WARSAW – Choosing individuals to head up our selections for the Ink Free News All-IFN Top 10 was not easy, as so many of the worthy selections had full résumés. Some tipped in favor of one sport with a lesser second sport, others were just good at everything they did. The recipient of our Athlete of the Year – Wawasee’s Elisha Tipping – was an All-State performer in two sports and was on the cusp of a third. Congrats to all the athletes on fine seasons, and here’s to a wonderfully performed 2017-18 athletic season.

5. All The Way Around – Emma Bohnenkamper spent her entire senior year playing an important part for a trio of WCHS athletic programs.

The Warsaw three-sport standout made her mark in impressive fashion as a distance ace in both cross country and track and in between as a very important cog on the basketball court.

Bohnenkamper capped her terrific senior year by placing 27th in the 1,600 at the Track State Finals in early June. She earned he war there after winning her specialty at the Kokomo Regional, that coming after a second-place finish in the event at the Warsaw Sectional.

Bohnenkamper helped first-year WCHS girls track coach Megan Davis collect the program’s 13th straight NLC championship before adding its 12th straight sectional title and seventh consecutive regional crown this Spring.

Bohnenkamper was second overall at the Culver Academy Sectional last fall for coach Matt Campbell’s cross country team. She then placed fourth overall the following week at the Culver Academy Regional. Warsaw won the team championships at both the sectional and regional levels again in 2017. The cross country team was also second at the NLC Meet and ninth at the New Prairie Semistate.

Bohnenkamper was also a pivotal force on the hardwood for coach Lenny Krebs’ first Warsaw team. She helped lead a young team, which had lost six seniors from the previous season, to an impressive 15-9 record.

Bohnenkamper’s contributions did not go unnoticed. She received the WCHS Female Career Athlete Award for earning the most varsity letters of any young lady in her class. She was also honored with a Pete Thorn Award for lettering in three sports as a senior and was also presented with the WCHS Girls Basketball Award for her efforts off the court.

4. In The Swing Of Things – NorthWood senior Brant Mast was equally comfortable wielding either a tennis racket or a baseball bat for the Panthers this year, and he earned himself the hardware to prove it.

Half of the first NorthWood pairing to earn a state tennis berth, Mast and partner Jared Hoffman ran off a stellar 25-3 record at the No. 1 doubles position in the fall, winning All-Northern Lakes Conference honors avenging one of two regular-season losses at the conference tournament for the title at their position before going on to reprise the other of those losses in the sectional tourney, then going on to win a LaPorte Regional championship in the IHSAA state doubles tournament via a 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over Chesterton’s Blake Ellenwood and Chad Whelan before bowing out at the finals in Indianapolis. To make that finish even more impressive, the duo earned their accolades over a season in which the NorthWood boys tennis team was without a home, with construction on the Panthers’ home court falling far behind schedule and then their chosen back-up venue falling through.

Mast was one of the best producers at the plate this spring for a NorthWood baseball team that amassed a 22-5 record, clinched a share of the NLC title and collected a sixth straight sectional championship in head coach A.J. Risedorph’s first year at the helm. Over that campaign, the middle infielder batted .393 with 84 runs scored, 30 RBIs and homered four times on his way to a team-best .642 slugging percentage, including a three-run shot in the fourth inning of the Panthers’ 10-0, five-inning sectional championship victory over host Lakeland, where Mast also provided the walk-off with a two-run single in the fifth. He was just as good at second base, recording a .967 fielding percentage with 43 put-outs and 44 assisted outs over the year for the NorthWood defense.

3. Big Sis Getting It Done – If one were being honest, Mia Beckham seems like she has been at Warsaw for the past 10 years. When someone has been as good as they have at a high level in varsity play as long as Beckham has, it just seems like she’s been doing it forever.

Beckham came on as a freshman in the Warsaw cross country program four years ago and immediately left her mark, and this year was another showcase for the Butler-bound runner. Her legacy in cross country was cemented after winning her third straight Northern Lakes Conference Championship, but would win her first and only sectional title a week later at Culver Academy, only because she hadn’t run in the sectional race until this year after being held out of the others for rest. A week after that, she won the Culver Academy Regional for the third straight year.

Her cross country season continued with a third-place run at the New Prairie Semi-state gauntlet and culminated with a 45th-place finish at the IHSAA State Finals, running a 19-flat race at the Gibson layout.

The spring was just as dominant for Beckham, who grabbed the NLC titles in both the 1,600 and 3,200 double then claimed honors in the 1,600 at the sectional. She was runner-up in the mile at the regional to teammate Emma Bohnenkamper and won the two-mile, culminating with her fourth-straight year of running at the IHSAA State Finals, where she was 12th in the mile and 22nd in the two-mile.

Mia also got the privilege of running with her two sisters, junior Remi and freshman Adree, in both cross country and track seasons. All three competed at the IHSAA Girls Track State Finals in different events.

2. Finally Able To Breathe – Some have said they would prefer to go out swinging. For Caleb Lung, he did just that. The NorthWood senior rode the success of a big basketball season right into an equally vibrant boys golf season to leave his mark as one of NorthWood’s finest.

