Wawasee’s Leigh-Ann Shrack (center) leads the pack of 200-meter dash runners to the line Tuesday night. From left to right are Catherine Yankosky, Kenzie Moren, Shrack and Taitlyn Trenshaw. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Tuesday’s girls track meet between Wawasee and NorthWood resembled more of an aerodynamics experiment at times than a sporting exhibition. Trying to run through the teeth of a 40-plus mile-per-hour headwind down the straightaway at Warrior Field, the 67-56 Wawasee win was more of a battle of attrition against the weather.

Wawasee’s Katlyn Kennedy sent the shot put 36-feet into a stiff wind.

Not the first time these two teams squared off in horrible conditions, most of the athletes and coaches joked of the 2014 matchup that had a hail storm and high winds distract the meet in Nappanee. When it came down to performing, as one athlete put it after finishing a sprint in the fierce wind, “it was like getting punched in the chest. I could barely move.”

Conditions were such that pole vault was not even conducted.

“It’s hard to get anything out of these things when a kid is running directly into the wind and she’s sustaining a 45-degree angle on the track and she’s not getting anything out of it,” laughed Wawasee head coach Scott Lancaster under the shelter of the press box. “It’s Indiana, man. I tell you what. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here from Tennessee; deal with stuff like this and turn around and head right back.”

Wawasee had its sprints and hurdles in order despite the hindrances. Leigh-Ann Shrack won the 200 dash at 28.74 and Aubrey Kuhn gave a decent effort to take the 400 at 1:06.66. Shelby Swartz ran what Lancaster said was her best showing to date in the 100 hurdles with a 17.12 win and the 300 hurdles had teammate Hannah-Marie Lamle run 53.80.

NorthWood’s Erica Stutzman is trailed by Wawasee’s Elizabeth Zorn, left, and Maddie Birch during the two-mile race.

Elizabeth Zorn had Wawasee’s other track win with a 6:04.32 in the mile.

The pole vault could have come back into play had Wawasee not scored points in the two-mile. Maddie Birch’s second-place time of 12:57.56 gave Wawasee three points, which guaranteed Wawasee at least a ten-point win, to which the nine points available in pole vault became moot.

“Little things like Maddie’s run in the 3,200 is something we can take from today and build upon,” Lancaster said. “She’s still learning how to run that race, so we’re focusing on when to put the kick on and put things together as a learning curve. Competition like today was nice, which will help later on in the season.”

The throws continued to be the strong suit for the Lady Warriors, where the duo of Hannah Winters and Kaley Wood went one-two in discus at 99-05 and 99-04, respectively. Katlyn Kennedy sent the shot put 36-02 and Seaquinn Bright 30-03 for a one-two in the sand even with a pelting rain adding sting to the event.

Kenzie Moren was responsible for three wins for NorthWood, taking the 100 (14.00) and running legs of the winning 4×100 relay (53.48) and 4×400 relay (4:34.75).

Erica Stutzman was a distance maven for the Lady Panthers, winning the 800 (2:43.03) and two-mile (12:49.64) as well as rallying the 4×800 relay to a win at 11:30.75, catching Wawasee in the final lap.

Grace McCoy was on the 4×800 relay and won high jump at 4-06 while teammate Natalie Gerber led a NorthWood sweep of long jump at 15-05.25.

Wawasee will compete Saturday at the Turtletown Relays at Churubusco while NorthWood will host Plymouth and Northridge next Tuesday.