NorthWood’s girls get fired up prior to the start of the Warsaw Invitational last week. The Lady Panthers defended their title at their home invite Saturday. (File photo by James Costello)

NAPPANEE — NorthWood’s girls cross country team won their home invitational for the second year in a row Saturday, and Wawasee’s boys finished second behind Concord in their race.

The Lady Panthers finished with a score of 61 points, edging out Concord by four for the title, while Wawasee’s girls finished with 75 points for third place.

Pacing NorthWood was Whitney Wolfe with a 21:57.61 time for fourth place individually. Hannah Brubaker placed 10th with a 22:45.81, Jennifer Martinez was 12th in 23:09.04, Reese Barhydt finished 17th in 23:28.03, and Laura Schrock was 20th in 23:32.10 as all of the Panthers’ top five finished within under two minutes of one another.

McKenzie Smith finished third for Wawasee with a time of 21:17.82, and Emma Ebright was ninth in 22:35.18. Bailey Mayhew turned in a 23:29.80 stop for 18th place, Ella Beazley was 24th in 23:41.17, and Cammy Kryder was 26th in 23:52.64.

In the boys race, Spencer Hare placed second in a 17:15.75 time, just five seconds back of winner Luke Owings of Concord. Michael Hammer was ninth behind his Wawasee teammate in 18:29.73, Thomas Conley finished 11th in 18:41.92, Jace Alexander was 17th in 19:03.81, and Karlson Hand was 21st in 19:07.58.

NorthWood, which was third on the boys’ side with 73 points, was paced by Tyler Evers in 18:11.71, good enough for sixth place. Garrett Myers finished and Stephen Schmidt placed 14th and 15th, respectively, in 18:53.25 and 18:59.48. Sam Schlatter was 18th in 19:03.88, and Brady Hunsberger was 20th in 19:05.57.

Triton’s boys finished sixth in the team standings with a 207 score, meanwhile.

Russell Reichard entered the chute first for the Trojans in 29th place in a time of 19:47.35. Brandon Kitch was 34th in 19:55.8, Jesse and Josiah Page placed 48th and 49th, respectively, in 20:35.67 and 20:37.26, and Breighton Treesh was 61st in 21:55.41.

Triton’s girls also ran but were unable to field a full team. Briana Wilhite clocked 24:19.85 for 30th place, Makenna May was 49th in 27:02.97, and Annie Hill was 56th in 28:53.3.

Wawasee’s JV girls won their side of the meet, with a score of 25 ahead of NorthWood’s 43.

Lily Tyler finished third in 24:27.82 and she was followed in order by Devin Haskins, Caitlin Wortinger, Katlin VanFleeren and Mariah Hurst in fourth through seventh place with respective times of 24:38.66, 24:48.4, 25:02.02 and 25:06.37 for the pack-running JV Lady Warriors.

Morgan Jenkins won the JV girls race for Wood in a time of 24:08.7. Abigail Vorhis was eighth in 25:06.87, Molly Smith finished 11th in 25:49.7, Karlie Fielstra was 11th in 25:52.16, and Riley Hershberger was 13th in 26:21.95.

The hosts won the JV boys meet with a score of 30.

Jordan Mitschelen was second overall in a time of 19:18.16, while Grady Stevenson and Quinten Hunsberger were fourth and fifth, respectively, in 19:41.37 and 19:46.33. Daniel Hochstetler was eighth in 19:58.4, and Weston Miller was 12th in 20:18.1.