaPorte 8:25.93. 7, Mishawaka 8:29.93. 8, Elkhart Central 8:30.62.

Distance medley (1200-400-800-1600) relay:  1, Carroll (Jacob Schmeling, Kevin Salter, Ross Marano, Eric Claxton) 10:48.83. 2, Goshen 11:06.23. 3, SB Adams 11:08.90. 4, Warsaw 11:11.29. 5, Northridge 11:13.54. 6, Mishawaka 11:28.39. 7, Penn 11:35.71. 8, SB Riley 11:39.23.

4 x 200 relay (Race one): 1, FW North Side (Demond Gaston, CJ Jackson, Alex Moses, Tyvon Kelley) 1:32.47. 2, Elkhart Memorial 1:34.71. 3, SB Riley 1:37.70. 4, Warsaw 1:37.71. 5, Northridge 1:38.35. 6, Mishawaka 1:41.83. LaPorte DQ.

4 x 200 relay (Race two): 1, Penn (Greg Higgins, Zach Oakley, Christian Hill, Tommy Grant) 1:33.28. 2, Carroll 1:33.85. 3, FW Wayne 1:33.87. 4, Goshen 1:36.89. 5, Elkhart Central 1:37.54. 6, Concord 1:39.29. 7, SB Adams 1:40.76. 8, SB Clay 1:46.66.

110 high hurdles: 1, Tim Deal (Penn) 15.24. 2, Jordan Hunt (Clay) 15.34. 3, Devon Stone (FW Wayne) 15.46. 4, Carrington Robinson (FW Wayne) 16.31. 5, Taylor Cone (Warsaw) 16.77. 6, Austin Healey (Northridge) 16.92. 7, Michael Presnell (Northridge) 17.02. 8, Timmy Yoder (Concord) 17.19.

4 x 100 relay (Race one): 1, Elkkart Memorial (David Doyle, Caleb Platz, McNeal Stewart, Davontae Millsaps) 43.09. 2, Warsaw 44.29. 3, Fort Wayne Wayne 44.47. 4, LaPorte 45.34. 5, Mishawaka 45.74. 6, SB Adams 45.87. 7, SB Clay 48.03. 8, SB Riley 49.68.

4 x 100 relay (Race two): 1, Penn (Austin Laughman, Zach Oakley, Tommy Grant, Greg Higgins) 44.51. 2, Goshen 44.94. 3, Elkhart Central 45.81. 4, SB Washington 45.88. 5, Concord 46.26. 6, Northridge 47.46. 7, Carroll 49.33. FW North Side DQ.

1600 (Race one) 1, Jacob Poyner (Warsaw) 4:22.84. 2, Anthony Didion (LaPorte) 4:27.88. 3, Jonathan Harper (Carroll) 4:28.97. 4, Andrew Timmons (SB Adams) 4:33.45. 5, Austin Ganger (Mishawaka) 4:35.01. 6, James Bradberry (Northridge) 4:39.46. 7, Bruce Bragg (SB Riley) 4:41.53. 8, Jared Peek (Elkhart Memorial) 4:41.61.

1600 (Race two): 1, Robert Murphy (Warsaw) 4:20.77. 2, Alex Hess (Carroll) 4:27.08. 3, Jacob Timmons (SB Adams) 4:36.14. 4, Jordan Annis (Mishawaka) 4:41.39. 5, Nate Gerick (LaPorte) 4:44.85. 6, Andres Herbert (SB Washington) 4:45.15. 7, Blake O’Dell (Northridge) 4:45.73. 8, Reid Zimmerman (Goshen) 4:48.07.

Sprint medley (100-100-200-400) relay (Race one): 1, Carroll (Riley Schuette, Jimmy Crumley, Justin Tranquil, Alex Crabill) 1:38.58. 2, Elkhart Memorial 1:39.40. 3, SB Riley 1:39.75. 4, Elkhart Central 1:40.91. 5, Warsaw 1:42.62. LaPorte DQ, FW Wayne DQ.

