Xavi Ramirez and the Warsaw boys cross country team will have its hands full at the New Prairie Semi-state this Saturday. (Photo by Mike Deak)

NEW CARLISLE – It wasn’t a gauntlet, but it wasn’t a walk in the park for the Warsaw cross country teams, either. Having won both the sectional and regional team titles at Culver Academy, both the girls and boys teams from Tiger Town are set to take aim at the state finals, but an extremely competitive semi-state awaits this Saturday morning.

The New Prairie Cross Country Semi-state is a meat grinder. While it doesn’t have the sparkling teams peppering the top-five state rankings like Carmel and the Indianapolis studs, the Region filters in along with the Lafayette area. To give an idea of the boys circuit, eight teams ranked ahead of Warsaw in the state poll are all in, with the Tigers, a Northern Lakes Conference, sectional and regional champion, ranked just No. 27.

Wawasee junior Elizabeth Zorn will run in her second semi-state this weekend at the New Haven Semi-state at IPFW. (Photo by Nick Goralczyk)

Warsaw’s boys were tested in the sectional without ace Owen Glogovsky, but with him in the lineup at the regional, won the team title going away. Paired with Zeb Hernandez at the front, the Tiger duo are posting times around the 16:00 mark that can contend regardless of team status. Sprinkle in the work from Lucas Howett and Xavi Ramirez about 30-45 seconds off the pace, and Warsaw would then need any of the combination of Jon Beres, Nathaniel Gottschalk or TJ Day to step into the five.

Points will be extremely critical for Warsaw to get to state, and head coach Jim Mills has been monitoring the situation in the two races at Culver Academy.

“We ran great all the way down our lineup,” Mills said. “To make it out, we have to run our best race of the year one through five. There isn’t any doubt in my mind we have to run the best races of the year for us to compete there.”

Lake Central, Valparaiso, Crown Point, West Lafayette, LaPorte, Lowell, Munster and Chesterton are all ranked ahead of Warsaw and all will be at full speed. Regional champions bringing in the top times are Daniel Dalton of Valpo (15:45), Theo Burgwald of Munster (15:54), Cooper Williams of West Lafayette (15:56) and Wesley Meyer of Rochester (16:00).

The Warsaw girls, ranked No. 9, are in a slightly better position coming into the semi-state. Having rested three of its top runners in both the sectional, then the regional, Warsaw head coach Scott Erba is happy to put his varsity lineup back together. Regional champion Mia Beckham and sectional champion Allison Miller will lead the group, with regional runner-up Anna Craig, Hannah Dawson, Brooke Rhodes, Emma Hayward and Claire Kehler completing the powerful lineup.

The individual crop will be super competitive in the girls race as well, led by West Lafayette’s Lauren Johnson, running an eye-popping 18:02 at the regional, along with regional champs Logan Ferngren of Valpo (18:20), Hannah Wylie of Crown Point (18:34) and Beckham’s 18:53. Look for LaPorte, Lake Central, Warsaw, Valparaiso, West Lafayette and Portage all to be in the team hunt.

But Warsaw’s overall depth from its team roster will likely allow the team to not have to lean upon Beckham and Miller to run out of their comfort zones.

Triton sophomore Baylee McIntire will run in her second semi-state this Saturday at the New Prairie Semi-state. (Photo by Mike Deak)

“It will be an absolute battle and it will take an exceptional team effort to not only advance to state, but to place in the top three or take the New Prairie title,” Erba said. “I believe we have six teams from this semi-state that can finish in the top 12 at the state meet in two weeks. It is the deepest and most competitive semi-state I have seen in a long time.”

Manchester’s girls team, which took second at the Culver Academy Regional, will also run led by RaeCee Bedke’s fourth-place finish. Rochester’s boys team, with Meyer as champ and Eli Pugh fifth, qualified for the boys semi-state.

Triton’s Baylee McIntire will run in her second semi-state as a sophomore, barely getting in as the tenth runner. Senior Jesse Floor of Tippecanoe Valley will also compete, qualifying sixth from the regional.

At New Haven, several area teams are alive including both the boys and girls teams from Northridge, Penn and Mishawaka, as well as Concord and Marian girls and Goshen and NorthWood boys teams. Westview and West Noble also have boys teams running at New Haven, which runs at the IPFW course.

Wawasee’s Elizabeth Zorn was the lone runner from Syracuse to break through to the semi-state round, taking the tenth spot at the Elkhart Central Regional and just a second faster than the next competitor. The junior is thrilled for another chance to compete.

“My freshman year I didn’t do that well on the course, but the most challenging part is this back stretch in the woods,” Zorn said, who ran with the Wawasee team at semi-state in 2013. “I have to really focus during that part of the race because it’s somewhere that you can really get separated from people. I don’t want that to happen. That’s going to be one of my goals, keeping up with more people.”

The New Prairie Semi-state will begin at 11:30 a.m. (EST) and the New Haven Semi-state will start at 1 p.m.