Luke Griner of Wawase won a sectional title in the 800 Thursday night.

GOSHEN – Maybe the toughest thing that Wawasee boys track coach Scott Lancaster has had to do this Spring with Luke Griner is reign him in.

Griner, whom Lancaster described as a “wild pony”, reigned himself in a sectional championship Thursday night.

The stellar sophomore was the cream of the crop in the 800 at the Goshen Sectional contested at Foreman Field.

Griner lived up to his lofty status as the top seed in his specialty as he clocked in a championship effort of 1:58.15 to outdistance runner-up Brady Willard of Fairfield (1:58.45).

Griner was not even originally announced in the top eight of his event as a glitch in the timing system failed to record his time properly.

That sent his still shifty coach scurrying across the Foreman Field turf to make sure that sectional officials had corrected the initial error.

“I got my exercise in running across there,” joked Lancaster, who was teased by several of his fellow coaches for his mad dash. “There are two timing systems and the one showed Luke at 2:12.”

Lancaster said that the competition in the Northern Lakes Conference had paid dividends for Griner.

“The NLC has some very good 800 runners and Luke has been challenged week in and week out,” noted Lancaster. “He has not disappointed all season.

“The thing about Luke is that he wants to do everything. He’s kind of like a wild pony that we needed to reign in and push him to the area where he was best suited to compete.

“He came in here tonight as the top seed, but you never know what will happen. We knew it would be a good fast race with the Fairfield guys fresh and the Warsaw guy pushed him last week at the NLC Meet. Our goal was a top three finish to move him  on to the regional.”

Griner won the 800 title at the conference meet last week in 1:59.69. He was the top sectional seed for Thursday night with a time of 1:59.07.

The top three finishers in each event advance to the Kokomo Regional on May 25.

Warsaw won the team title for the seventh straight season Thursday night as the Tigers totaled 101 points. Goshen was second with 94 points with Northridge and Elkhart Central tying for third place with 78 points each. Concord was fifth with 51 points, followed byFairfield (43.5), Columbia City (38), Jimtown (29), Elkhart Memorial (26), Elkhart Christian Academy (19.5) and Wawasee (18).

Junior Brady Robinson placed seventh in the pole vault for the Warriors. Wawasee also scored points in all three relay races. The relay team of Luke Griner, senior Sam Griner and freshmen Spencer Hare and Michael Hammer was sixth in the  4 X 800, while the foursome of Eric Yankosky, Michael Katzer, Keyon Peete and Dylan Hepler-Fink was seventh in the 4 X 100 relay and the quartet of Yankosky, Peete, Sam Griner and Luke Griner were eighth in the 4 X 800 relay event.

Bronson Yoder was third in the long jump for NorthWood.

NorthWood was led by its runner-up 4 X 100 relay team. The quartet of senior Garrett Griffin, juniors Brayton Yoder and Terrell Pratcher and sophomore Landon Parker was second to Warsaw.

The Panthers also had several strong individual performances to earn top three finishes and regional qualifying spots.

Senior Jacob Stump was third in the 110 hurdles for NorthWood. Senior Caleb Darr was third in the 1,600 with Griffin placing third in the 400 on the track for the Panthers.

Sophomore Bronson Yoder led the field events as he placed third in the long jump for NorthWood. Senior Austin Shepherd was third in the pole vault for the Panthers.

Elkhart Central standout JT Webb has a huge night in showcasing his athletic ability. The senior won the 100 in 11.12, soared 22-03 to claim the long jump title and was third in the 200.

Goshen’s Josuel Sanchez stepped up big time to win both hurdles races. The senior took the 110 event in 15.09 and then won the 300 in 40.93.

Also claiming championships on the track were the Northridge team of Tanner Sallee, Noah Detweiler, Andy Kauffman and Logan Riffle in the 4 X 800 relay (8:11.80), Tristan Larsh of Warsaw in the 200 (22.79), Zeb Hernandez of Warsaw in the 1,600 (4:32.33),  Warsaw’s team of Rane Kilburn, Will McGarvey, Alijah Wade and Larsh in the 4 X 100 relay (42.63), Ben Zuercher of Northridge in the 400 (49.85), Landon Miller of Fairfield in the 3,200 (9:46.95) and the Warsaw team of Kilburn, Wade, Ridley Lemon and D’Andre Street in the 4 X 400 relay (3:27.28).

Sectional champions in the field events were Webb in the long jump, Alex Scharpenberg of Columbia City in the high jump (6-5), Bailey Lang of Northridge in the discus (155-03), Brock Tauteris of Goshen in the shot put (50-10) and Lucas DeMoya of Goshen in the pole vault (14-04).

Caleb Newcomer of NorthWood.

Luke Griner takes off in the 800.