The Warsaw boys cross country team captured the championship of its own Tiger Invitational Tuesday night.

WARSAW – Owen Glogovsky is the No. 1 runner for the Warsaw boys cross country team.

The junior standout sure doesn’t act the part though, at least away from the course.

Glogovsky, a humble and team-oriented young man, does not mind to defer to his senior teammates.

“I don’t see myself as the leader of this team,” said the soft-spoken Glogovsky. “Daniel and Nick are the seniors and they take the reigns. I just think we work off each other well and it’s just exciting to have the three of us all together near the top.”

Glogovsky, who learned all about teamwork and being a true leader under former Warsaw star Jake Poyner two years ago as a freshman, sure acted like the ace for coach Jim Mills’ squad on the course Tuesday evening.

Glogovsky put the hammer down as the individual champion in a field of 166 runners to lead the host Tigers to the championship of their own invitational.

Warsaw’s Owen Glogovsky heads home as the individual champion in the Tiger Invitational.

Glogovsky covered the home 5K course at WCHS in a winning time of 16:39, some 12 seconds ahead of runner-up Landon Miller of Fairfield.

“I wanted to see what I could do with this race and I’m pretty excited,” admitted Glogovsky. “I’m happy with my time. That’s what I was mostly focused on today, not winning.”

The Tigers, who have had star frontrunners the past two years in Poyner, Robert Murphy and Ellis Coon, now have a terrific trio of Glogovsky and seniors Daniel Messenger and Nick Bergen to set the tone.

“This team is really strong and much more of a group team, which is better for us,” said Messenger. “Our goal tonight was pack running, but we got off to a fast start and got strung out a little bit. I’m much happier with my time than last week at Huntington (when I had some issues with the heat). Owen is better than us, but I love his humbleness.”

Messenger hit the finish line in third place overall in a time of 16:52. Senior Bergen was seventh in a time of 17:20 with Jonathan Beres 10th in 17:31 and Avery Torres in 13th in 17:41 to complete the scoring top five for the champions.

Warsaw posted a winning team total of 34. Huntington North was a distant second at 86.

“Owen has established himself as our top runner and the other two are right there,” said Warsaw coach Jim Mills. “We have a pretty decent top three. If we can get those next four up there close that’s what we need.

“Our course is not the easiest and for us to run 16:30, 16:40 right now is good enough for me. We need to keep everyone healthy for us and slowly get better.  We don’t have a frontrunner like in the past couple of years so to speak, but we can be pretty good.

Warsaw’s talented trio of Daniel Messenger, Nick Bergen and Owen Glogovsky lead the way Tuesday.

Jacob DeBoest finished in 15th place overall for the Tigers in a time of 17:46 and Lucas Howett was 21st in 18:01 to round out the top seven for the champions.

The final team standings had Warsaw, followed by Huntington North, Northfield (92), NorthWood (96), Columbia City (150), Wabash (154), Angola (188), Fairfield (198), Whitko (244), Peru (249) and Tippecanoe Valley (288).

Also competing for the champion Tigers were T.J. Day, Nick Adams, Nathaniel Gottschalk, Trent Thompson, Eric Cusick, Nathan Miller, Cameron Hoskins, Evan Hansen, Sam Yeager, Colton Andrews, Rozen Kunkle, Matt Hastings, Trent Shepherd, Conner Hershberger, Griffin Roark, Michael Blue, Justin Fleming, Taylor Mills, Kyle Haywood, Ryan Bonebrake, Caleb Remocaldo, Christian Kosins, Jared Guderman, Jacob Duchenhaus, Eric Williamson, Riley Hogenson, Nicholas Hawn, Luke Junker, Jacob Bill, Evan Monsma, Alex Bergen and Reese Cripe.

Logan Busz was the top finisher for Whitko as he placed 44th overall in a time of 19:18. The next four runners for the Wildcats were Jonathan Johnson, Joshua Wright, Collin Bross and Tyler Berner.

Jesse Floor of Tippecanoe Valley was 28th overall in a time of 18:29 to lead the Vikings. Valley’s next four runners to cross the finish line and score for the team were Tyler Ross, Tom Solano, Shay Merley and Jared Mikel.

Warsaw will compete Saturday in the Marion Invitational.

The Warsaw boys are ready to race at the start Tuesday.