Sprint medley (100-100-200-400) relay (Race two): 1, FW North Side (Allen Walker, Tyvon Kelley, Alex Moses, CJ Jackson) 1:37.86. 2, Northridge 1:40.14. 3, Mishawaka 1:40.31. 4, SB Clay 1:41.01. 5, Concord 1:41.58. 6, Goshen 1:42.84. 7, Penn 1:43.28. 8, SB Adams 1:43.96.

100: 1, Davontae Millsaps (Elkhart Memorial) 11.23. 2, Tommy Grant (Penn) 11.26. 3, Shamarcus Ford (FW Wayne) 11.69. 4, Demond Gaston (FW North) 11.76. 5, Prince Gee (SB Adams) 11.79. 6, Wyatt Jones (Warsaw) 11.81. 7, Jameyron Gary (Concord) 12.04. 8, Larry Gates (Elkhart Central) 12.08.

4 x 400 relay (Race one): 1, Penn (Christian Hill, Thomas Gales, Zach Oakley, Tim Deal) 3:28.96. 2, FW North Side 3:29.58. 3, FW Wayne 3:31.60. 4, Mishawaka 3:31.85. 5, LaPorte 3:38.66. 6, Concord 3:41.13. 7, SB Washington 3:48.20.

4 x 400 relay (Race two): 1, Warsaw (Chad Goon, Gabe Furnivall, Nathan Kolbe, Ryan Goon) 3:26.85. 2, Elkhart Memorial 3:31.36. 3, Carroll 3:31.88. 4, Goshen 3:33.83. 5, Elkhart Central 3:41.74. 6, Northridge 3:42.47. 7, SB Adams 3:48.51. 8, SB Riley 5:53.11.

High jump: 1, Stephen Kolbe (Warsaw) 6-4. 2, Robert Lambert (Mishawaka) 6-2. 3, Jake Bowers (LaPorte) 6-0. 4, Dylan Kruis (Elkhart Central) 6-0. 5, (tie) Austin Bennett (Carroll), Jake Wango (Northridge), Tyrese Easton (FW Wayne), Sam Byler (Goshen) 5-10.

Long jump: 1, Carrington Robinson (FW Wayne) 22-1 ½. 2, Tim Deal (Penn) 21-10. 3, Dontell Parker (FW Wayne) 20-7 ½. 4, David Doyle (Elkhart Memorial) 20-6 ½. 5, Larry Gates (Elkhart Central) 19-11 ½. 6, Sam Byler (Goshen) 19-11. 7, Austin Healey (Northridge) 19-8. 8, Sam Anderson (Carroll) 19-7 ½.

Shot put: 1, Isaiah Cook (Penn) 49-1. 2, Jari DaDa (FW Wayne) 45-7. 3, Tyler Hoffman (Concord) 45-1 ½. 4, Dominique Avila (SB Riley) 44-7 ½. 5, Brandt Niles (LaPorte) 43-0 ½. 6, Geoff Wilson (SB Riley) 41-7 ¾. 7, Mitch Watts (Goshen) 40-10. 8, Russell Collins (FW North) 40-0 ½.

Discus: 1, Russell Collins (FW North) 144-8. 2, Geoff Wilson (SB Riley) 141-1. 3, Jari DaDa (FW Wayne) 138-2. 4, Seth Rassi (Penn) 135-3. 5, Tanner Faus (Elkhart Memorial) 132-10. 6, Austin Coons (SB Adams) 132-1. 7, Sam Daggy (Penn) 130-2. 8, Andrew Schiedt (Warsaw) 130-0.

Pole vault: 1, Josh Rheinheimer (Northridge) 13-0. 2, Devin Puckett (Northridge) 12-6. 3, Tanner Bradley (Mishawaka) 12-6. 4, Jeff Coulter (Warsaw) 12-0. 5, Josh Bustos (Goshen) 12-0. 6, Peter Loughran (Penn) 12-0. 7, James Alexander (Mishawaka) 11-6. 8, Noah Gray (Carroll) 11-6.