Owen Glogovsky of Warsaw is the top seed in both the 1,600 and 3,200 in the Goshen Sectional set for Thursday night.

Warsaw boys track coach Matt Thacker has seen his team rise to the challenge several times this season.

Wawasee boys track coach Scott Lancaster has seen his top tier guys perform at a high level.

Both coaches still hope that the best is yet to come starting Thursday night at the biggest moment of the season so far as postseason action commences with sectional competition.

The Tigers look to make it five straight sectional championships at Goshen, while the outstanding Wawasee duo of seniors Clayton Cook and JJ Gilmer look to shine in their final prep sectional.

Warsaw enters the field at Goshen fresh off its fifth straight NLC Meet title last Tuesday.

This years sectional feels a lot like a regional, personally, because you don’t know who is going to come out on top,” said Thacker.  “Goshen is very well coached and has shown vast improvement throughout the year and seems to get deeper as the season goes on. Elkhart Central won the NIC and have had a great year and have strengths where we have strengths.  Northridge is always tough this time of year and then you throw in quality teams like Fairfield, Jimtown and Columbia City and you have a lot more questions than you have answers for.

“Plus, you cannot short-change  Wawasee, Northwood, Concord and Elkhart Memorial all will do great things as well as they all have gotten better and all compete at a high level.  Hopefully, our conference and non-conference schedule will shine through for us, but we’ll see as it will take a great amount of focus  and competitive desire for us Thursday night, because everyone will want to run their best in order to become a sectional champion and that is what it is all about.”

The Tigers won the sectional title a year ago easily with 170 points to 83 for runner-up Goshen. Warsaw has just one defending champion back from that team though in Rashaan Jackson in the long jump.

Warsaw features a deep lineup though that can score points in a plethora of events. The Tigers have four No. 1 sectional seeds in Owen Glogovsky in both the 1,600 (4:23.09) and the 3,200 (9:39.32), Ross Armey in the 300 hurdles (40.22) and the 4 X 400 relay team of Armey, Caleb Ray, Nick Adams and Bishop Harrison (3:26.93).

Warsaw will also look to score key points from athletes like Caleb Klusman (hurdles), Riley Rhodes and Landan Perry (400), Daniel Messenger (800), Brock Riley (high jump),  Jackson and Thomas Hickerson (long jump), Andrew Scheidt (discus) and Ben Plummer and Dylan Childers (shot put).

JJ Gilmer of Wawasee is the top seed in the long jump and one of the top high jumpers in the sectional field at Goshen.

The Warriors will look to Cook and Gilmer, both state finalists in 2014, to do big things again. Cook is the No. 1 seed in the 110 hurdles (14.34) and the 200 (22.05) and combines with Gilmer, Cole VanLue and Tyler Courter on the top-seeded 4 X 100 relay team (43.07). Gilmer is the top seed in the long jump at 22-4 and is among the top high jump competitors. Cook won the 110 sectional hurdles event a year ago in 14.55 and Gilmer was second in the high jump at 6-5.

“We are excited about the sectional for our guys,” remarked Lancaster. “Our top end athletes are veterans and we expect them to respond to the challenge by stepping up to get the job done. Clayton may be the only hurdler under 15 seconds, but he has to run the race like there are guys right next to him to prepare himself for the regional and beyond.

“JJ will have the challenge of jumping against one of the state’s best in Trenton Harris of Elkhart Central. JJ understands the most important meet is the one coming up. He will be ready to compete and for him, the better the competition, the better he jumps.

“We look to have our athletes compete well and continue to improve at the sectional.”

The top three finishers in each event at sectional move on to the South Bend St. Joseph Regional on May 28.

Action at Goshen Thursday night starts with field events at 5:30 p.m. The 4 X 800 relay is set for a 6 p.m. start.

Whitko, which placed second at the Three Rivers Conference Meet last week, moves from the Fort Wayne Wayne Sectional to Plymouth this year. The Wildcats are led by Walker Hobbs and Gavin Howard in the shot put, Will Bumbaugh and Jacob Helton in the pole vault, Brady Weeks in the hurdles and Daniel Kirkham in the 400.

The field at Plymouth, where the hosts are the defending champions, also features Tippecanoe Valley and Triton. Valley was third in the sectional last year and will be led by Neil Clampitt and Michael Thacker on the track and Aaron Hoffman in the discus and shot put. The 4 X 100 relay team of Clampitt, Thacker, Deontee Smith and Dakota Parker, who were TRC champs, will also be ones to watch.

Action at Plymouth Thursday night begins at 5:30 p.m. The top three finishers there also move on to the St. Joe Regional.