Lady Warrior XC Surprising Even Itself
SYRACUSE – Less than a week ago, the Wawasee girls cross country team beamed with delight after even outdoing itself at the Elkhart Central Girls Cross Country Regional. Taking an unexpected third place left the Lady Warriors giddy with excitement, but also with a new level of expectation as the New Haven Semi-state looms this Saturday. Uncharted territory for a Wawasee squad with five of its seven runners not even through half of their first year of high school.
Certainly talented coming into the season, even Wawasee head coach Doug Slabaugh didn’t imagine his team would be among the 20 teams racing this Saturday at the semi-state. While regional champion Penn and runner-up Northridge were head and shoulders above the remainder of the field, Wawasee stepped forward while three of its seven runners – Delaine Bame, Elizabeth Zorn and Bailey Schroeder – all ran personal best times. All three of those girls are freshmen while Bame’s time of 20:29 was the second-best Wawasee time at the regional.
“I didn’t really know what to expect from Delaine early on, but you can tell she is really focused now,” Slabaugh said. “I knew she had a race like that in her, and it shows that she really likes to be out there. She has mentally prepared well.”
Wawasee has relied upon a mix of runners to contribute, but junior Bre Robinson has emerged as the frontrunner. Robinson ran a 20:11 despite a nagging foot injury, and has the experience of a top-50 semi-state run last year. Freshmen Bridgette Yoder and Molly Swartz have gone back and forth as the No. 2 for Wawasee for most of the season and junior Courtney Linnemeier continues to battle through a tough season, which included an ankle injury at the sectional that hampered her at the regional. Slabaugh feels Linnemeier, as well as Robinson, should be OK for racing tomorrow’s 1:45 p.m. start at The Plex in Fort Wayne.
“Bre is still battling her injury, but she is going to be a tough out,” Slabaugh said. “She is a fighter and a great competitor. She will run as well as she can. Courtney had had a tough season, but she will run hard. The regional was rough for her, but you could see it in her eyes that she wasn’t going to quit. She went out and gutted it out the best she could.”
A team run to state for Wawasee, which has not been to the finals since 1982, seems unlikely according to Slabaugh. With No. 7 Penn and No. 15 Northridge already asserting themselves at the sectional and regional levels, the field also includes No. 5 Fort Wayne Carroll, No. 9 Pendleton Heights and No. 12 Homestead as well as competitive teams from Concord, Fort Wayne Concordia, Fremont and Huntington North. A top-six placing would not only leave the Wawasee girls giddy once again, but surprise a tempered Slabaugh.
“The girls will have a tough day if we run how we ran at regionals,” stated Slabaugh as honestly as he could. “Fifth or sixth place will be tough to get. There are a lot of good girls teams. I think if we finish in the top 10 then we have had a really good day.”