Warsaw’s Zeb Hernandez races past Northridge’s Conner Sandt on the home stretch to win the Northern Lakes Conference Boys Cross Country individual title. Warsaw would also win the team title. (Photos by Mike Deak)

ELKHART – Saying the Seattle Seahawks would pass on the one-yard-line with the Super Bowl on the line would be crazy, right? The same could be said of taking odds on anyone other than Northridge’s Conner Sandt or Warsaw’s Owen Glogovsky winning the Northern Lakes Conference Boys Cross Country title. Well, that figurative ticket could have been cashed at the OxBow Park window for big bucks Saturday morning.

Warsaw’s Owen Glogovsky navigates the OxBow course.

Sandt and Glogovsky finished second and third, respectively, with very fast times of 16:15 and 16:24. But someone did it just a little bit better, and shocked the field. Glogovsky’s teammate, Zeb Hernandez, ran out of his mind and clocked a 16:13, not only tracking down the two speed demons but outrunning Sandt to the line in a shocking finish. The drumbeat kept pounding for the Tigers, which claimed the outright NLC title by placing its top five in the first 16 slots for 34 points, topping runner-up Ridge’s 45 and the rest of the NLC field.

“That was an unbelievable run by Zeb, he has really stepped up and not be afraid to go out with the frontrunners,” said Warsaw head coach Jim Mills. “He has another gear. I can’t explain it. A 16:13 for a freshman on this course is pretty darn good. And that’s only good for the team. It gives Owen some relief.”

Lucas Howett gave another gutty performance, keeping pace with the second wave to finish sixth at 16:54 with teammate Xavi Ramirez just back in eighth at 17:02. Jon Beres gave Warsaw its fifth score with a 16th-place time of 17:26.

Nate Gottschalk (23, 17:36) and TJ Day (29, 17:51) put the Tigers all in under 18 minutes in an impressive show for a team that only reloaded in recent years.

Northridge’s Mitchell Schrock (7, 16:59) and Logan Riffell (10, 17:15) placed three in the top 10 for the runner-up Raiders, which finished the regular season round robin 6-1, only losing at Warsaw in early September.

Wawasee’s Bennett Hoffert jostles among the crowd.

NorthWood’s Ryan Price finished fourth at 16:41 and a pair of Goshen runners dotted the top 10 in Juan Perez (5, 16:43) and Jason Barahona (9, 17:04).

The overall inexperience of Wawasee’s team showed in an eighth-place finish with 212 points. Bennett Hoffert was 33rd overall at 18:08 as the top runner for the Warriors, which were 32 points behind seventh-place Plymouth.

Luke Griner (38, 18:35), Sam Griner (40, 18:39), Braxton Alexander (48, 19:06), Jaxon Bame (53, 20:10), Parker Bame (54, 20:30) and Logan Brugh (55, 20:32) rounded out Wawasee’s day.

“Overall, we did not run well,” began Wawasee head coach Chad Hoffert. “This is the second week we have not run well. Hopefully this week we will get Spencer Hare back and we can focus on making a run at sectionals.”

The final NLC standings were Warsaw 34, Northridge 45, Goshen 89, NorthWood 94, Concord 114, Memorial 150, Plymouth 180, Wawasee 212.

It was announced during the awards ceremony that this, unverified, is the first year in NLC history that both the boys and girls team standings in the round robin finished exactly the same. Warsaw was 7-0 in both, Northridge was 6-1 in both, and so on.

Warsaw will now focus on the Culver Academy Sectional next Saturday while Wawasee will try to rebound at the Elkhart Central sectional next Saturday at OxBow Park.

The Warsaw Tigers are the 2015 Northern Lakes Conference boys cross country champions.