Ross Armey competes in the 110 hurdles for the Tigers Friday night in the Max Truex Invitational at WCHS.

WARSAW – You better believe that Warsaw boys track coach Matt Thacker would have loved to win the Max Truex Invitational title Friday night.

But, there was a much bigger picture for the Tiger mentor in the 35th annual event hosted by his team at the Tigers Athletic Complex.

“The bottom line from tonight is that it’s about us getting better as a team and getting ready for the NLC, the sectional and the regional,” said Thacker after seeing his team place fifth in the eight-team event.

“We brought quality teams in here and we wanted to win, but it’s about getting pushed to get better. It is what it is tonight, but we got better this week, from the Southport Relays last Saturday to our meet at NorthWood Thursday night to tonight.

“The thing is that now we know where we are at as a team and we have answered a lot of questions. It’s important that we get some rest now and work towards the final NLC meet with Goshen and Memorial next Wednesday and then the NLC Meet after that and then the sectional.

“Everyone is gunning for us in the NLC and the sectional. They are tired of seeing us win. I know that Goshen will give us everything that we want next week. We will have to do a lot of good things to beat them. We’ll see. Hopefully, we just continue to go out and compete well like we have been.”

The Tigers were coming off a pair of NLC wins over host NorthWood and Plymouth Thursday night.

Tristan Larsh competes in the long jump for Warsaw.

No. 5 Carroll, fresh off a championship performance to win the Class A title at the Goshen Relays last Saturday, won the title Friday night with 125 points. Valparaiso was runner-up with 97 points, followed by LaPorte (78), Homestead (78), Warsaw (74), Penn (71), Hobart (59) and Fort Wayne Wayne (28).

Each team competing Friday night was able to enter two individuals in each event. Those two times, distances or heights were then combined to determine the placings for each event.

The top effort of the night for the Tigers came in the high jump. The duo of Brock Riley and Luke Wilson paired to clear 12-3 to tie for first place. Riley cleared 6-3 and Wilson went 6-0.

The duo of Landan Perry and Tristan Larsh combined for a second place finish in the 400 with a time of 1:44.91. Perry clocked in at 51.82 and Larsh was at 53.09.

Brandon Reinholt and Alijah Wade were second in the 200 with a time of 46.66. The duo of Dylan Childers (137) and Jaceb Burish (133-10) were third in the discus with a combined effort of 270-10.

The duo of Ross Armey and Ridley Lemon were fourth in the 300 hurdles and Armey and Trevor York were fifth in the 110 hurdles. The pair of Brandon Reinholt and Will McGarvey were fourth in the 100 and the duo of Lucas Cone and Lemon were fourth in the pole vault.

The duo of Zeb Hernandez and Lucas Howett placed fifth in the 3,200, while Owen Glogovsky and William Robison were fifth in the 1,600. The pair of Xavi Ramirez and Trent Thompson were seventh in the 800.

The Tigers had a couple of tough events as they scratched and did not place in both the long jump and the shot put competitions.

“In the field events, we competed well,” added Thacker. “We scratched out in the shot put, which is uncharacteristic for us. But if it’s going to happen, it’s better that it happens now rather than in the conference meet. We also scratched out in the long jump as well. It’s gonna happen. We have to learn from it and get better and we will.”

The Carroll trio of Justin Becker (Outstanding Sprinter), Cameron Clements (Outstanding Distance) and James Jamicich (Outstanding Field Event) led the Chargers to the team title and earned top individual honors. Becker was first in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes and ran on the winning 4 X 100 relay team. Clements set a new record in the 3,200 in 9:07.63 and was on the first-place 3,200 relay team. Jamicich was on the first-place shot put team and the second-place discus duo.

Warsaw, which is 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the NLC, will close out the regular season next Wednesday versus Elkhart Memorial and Goshen in an NLC triangular at Goshen.  Goshen defeated Northridge and Wawasee in NLC action Thursday night to improve to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in league competition.

The Tigers, who have won 39 straight NLC meets dating back to 2011, will then host the NLC Championships on May 10 and take part in the Goshen Sectional on May 19. Warsaw is the defending champions in both of those events, including having won five straight sectional titles.