NLC Track: Warsaw Adds More To Showcase
WARSAW – Warsaw wasn’t dominant, but was solid enough overall to claim yet another pair of Northern Lakes Conference track team championships Tuesday.
The Tigers won five boys events and had three runner-up showings to claim its seventh straight team trophy while the Lady Tigers also had five individual event champions and a pair of runner-up placings to grab its 12th straight conference championship.
The dominance in the history books, which has the boys and girls programs now winners of a combined 108 straight NLC dual meets and ‘champion’ next to its name for the entire decade, Warsaw had to get creative to stack its points.
Warsaw’s distance came through in a meet that had Mia Beckham win the mile and two-mile races in times of 5:11.90 and 11:19.64, but was pushed heavily in both races by Memorial’s Morgan Dyer, a sprint to the finish in the two-mile race. The 4×800 relay and the 4×400 relay teams claimed honors, the distance at 9:34.67 going away and the capper at 4:02.15.
High jump had the Tiger duo of Alexie Day (5-4) and Morgan Bruner (5-3) take the top two spots to gain valuable points, and Anna Craig added a runner-up sprint in the 800 at 2:24.00, just shy of NorthWood’s Erica Stutsman, who won the race comfortably at 2:19.47.
Warsaw used six third-place finishes to pad its latest championship, a 158.5-125 apex over Concord.
Wawasee wasn’t close in the team standings, placing seventh, but had two champions in field events. Hannah-Marie Lamle sailed 15-9 to win the long jump, and also had a decent night in hurdles, placing second in the 300 (49.65) and third in the 100 (17.20). Alexis Mangas upset the top seed, Plymouth’s Nicole Horvath, in discus with a winning 115-10, a foot longer than Horvath.
Jada Parzygnot added another highlight in field events by going 9-8 in pole vault, which matched Northridge’s Rylee Dahlman, but Dahlman getting the height first to lay claim to the notation.
Stutsman helped NorthWood to a third-place run in the 4×400 with a time of 4:09.58. The Lady Panthers finished eighth in the team standings.
The Warsaw boys carried a similar M-O to the girls, using mile and two-mile wins from Zeb Hernandez at 4:30.71 and 9:51.12, both races needing to pull away in the final stretch to get the wins. The speed duo of Rane Kilburn and Tristan Larsh came through, Kilburn an 11.39 in the 100 to get NorthWood’s Brayton Yoder by a lean, and Larsh a 22.89 in the 200, also needing the lean to beat Northridge’s Ben Zuercher by four one-hundredths.
Kendal Miller in the 300 hurdles (41.96), Justin Fleming in the 800 (2:01.25) and Dalton Smoker in the shot put (49-8) all were runner-ups for the Tigers.
NorthWood had Jacob Stump pull the double, taking both hurdle events at 15.25 and 41.44, the 300 a shocker from lane two.
Bronson Yoder won the long jump with a sail of 21-1 with teammate Austin Shapland second at 20-0. Shapland stayed over in the southwest corner of the complex and went 13-0 to take second in the pole vault. Caleb Darr was second behind Hernandez in the mile at 4:33.08.
Wawasee’s top moment came in the 800, where Luke Griner pulled into the lead after the first turn and fought to keep it. Coming around the final 100 meters, Griner dug deep to hold off Fleming to win the race at 1:59.69 for the only title for the Warriors.
Griner helped the 4×800 relay to a third-place time of 8:15.83 and Brady Robinson was third in pole vault at 11-6, matching his career best.
Warsaw had 168 points, well clear of Northridge’s 125.5. NorthWood placed third at 103, one ahead of Goshen and two clear of Concord. Wawasee was eighth.
The lone record to go down was by Plymouth’s Nate Patterson, who topped his own mark in the high jump. The high flyer had jumped 6-11.75 last year, and made 7-0 look easy on his first try at the height Tuesday. Going for 7-2 with an audience well over 100 surrounding the high jump pit, Patterson nearly got it on his first attempt, but didn’t get close on his final two tries, still the only person in NLC history to clear seven feet.