Warsaw Dominant, Ridge Earns Split On Wawasee [VIDEO]
WARSAW – There wasn’t any question which team was the better of the trio competing in girls track Tuesday night. Warsaw answered the bell time and again in the Northern Lakes Conference duals against visiting Wawasee and Northridge.
Warsaw reigned supreme in 14 of the 16 events, taking all of the track events and three of the field disciplines. The Lady Tigers rang up 107 to crush Wawasee’s 25 and likewise against Northridge, 111-21. The twist would be which other team would split, which ended up being Northridge, taking advantage of Wawasee’s distance woes in a 69-63 result.
Mia Beckham and Nicole Eckert both had fantastic meets for Warsaw, taking a pair of races on their own and Eckert helping the 4×400 to a closing win. Beckham was superior in the two-mile, cruising to a 12:15.77 win and also was huge in the one-mile at 5:35.83. Eckert was solid in the 300 hurdles, running away for a 46.99 win but being pushed by Wawasee’s Shelby Swartz at the finish for a 17.23 win to Swartz’s 17.28.
Warsaw had several contribute to an individual win along with a relay score. Mariah Harter was the fastest sprinter in the 100 at 12.87 and led off the victorious 4×100 relay with Abbi Curtis, Sam Alexander and Audrey Rich to a 50.39. Rich would win the 200 at 25.96 and join Eckert, Jazzmine Brown and Tennie Worrell for a 4:18.34 victory in the 4×400 relay.
Worrell was pushed by Wawasee’s Leigh-Ann Shrack in the 400, but held on for a 1:03.26 to Shrack’s lifetime-best 1:03.31.
Allison Miller was the top 800 runner at 2:29.04 and anchored the 4×800 relay with Hannah Dawson, Brooke Rhodes and Anna Craig to a 10:07.89 to open the meet.
Brown won the high jump at 5-0 in a Warsaw sweep, Alexander easily outdistanced everyone in the long jump at 16-6.5 and Rebecca Lemon vaulted a personal best 8-6 to claim the pole vault.
“Coming off our break and having one day of practice, we were hoping everyone would come back healthy,” began Warsaw head coach Scott Erba. “We saw a lot of energized girls coming back for an NLC meet. It was really encouraging to see so many peak performances tonight.”
Wawasee would take the other two events in the throws, where it should be strongest this spring. Alexis Mangas whipped the discus 109-04.5 where the Lady Warriors had four of the top five distances and Katlyn Kennedy marked 36-07 to claim honors in the shot put by over five feet.
Distance events crushed Wawasee’s hopes of splitting with Northridge. The Lady Warriors did not have a 4×800 relay team, were swept in the one-mile and two-mile races and were beaten head’s up in the 4×400 relay.
The pros and cons were aplenty for Wawasee head coach Scott Lancaster in the team’s first meet of the season.
“We really didn’t care about Warsaw, they are head and shoulders above everyone in the conference right now,” Lancaster said. “To compare ourselves to them would not be productive. That wasn’t even our focus. The focus was on ourselves because we are so young. You are not going to throw a new freshman sprinter (against Warsaw) and necessarily see anything.”
Warsaw will next compete Tuesday in another NLC triangle at Plymouth with Memorial while Wawasee will next host NorthWood Tuesday.