Sam Griner finishes strong for Wawasee in Saturday’s regional at Ox Bow Park. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

GOSHEN – The 2015 season finally drew to a close for the remaining three members of the Wawasee boys cross country team at the Elkhart Central Regional held at Ox Bow Park.

Luke Griner

“We didn’t run as well as we did last week, but we didn’t run badly today,” began Wawasee head coach Chad Hoffert. “The times were respectable. The expectations are higher.

“Our boys set their expectations higher than last week so they were disappointed with how they ran but I told them to put it in perspective because a few weeks ago they would’ve been okay with these times. Their expectations are higher and that’s a good thing moving forward.”

Luke Griner paced Wawasee yet again after placing 12th in last week’s sectional. The freshman ran a 17:39. Sam Griner was not far behind with a time of 17:57. That time narrowly missed a top 50 finish for the junior.

Bennett Hoffert was one of the last few runners to make the cut as an individual at the sectional but showed that he was still cut out for the regional field with a time of 18:11. Hoffert would place 61st in the field of 90 runners.

“I think whenever you run without your full team,” the head coach continued, “it changes the look and feel of the course. A couple of the boys told me they thought they ran that first 800 a little too fast. They were a little out of rhythm. So, I think they race was a little differnt of a feel for them than it was last week but they were all within the ball park of their sectional times.”

Bennett Hoffert

Penn edged out Northridge for the boys team title 61-62 while Mishawaka, Goshen and NorthWood all qualified as full teams. NorthWood and Goshen are two experienced teams that the Warriors saw frequently this season. Hoffert knows watching how those teams developed throughout the year is something his young team can focus on for next season.

“NorthWood is a very experienced team,” Hoffert said. “When we ran with them at the beginning of the year we beat them but that was a team running for October. They have 12 or 15 seniors and six or seven of those guys run varsity. We were out there still trying to figure things out. NorthWood did a great job at training and getting to this point.

“But, to know that you can compete with a semi-state caliber team is something that we can look at. We were also competitive with Goshen in a dual. Those are things we can look at but we really want to focus on how those teams finished out their seasons and how they were consistent.”

Northridge’s Conner Sandt (15:59) was the individual champion followed by Mishawaka’s Colin Richardson (16:18), Penn’s Colton Shail (16:26.01), Goshen’s Juan Perez (16:26.48) and South Bend St. Joe’s Matt Morris (16:35).