Jacob Hutchinson lands firmly into a third place finish in the long jump for the Warriors in Thursday’s loss to Plymouth. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

PLYMOUTH – Oh to be finally be outdoors! That was the feeling for the Wawasee boys track team as it finally competed in its first outdoor meet of the season. The Warriors traveled to the Rock Pile for their season opener against Northern Lakes Conference foe Plymouth. Wawasee lost ground in a few areas leading to a 71-61 Plymouth victory.

“We knew coming in that Plymouth and us are very similar,” began Wawasee head coach Scott Lancaster. “We have good athletes in some events and then we have holes that are very difficult for us to fill.”

Tyler Courter gets up to speed during the 100 meter dash.

That was truly the story of the meet for both teams. Wawasee was able to capitalize on its talent to win seven of the evening’s 16 events, but a poor exchange during a relay and some other less-than-stellar performances left the Warriors with a little to be desired when the final score was announced.

“I think, for the most part, we did a good job at finding some people to fill spots. We did have some letdowns in some areas,” Lancaster continued. “But give Plymouth credit. Their long jumper had the best jump of his career and they just did the little things that they needed to do to win the meet and we had some little things that helped us lose the meet.

“I’m not necessarily disappointed with the loss. You drop a baton, you drop a baton. The kids didn’t drop it because they did anything wrong, they did it because they were trying to run fast, I’m not faulting them for that.”

Little mistakes hurt Wawasee in close competition but the Warriors shined when they won events.

Clayton Cook comfortably placed first in all three of his events. The senior had the top time in the 110 meter hurdles (14.75), 100 meter dash (11.22) and 300 meter hurdles (40.31).

Wawasee’s 4×8 relay team also finished with time to spare. The squad made up of Zach Cockrill, Jaxon Bame, Erik Diaz and Stori Bright finished with a time of 9:33.09, well ahead of Plymouth’s 10:13.76.

Clayton Cook took first in three event for Wawasee, including the 110 hurdles.

Cockrill would later take first in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:05.50. Tyler Courter won the final track event of the day for Wawasee by sprinting to a 23.69 finish over Plymouth’s Jack Barron in the 200 meter dash.

In field events the Warriors showed well, but could not crack the top spot in more than one event. JJ Gilmer took first in the high jump for the Warriors at 6-02. Gilmer claimed second in the long jump (20-04) to Plymouth’s Taylor Fulton’s career-best (20-06). Jacob Hutchinson took third for Wawasee (19-01) in the event. Gilmer also tried his luck at pole vault for the first time since middle school, bringing home a third place finish (9-06).

Jon Walker had a disappointing day but still earned second in both the discus throw (119-11) and shot put (40-09). Dylan Elpusan took third in discus for the Warriors (119-02).

It was not a great day for the Wawasee track team, but it was not poor either. It was just a day of learning.

“We’re just not going to ‘out-stud’ people like we did last year because we lost some kids,” Lancaster remarked. “We’re going to face this every week, trying to figure out how to score points.

“We’ve got a lot of positive things to build on and I think the positives outweigh the negatives.”

Wawasee (0-1, 0-1) will travel to Fort Wayne this Saturday for the North Side Relays beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Taylor Fulton had a career-best jump at 20-06 in Thursday’s meet against Wawasee.