Warsaw’s Zeb Hernandez (left) and Caston’s Mitchell Rans (right) pace the pack early on during Saturday’s race. Rans won the sectional while Hernandez was second. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

CULVER — While things were close once again, it was still more of the same in the boys sectional race at Culver Academies.

The five-time defending champion Warsaw Tigers defended their reputation by making Culver their home away from home once more. Warsaw placed three runners in the top five, five in the top 13 and seven in the top 21 to total 36 team points. That total beat out an upset-minded Culver Academies 53 points. The last three team qualifying spots went to Rochester (72), Plymouth (96) and Caston (141). Triton took seventh as a team, missing the regional cut but did advance three runners to next week’s regional.

At the front of the pack it was a battle between Caston’s Mitchell Rans and Warsaw’s Zeb Hernandez. While the two were neck and neck for much of the trek, Rans would eventually gain an edge and Hernandez decided not to push matters too much. Rans took the individual title with a time of 15:59.5 while Hernandez settled for second at 16:09.1.

“Zeb got a little frustrated in the race,” explained Warsaw head coach Jim Mills. “I’m not going to go into what was going on out there, but I think you might see a different kind of race next week. It got to the point, near the end, where he just didn’t worry about it. I don’t want to say anymore about that.”

Whatever took place on the course with Hernandez and Rans will certainly be something to watch for at the regional. Mills later mentioned the expectations for his second and third runners, Xavi Ramirez and Lucas Howett and how the duo met those standards to help provide the sectional win.

Ramirez was fourth overall at 16:53.7 while Howett was fifth with a time of 16:56.8. Rochester’s Harrison Korkos (17:06.5) took sixth, the Zebras also took third with a 16:38 from Thomas Rohr. After Korkos’ finish, it was four straight runners from CMA.

Warsaw’s next two were Taylor Mills (17:45.7) and Justin Fleming (17:46.8), placing 12th and 13th, respectively. Nathaniel Gottschalk (17:56.9) and Thomas Lemon (18:08.6) rounded out the times for Warsaw.

This year’s results were once again close in the boys race. Last year Warsaw’ escaped with the title by nine point over Rochester, this year there was a larger margin of victory but the field still appeared to take a step closer to the Tigers. Mills attributes that to his team not quite hitting its potential yet.

“First of all, we haven’t run to our potential yet,” Mills stated. “It still takes five guys to run and we’ve got too big of a gap between four and three. That could change dramatically in one week, we just keep waiting for it to happen. Justin Fleming had PR today by 25 seconds, so he came out of nowhere. That’s the kind of team we’ve got. Our four, five, six guys, we’re just waiting for that break out race. Xavi is another one, I don’t think we’ve seen the best our of him.

“We’re still not there with our four and five, but they ran steady races. Sometimes you get out in no-mans land in races like this. They’ve just got to try and stay with our two and three guys a little longer. But, next week’s another race to get that.

“It’s a win, it doesn’t matter how dominant it was.”

Warsaw will return to Culver next week for the regional race along with the qualifying teams and individuals from Logansport. That is slated to start at 11:10 a.m.

TRITON

Triton’s Russel Reichard (left) and Bailey Watkins (right) both qualified for the regional.

Triton’s boys cross country team missed the cut Saturday morning, but the Trojans were pleased with advancing three individuals to next week’s regional.

Bailey Watkins led Triton for the length of the race and would punch his regional ticket with a final time of 18:45.3. That placed Watkins 29th overall. Russell Reichard was 30th overall with his time of 18:45.7. Reichard will join Watkins at the regional as well Josiah Page who clocked a 19:20.

Triton’s times were rounded out by Shaun Honeycutt (20:06.6), Brock Watkins (21:30.1), Ty Ferry (21:34.7) and Jeremiah Goodrich (23:51.1).

TIPPECANOE VALLEY

The Tippecanoe Valley boys cross country team scored 250 points and took ninth in Saturday’s 10-team meet.

Jared Mikel paced Valley by finishing 45th overall with his time of 20:24.1. Justin Peconga was right behind Mikel, taking 46th at 20:27.

Mitchell Smith (20:37.2), Colt Demske (21:08.4), Tristen Nuest (21:47), Evan Lowman (21:49.9) and Chevy Teeter (22:47.9) rounded out Valley’s pack of runners.