Paul Mendoza launches himself into first place in the long jump pit during Tuesday’s meet against East Noble. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE — It was the start of a new season and anticipation for what is to come only grew for the Wawasee boys track team Tuesday night. A very young and excited Warrior team left quite the impression on its coaches despite a 69-62 defeat at the hands of visiting East Noble.

“This is kind of like opening up a Christmas present,” said a pleased Scott Lancaster, Wawasee’s head coach. “Hopefully we don’t get the ugly Christmas sweater but instead the neat toy that we can do some things with. I think we unwrapped some neat toys tonight. That’s always pleasing because you like to see where you can go with certain people.”

Wawasee picked up first place finishes in six of Tuesday’s 16 events and highlighting as a part of two of those victories were some of the neat toys that Lancaster referred to.

Brady Robinson

Wawasee picked up its first win on the track in the 4×800 relay. Freshmen Spencer Hare, Ben Hoffert and Luke Griner joined junior Sam Griner to take first in the event with a time of 8:55.79, edging East Noble’s effort of 8:56.51. The younger Griner pulled away from the Knights’ anchor, Joe Vandiver, on the final lap to claim the victory for the home team.

It was another trio of freshmen and one junior that led Wawasee to its second and final relay win of the day. Hare, Griner and Dylan Hepler teamed up with upperclassman Cole VanLue to clock a 3:51.65 in the 4×400 relay to end the night. East Noble ran a second place time of 3:53.06. The freshmen were certainly impressing on the track, but so was VanLue.

Before helping the 4×4 relay team to victory, VanLue picked up two wins of his own. The junior took first in both the 100 meter dash (10.85) and 200 meter dash (23.47). VanLue also ran on the 4×100 relay team which took second with a time of 47.43. East Noble won that event with a 47.10.

“The times are never great at this point in the season,” Lancaster said. “But we did have a couple people pull some decent times like Cole VanLue in the 100 and 200 and Michael Katzer in the 100.

Dalton Pearish

“We were also surprised by Paul Mendoza with his performance in long jump. That was a nice surprise. Katzer also had a good night with long jump. That was an event where we really had a big question mark.”

Katzer took second with an 11.26 in the 100 dash. The junior jumped 18-9 to take second in long jump while Mendoza won the event with an impressive 19-3.

Brady Robinson took first in pole vault for the Warriors. The sophomore cleared an even 10 for the home team to win the event. Zac McKee (9-00) finished second for Wawasee.

Dylan Elpusan was second in discus for the Warrior with an 113-6 while Stephen Possell was second in shot with his throw longest throw of 37-10.

“The thing I was most proud of from our boys team tonight was that everywhere you looked, every event, they were fighting,” remarked Lancaster. “They were competing, they were fighting. If you were going to beat them it wasn’t because they were letting you run by them. That was the most pleasing thing I saw from the boys tonight.”

Kollin Bell (100 dash), Travis Harney (400 dash) and Dylan Hepler (200 dash) all picked up individual wins for the JV team Tuesday night. The JV 4×400 relay also won with the team of Jacob Hand, Erick Meier, Katzer and Chandler Ritter.

Wawasee (0-1) will host Columbia City Monday night.

Luke Griner (left) gets by Joe Vandiver to win the 4×800 relay for Wawasee.