Warsaw Caps Perfect NLC Run
ELKHART – Warsaw boys cross country coach Jim Mills remembers a time when his program was not the cream of the crop in the Northern Lakes Conference.
That must seem like a distant memory right now to the wiley, veteran coach.
The No. 13 Tigers put an exclamation point on a third straight undefeated NLC regular season in impressive and emphatic fashion Tuesday night.
Owen Glogovsky led the way as the first five runners to hit the finish line at Ow Bow Park were wearing Tiger orange in the NLC finale versus host Concord and Plymouth.
Sophomore standout Glogovsky covered the course in a winning time of 16:58 over the 5K layout.
Warsaw defeated Concord 15-45 and Plymouth 15-49 to finish 7-0 in league regular-season action again. The Tigers have not lost an NLC regular-season meet since a setback to Northridge during the 2010 season.
“We’ve scratched our way to the top of the conference and we want to stay there,” said Mills, the man who guided the Tigers to a fourth-place finish at the State Finals in 2012. “I’m really happy to finish 7-0. It feels good.”
The Tigers were coming off an 11th place finish (out of 24 teams) on Saturday in the Elite Division at the loaded Culver Academies Invitational.
“I was a little frustrated on Saturday that some of our guys didn’t get out harder, but we only lost to one team that will be in our semi state,” said Mills. “Plus, from here on out, that’s not a concern as the number of runners in the races and the quality will not be as high as it was on Saturday until State.”
The Tigers went out fast Tuesday and then cruised home. Tyler Houvener was second in 17:17, followed by Nick Bergen (17:47), Daniel Messenger (17:48) and Ellis Coon (17:50).
Coon had another “off” night by his standards. The senior star, who placed sixth at State a year ago in a time of 15:41, has struggled his last couple of races after missing some time due to illness. He placed 20th overall Saturday with a time of 16:16.
“We wanted guys to hammer the first mile tonight and they were right around 5:08, which is pretty close to where we wanted them to be,” Mills said. “No one was very fast tonight. No one really likes these Tuesday night meets.”
Mills believes that Coon will be fine with just a handful of races left in his prep career.
“We’re making some changes to what we do with Ellis in terms of training,” remarked Mills. “It’s important to get him back in a groove. He missed some quality workouts in the last couple of weeks. I think he just had a bad race on Saturday. I think that was a wake-up call for him. He’ll be fine by semi state. He’s too tough a runner not to be.”
The Tigers have dominated the conference again with a rebuilt team. They lost three runners in Jake Poyner, Robert Murphy and Brysten James from their State Finals lineup a year ago. Also, several key runners from a year ago decided not to come out this season. Poyner and Murphy, both All-State in 2012, are now running at Wake Forest and Vincennes respectively.
It has not mattered to Mills, his outstanding coaching staff and his kids as the program has not missed a beat.
Warsaw had 14 runners in the top 20 Tuesday. Jonathon Beres was eighth in a time of 18:04, followed by teammates Avery Torres in 11th (18:24), Jacob DeBoest in 12th (18:27), Nick Adams in 13th (18:38), T.J. Day in 15th (18:51), Ryan Goon in 17th (18:56), Aaron Haller in 18th (19:03), Ethan Cook in 19th (19:20) and Jacob Adley in 20th (19:46).
Also for the Tigers Tuesday, Rozen Kunkle placed 21st in a time of 19:54, followed by teammates Zach Taylor in 22nd (20:01), Nathan Miller 26th (20:14), Shane Powers 27th (20:26), Evan Hansen 28th (20:29), Trent Shepherd 29th (20:38), Eric Jagger 31st (20:55), Trent Thompson 32nd (21:04), Connor Hershberger 39th (21:22), Griffin Roark 43rd (21:42), Colton Andrews 44th (21:52), Curtis Rider 47th (22:370, Michael Blue 48th (22:45), Mac Pelo 49th (22:53), Nicholas Hawn 51st (24:12), Caleb Remocaldo 53rd (24:18) and Luke Junker 56th (27:06).
The Tigers will look to repeat as NLC Meet champions Saturday back at Ox Bow Park.