On the hardwood, Lung was deadly with the ball in his hands. A pure shooter, Lung made over 64 percent of his shots taken, forcing defenses to account for him at all times from all parts of the court. His 14 points and seven rebounds per game were team bests on a roster that had upwards of seven players serving as major contributors on a night-in, night-out basis. He also moved the ball around well, dishing over two assists per game. Lung was a big part of the resurgence the Panther program has seen, helping the program to an 18-6 mark last season and its third regional appearance in four years.

Golf this spring helped Lung further his standing as one of the top athletes in the area. Lung showed a lot of moxie in winning medalist honors at the Northern Lakes Conference Championships, winning a one-hole playoff to buoy his 76, then did himself one better – well, four, in fact, to card a 72 and medalist honors again at the Northridge Sectional. While Lung didn’t make it to the state finals, finishing a minuscule one stroke out of individual contention with a 76 at Warsaw last week, his season was full of high points and his impression will last for a long time.

1. Tipping The Scales – Andre Dawson. Mike Trout. Cal Ripken. Wayne Gretzky. Barry Sanders. What do all of these athletes have in common? They all were the Most Valuable Players in their leagues despite playing for underperforming teams. The same could be said for Wawasee’s Elisha Tipping, who was voted as our Ink Free News Athlete of the Year despite working for two of his three teams that were underwhelming.

Tipping was an outstanding two-way football player, voted an All-State offensive lineman on a team that started its season 1-6 and finished 3-7 overall. Wrestling was another story, and we’ll get to that. Track didn’t go as hoped from the team side as Wawasee went 0-7 in the round robin. But track doesn’t necessarily celebrate team as much as individual, and singularly, Tipping was one of the best in his two disciplines.

Coming to Wawasee from Ohio as a junior, Tipping immediately made an impact on the offensive and defensive lines in football and was looked upon as a senior to not only anchor the line, but to captain the team as well. With new head coach Mike Eshbach coming on board in replacing Josh Ekovich, Tipping was asked to take on more of a role as Eshbach got settled into his new digs. Tipping, who is the eighth of 10 brothers and sisters, naturally gravitated to the role of sheep herder.

“There are 10 kids in my family, and I’ve worked since I was nine,” Tipping said, who started out bailing hay and now holds a full-time job with Parker Hannifin in Syracuse. “If things happen, I can take them on by myself. I’ve grown up doing it bouncing from home to home. Being a captain this year for football was natural for me. The first half of the year was tough for me, though, because I was worried about everyone and everything. After that, though, I kinda settled in and became more of myself.”

Monster games against Elkhart Memorial and Goshen (15 tackles and a sack) to end the regular season helped Wawasee earn a pair of NLC wins, which carried into the winter season and wrestling, which really helped put Tipping on the map.

The top-ranked Warriors barnstormed through the regular season, going 27-1, Tipping earning the top seed in the NLC tournament, to which he finished the deal and won the NLC championship. Tipping later was the runner-up at the Plymouth Sectional and fourth at both the Penn Regional and East Chicago Semi-state, getting Tipping to the IHSAA State Finals, where the big boy won his Friday night match to make it to the podium round. He wrapped up a sixth-place finish at 285 pounds by going 2-2 in Indianapolis, making the podium as a proud young man.

“After the LaPorte Duals, we really felt like we had something,” Tipping said of his team, which at that point were 15-0 in dual matches and soon to head to IHSWCA Team State, where Wawasee would win the Class 2-A bracket. “It was really great to represent the wrestling team. We were getting the respect in the hallways. It was great to be bringing that magic back to the wrestling program again.”

Not to be outdone, Tipping joined the throws crew for boys track and, with “little” brother Isaiah (who has a couple inches of height on the 6’2″, 260-lb. Elisha) and truly littler sister Faith (five-foot-nothing and significantly lighter), had himself a nice spring. The Tipping brothers went 1-2 in shot put and Elisha was second in discus at the Goshen Relays, which springboarded Elisha to a strong finish. An All-NLC performer, Elisha won the NLC in discus and placed third in the event at the sectional and sixth at the regional to cap his prep career.

What was more becoming of Elisha’s spring above everything else was a promise he made to himself, where he wanted to graduate with honors. It wasn’t pretty, but a C in calculus got him the notation that will send him out of Syracuse on a high note.

He will continue his education in physical therapy and his athletics in football at Marian University in Indianapolis.

“Being from Wawasee, one of the things we always hear is that we suck at sports,” Tipping said with brutal honesty. “People asked me all the time why didn’t I go to Warsaw, or somewhere else. To be honest, I was happy with where I ended up. I stood out in school, I tried to be a good leader. We might have been 3-7 in football and 0-7 in track, but that’s not the point. It’s what you do with it. How do you respond to the adversity.

“I think this award reflects well on me and the work I’ve put in. It means a lot to be recognized like this. I talked to my older brother (Malachi) this spring about how I looked up to him when he was in school, and how I tried to be like him. He was a star. I don’t think I am a star by any stretch, but the hard work is paying off. I’m going to college to play football and I’ve left my mark at my high school. That’s all I can do.”