Warsaw’s Nathan Gottschalk lunges at the finish line to edge Wawasee’s Ben Hoffert for the point as the two competitors finished at 19:01 in the Northern Lakes Conference dual Tuesday at Warsaw. The Tiger boys and girls both beat Wawasee in the team races. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – If only by necessity, there was extra motivation to kick it into high gear Tuesday. The cross country teams from Warsaw and Wawasee met for the annual dual between longtime rivals, but rather than just racing for pride, everyone was racing to keep dry.

Warsaw helped its cause with a swift 16-47 girls team win, joining the 16-43 Tiger boys victory as the dark clouds converged over the western horizon. The races were run simultaneously to help conclude matters before the storms were due to arrive.

Warsaw took advantage of a window of time as the middle school races were winding down on the course to honor its seniors, and the elders made good use of their last runs on the competition course. The boys race saw Owen Glogovsky continue his outstanding senior campaign with a 17:21 win. Hannah Dawson led a quartet of senior girls to the line at 20:56, stride in stride with Brooke Rhodes and Emma Hayward as the trio brought Claire Kehler (20:59) to the line with all smiles.

Wawasee’s Aubrey Kuhn found herself in the middle of two Tiger packs in the girls race, taking fifth at 21:21, then the usual aces of Warsaw brought a rising star with them. Sierra Palmer finished at 21:32, running with Allison Miller across the line with Mia Beckham in at 21:35. Wawasee freshman McKenzie Smith, who had kept pace with Kuhn and the Warsaw frontrunners for much of the race, fell back to ninth at 21:37.

“We wanted to try some things out for our seniors to be out front, their last home meet, let them run up in the front,” said Warsaw girls head coach Scott Erba. “Our second tier of Alli Miller, Mia and Anna Craig can pull some girls along. Some girls took that challenge and some girls didn’t. We have to figure out why some girls didn’t want to jump up there, but some girls did.”

Added Wawasee girls head coach Doug Slabaugh, “It was definitely a different mindset going into the race, especially with the guys (running), it can play a mental game. I thought our girls, a couple of them ran well, were in the mix at least. It wasn’t a great day for us. I wasn’t too pleased with our performance. We have to race tougher.”

Warsaw’s boys didn’t have the same obvious bricking of groups, but found themselves packing among Wawasee’s frontrunners in what was a competitive battle at the front for a good portion of the race.

Glogovsky didn’t run away with the meet, spending much of his time running with the second tier to pull some runners from the middling packs forward. Once the 4,000-meter mark came and went, Glogovsky took off and won his final home race.

“He’s just in great shape,” said Warsaw boys head coach Jim Mills of Glogovsky. “The fact that he was sick all last week then cranks out a 15:46 on Saturday, and still isn’t feeling 100 percent. He just has that gear. He’s in great shape right now, we just have to keep him healthy and get him to go to bed early enough every night.”

Lucas Howett, who paced the entire jumbled mess of runners from the start, had a solid race with a 17:24 finish and led Francisco Ramirez (17:31) and Zeb Hernandez (17:37) to the line. Wawasee’s trio near the top couldn’t keep pace with the Tiger leaders, but were respectable in finishing with Spencer Hare fifth at 17:42, Sam Griner seventh at 18:04 and little brother Luke Griner just behind at 18:06.

“Warsaw has a very good nucleus of young runners who are running in the 16s and 17s, and coach Mills knows how to get the talent out of them,” said Wawasee boys head coach Chad Hoffert. “We have a lot of young talent, but we have to try to build our numbers to run with some of the talented kids we have. Building some depth and putting quality on top of that is where we are headed right now. We’re getting there.”

Warsaw’s boys and girls are now 3-0 in the NLC and will run at Plymouth with Concord next Tuesday. Wawasee falls to 2-1 in both boys and girls conference races and will gear up for a key NLC triangular next Tuesday with NorthWood and host Goshen at Shanklin Park.