SYRACUSE — It was Wawasee versus Warsaw. Throughout the pantheon of history, those three words should have harkened extra security and sharp demands for divide and conquer.

The mood Tuesday on the Wawasee cross country course, however, was anything but hostile. In fact, the double win by Warsaw in the boys and girls races was celebrated by both teams who were racing less against the opponent’s jersey colors and more against the stopwatches by the handful of coaches for the respective programs.

In continuing with the theme of rivalry, Warsaw did accomplish its goal in beating its county rivals, the Warsaw girls winning 24-33 and the Tiger boys 20-41, but none of the three coaches seemed to mind. It was more about the times on the stat sheets that took center stage as the Northern Lakes Conference tournament, to be run Sept. 29 at Ox Bow Park, draws near.

“I’m really pumped, we knew coming in Warsaw on both sides were very strong. It wasn’t about trying to beating them, it was about individually running your best race,” said an ecstatic Jerid Stoffel, coach for both Wawasee programs. “If everyone did that as a team, we would be very pleased with ourselves. They were just awesome.”

Warsaw girls coach Scott Erba also held the same sentiment following the girls cool down. With his team gathered near the high school during post-meet stretches, Erba announced 14 girls ran personal bests among a handful of team goals that were met Tuesday night.

“The girls came out and ran phenomenal tonight,” coach Erba said. “We had some girls drop 10-15 seconds, and some girls not run this fast in over a year. It’s exciting to see the expressions on their faces, to see them enjoy running after all the work that they do.

“To see them finally break through, and get that best time, now I think we’ll see some of these girls smile a little more and really begin to enjoy what they are doing. All the work is paying off, all the training, we could see some of that confidence build tonight.”

Highlighting the girls race was, who else, but Ashley Erba. Following up on an unbelievable weekend where Erba ran the sixth-fastest time in the nation at 17:25 at the New Prairie Invitational but finished second to Mishawaka sophomore Anna Rohrer, who ran the fourth-fastest time in the country at 17:14, Erba looked sharp and focused Tuesday. Pacing with teammate Sarah Ray for over a mile of the course, Erba quickly sped ahead and ran unopposed for the second half of the race.

Erba finished with a time of 17:43, which made Ray’s second-place finish of 18:51 look pedestrian, but actually had coach Erba nearly jumping at the finish line. Shortly behind Ray was Wawasee’s Courtney Linnemeier, who had a big race with a 19:32, followed by Warsaw’s Hannah Dawson at 19:56 and the Wawasee trio of Bre Robinson (19:58), Jen Slabaugh (20:13) and Madison Miller (20:18).

Warsaw, currently ranked No. 14 in the girls cross country poll, made up the difference on the score sheet with the next 11 places, which proved too deep for Wawasee to overcome despite the big night from its own roster, which posted nine personal records.

“Tonight everyone either ran a season best or a personal record, everyone was just flying tonight,” Stoffel said. “Madison had over a minute PR and really stepped up running with the top three. Bre, it was the first time she was under 20 (minutes).”

The boys race was just as exciting for those monitoring the progress. Tiger Ellis Coon jumped out in front of a massive field that had 63 runners, largely Warsaw’s deep roster. As Coon began to separate at the halfway point of the race, teammate Robert Murphy began to move with Coon to the front of the pack. Ellis’ final time of 16:04 had Murphy just off the pace at 16:06, a good 12 seconds in front of Wawasee’s top dog, Reid Stichter, who finished at 16:18.

Warsaw’s pack would decide the race, which kept in front of Wawasee’s quartet of sprinters for much of the meet. Warsaw took six of the next seven places behind Stichter, led by Brysten James at 16:22 in fourth place.

Warsaw coach Jim Mills’ No. 4-ranked boys team ran without the services of Jacob Poyner, who won the New Prairie Invite last Saturday but had a college visit late Monday, as well as Ismael Calderon, who has impacted the varsity this season.

“I’m thrilled to death,” Mills said. “I look all the way back to our middle pack runners. We had guys run minute PRs and some of our top guys that run in the low to middle 17s cracked 17 today. I’m guessing now that we have 10 or 11 guys that are running under 17 minutes right now.”

Stoffel was still happy with the boys times despite the loss to its chief rival. Wawasee had all but one of its 18 runners achieve a personal best.

“Reid crushed his PR, we just stepped up and wanted to race, I’m pretty pleased,” Stoffel said.

The double win for Warsaw (both 5-0 in the NLC) sets up a big-time showdown in the conference to conclude the regular season. After the Culver Academy Invitational this Saturday, Warsaw will travel to Stauffer Park in Nappanee next Tuesday for a triangular with NorthWood and Northridge. The Raider girls team are ranked No. 9 in the state and the Raider boys are currently No. 13 in the most recent poll.

“This is different for us,” laughed Mills about heading into big races ahead of the conference meet. “We’ve always been fighting our way up through the conference and I noticed the state rankings has us number four today. That’s something we’ve not dealt with. So now, we approach meets a little bit different now than what we did in the past. It’s fun, the guys are having fun and working hard.”

Boys: Warsaw 20, Wawasee 41
Girls: Warsaw 24, Wawasee 33

Warsaw Boys Top 10:
1. Ellis Coon 16:04
2. Robert Murphy 16:06
4. Brysten James 16:22
6. Michael Compton 16:52
7. Nate Haller 16:54
8. Daniel Messenger 16:58
9. Tyler Houvener 16:59
10. Owen Glogovsky 17:01
16. Dominic Kurosky 17:40
17. Ryan Goon 17:42

Wawasee Boys Top 10:
3. Reid Stichter 16:18
5. Adam Doll 16:47
11. Zach Cockrill 17:03
12. Austin Yoder 17:15
13. Troy Carolus 17:15
14. Austin Krizman 17:19
15. Joey Bornman 17:39
19. Jaxon Bame 17:46
21. Bailey Yoder 17:50
24. Jacob Tucco 18:00

Warsaw Girls Top 10:
1. Ashley Erba 17:43
2. Sarah Ray 18:51
4. Hannah Dawson 19:56
8. Emma Hayward 20:30
9. Madeline Hooks 20:33
10. Brooke Rhodes 21:31
11. Hannah Thompson 21:35
12. Cynthia Yoder 21:40
13. Tennie Worrell 21:52
14. Claire Kehler 22:11

Wawasee Girls Top 10:
3. Courtney Linnemeier 19:32
5. Bre Robinson 19:58
6. Jen Slabaugh 20:13
7. Madison Miller 20:18
19. Becky Snavely 22:56
21. Megan Rhodes 23:30
22. Emma Donahoe 23:31
24. Ruby Minnick 26:06
25. Taylor Busse 26:15
26. Brooke-Lynn Whetten 26:23