The Warsaw boys track team won the program’s fifth straight sectional championship Thursday night at Goshen.

GOSHEN – The cast of characters may have been new in a lot of regards, but it was the same old same old for the Warsaw boys track program Thursday night.

The Tigers were the ones left holding the sectional championship trophy once again at night’s end.

Warsaw, sporting new faces in a lot of places this season after the loss of an incredibly talented senior class in 2014, stepped up to the challenge in the Goshen Sectional.

The Tigers used a late surge of big performances on the track to overtake both Northridge and Elkhart Central for its fifth straight sectional title. Warsaw scored 93 points to claim the hard-earned championship as the Raiders were second with 81 and Central third with 78.

“Guts,” responded Warsaw coach Matt Thacker about what he saw from his squad Thursday night. “These are high school kids and you are not going to get perfection. But our effort was tremendous. Winning this with different faces from last year is pretty cool.

“We talked about how guys in the past like Jake Poyner, Ellis Coon, Gabe Furnivall, Tristan McClone had laid the foundation. We told these guys it was their turn to add their names to the legacy and they did it.

“We had different guys step up for us tonight. It (winning) is a great feeling that you don’t want to go away. To constantly get the effort we have is just great to see.”

Owen Glogovsky won the 1,600 for the Tigers.

Warsaw got off to a slow start in a couple of the field events and trailed early on as the team scores were updated throughout the meet. The Tigers finished with a flurry though as junior Ross Armey won the 300 hurdles, which was followed by a win from senior Daniel Messenger in the 800.

“I was confident, but my gut was rolling a little,” admitted Thacker. “We had to have points late and we got them from Ross and Daniel and Owen (Glogovsky) in the 3,200 and Riley (Rhodes) and Landan (Perry) in the 400.

“Andrew (Scheidt) and Jaceb (Burish) threw great in the discus and that was impressive and Dylan (Childers) keeps getting better in the shot. Thomas Hickerson scored huge points for us in the long jump.”

Junior Owen Glogovsky came up big again in the distance events. He won the 1,600 in a time of 4:29.26 and placed third in the 3,200 to qualify for the regional in both events. Glogovsky was the top seed in both events coming into the sectional.

Armey came through as expected in the 300 hurdles. The senior, who was the top seed, claimed his title in a top time of 40.07.

Senior Messenger also stepped up in the 800. He claimed first in 1:58.20.

The 4 X 400 relay team will also move on to the regional next week. The team of Armey, Riley Rhodes, Landan Perry and Messenger placed second.

Riley Rhoades picked up a key third place in the 400 for Warsaw.

Junior Rhoades was third in the 400 to earn a regional spot, while senior Andrew Scheidt was second in the discus and senior Dylan Childers third in the shot put.

The news was not all great for Warsaw. Senior Rashaan Jackson, who was the defending sectional champion in the long jump, did not advance.

“It’s bittersweet when you see the season end tonight for guys like Rashaan and Ben (Plummer),” admitted Thacker.

Winning sectional titles were David Doyle of Elkhart Memorial in the 100 (11.18), Andrew McFarland of Columbia City in the 400 (49.20), Landon Miller of Fairfield in the 3,200 (9:39.46), Micah Dewitt of Fairfield in the long jump (22-01.25), Brock Downey of Northridge in the high jump (6-6), Michael Fickert of Northridge in the discus (162-05) and shot put (55-08.50) and Ryan Haarer of Northridge in the pole vault (13-04).

Sectional championships in the relays went to Goshen in the 4 X 800 (8:13.03), Elkhart Memorial in the 4 X 100 (43.07) and NorthWood in the 4 X 400 (3:26.68).

The final team standings had Warsaw (93), followed by Northridge (81), Central (78), NorthWood (64), Memorial (62), Goshen (61), Wawasee (50), Fairfield (41), Concord (39), Jimtown (27.5), Columbia City (24.5) and Elkhart Christian Academy (3).

The top three finishers in each event advance to the South Bend St. Joseph Regional next Thursday. Warsaw will attempt to win its third straight regional team title at St. Joe.