Wawasee Track: Panther Leaders Pace A Win
NAPPANEE – As Wawasee girls track head coach Scott Lancaster rallied his troops on the hallowed Andrews Field turf, a message was clear to his young and impressionable team. Let Tuesday be a lesson going forward.
NorthWood used double wins from Kenzie Moren, Erika Stutzman, Taitlyn Trenshaw and Riley Hershberger plus a fine showing in relays to take a 78-54 win against the Warriors.
Stutzman was outstanding in the meet, taking the 800 at 2:34.54 and the mile at 5:47.11, easily outpacing Elizabeth Zorn in the 800 and Aubrey Kuhn in the mile. Stutzman then ran a very impressive first leg of the winning 4×400 relay, to which Hershberger, Trenshaw and Kali Parisi closed out a 4:18.03 win. Stutzman, Kali Parisi, Lexi Parisi and Kate Jarvis opened the meet with a 10:30.21 win in the 4×800 relay.
Hershberger got the best of Hannah-Marie Lamle in both the 100 (16.55) and 300 hurdles (47.82).
Moren claimed the 100 (13.49) and 200 (29.35), bringing teammates Trenshaw and Lexi Parisi with her in the two races.
Trenshaw led the long jumpers at 15-07.5 and the high jumpers at 4-4, besting Lamle on jumps. Andrea Tuttle added another NorthWood win in the pole vault with an 8-0 clearance.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen and a lot of first-time athletes out here, and when you run into a team like NorthWood that has a lot of frontline talent like they have, we’ll see results like tonight,” Lancaster said. “It’s a learning curve, and we’re still learning what a lot of them can do and get them into the spots that will best suit their needs and ours in May.”
Wawasee, competing outdoors for the first time since March 15, did have some bright spots on the results sheets. Kenzie Smith led the 400 race throughout and ran away with a 1:05.04 win, outrunning Moren down the stretch. The 4×100 relay team of Adriene Gill, Skylar Janda, Casey Schroeder, and Jada Parzygnot easily won the 4×100 relay at 54.10 and Zorn, who had a very busy day running the mile, two mile, 4×800 relay and the JV 4×400 relay, laid claim to a win in the two mile with a time of 12:24.07.
“Going in, we know we won’t be as fast as some teams in events, so it takes the pressure off to put someone like Elizabeth (Zorn) in all those events,” Lancaster said. “We can use our meets as part of her training to get her to the conference and sectionals. These can be measuring sticks, and she is working really, really hard to make herself competitive in these events.”
Wawasee throws were very solid, with top fours in both discus and shot put. Alexis Mangas went big on her first throw and claimed victory with a 110-09 toss in discus, and Katlyn Kennedy easily paced shot put with a send of 37-00.50. Grace Ondrla in shot put and Brooklyn McCulloch in discus gave Wawasee a pair of runner-up finishes to build upon.
“Mangas has worked really hard in the discus, and has been a little surprising,” Lancaster said, noting she has blown past expectations from a season ago. “She just struggled last year, but has really jumped out of the gate here early. She is very close to being consistent and putting the discus out there over 110 every time out.”
Wawasee (0-2, 0-1 NLC) will compete next Tuesday in an NLC triangular at Concord and with Memorial.