DeKalb’s Tyler Schwartz won Saturday’s individual title at the New Haven Semi-State. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

FORT WAYNE — It was the end of the road for the Wawasee girls cross country team Saturday afternoon at the New Haven Semi-State. The ladies were lost in the shuffle of a very competitive field and were unable to advance in their first semi-state trip since 2013.

Carroll claimed its 10th all-time title and seventh in the last eight years, placing its top five runners in the top 22 overall. Homestead, Penn, Northridge, Pendleton Heights and East Noble all moved on to next week’s state meet. Wawasee took 17th overall in the 20-team field.

“We had very similar times to where we were in the regional,” said Wawasee head coach Doug Slabugh. “I think you could say we had a pretty average day. We didn’t tank, we didn’t have a bad day. It was just average. No PRs today. Elizabeth (Zorn) broke 20 again for only the second time in her career, that was a big positive.”

Zorn qualified for semi-state as an individual last year and ran a 21:36.46. The senior greatly improved upon that mark in this year’s meet, pacing the Warriors with a 19:59.32.

Zorn trailed teammate Kenzie Smith for much for the race but made a strong push down the final straightaway to pass Smith for the team’s top time. Smith, a sophomore, finished three spots behind Zorn with a 20:03.11.

There was not much “pack running” for Wawasee at Saturday’s meet. The girls were broken up and running mostly on their own for much of the race. That hurt the final results for Wawasee, but figuring out how to improve the pack will require adding depth and that’s Slabaugh’s biggest goal for next year.

“We have to add depth and that starts with bigger numbers,” Slabugh stated. “We’ve got to hit the halls and get kids from the middle school. I’d love to have 20 or more runners next year. With numbers, that creates competition. Competition helps the cream rise to the top. That’s where we are, we have improve the pack and help Kenzie take that next step.”

In addition to Zorn, Wawasee will say goodbye to Bailey Schroeder. The team’s only other senior that competed Saturday ran a 23:46.34.

Aubrey Kuhn (21:37.44), Lila Gregory (21:49.86), Valeria Pizana (22:07.81) and Katie Haines (22:49.11) will all return for Slabaugh’s team next season in hopes of making it back to semi-state, and further.

“It’s great that we have a pack coming back, our goal is just to keep improving,” Slabaugh added. “The biggest task is replacing our front-runner in Elizabeth. That’s something that we’ll look to Kenzie for and then we want to see our pack take another big step forward by developing those girls and getting more numbers.”

Tyler Schwartz of DeKalb won the individual title by posting a blazing time of 17:47.29. Abigail Green of Carroll was not far behind, posting a 17:55.82. Kayla McCulloch of Homestead was third at 18:11.45. Carroll’s Meagan Hathaway (18:18.86) and Norwell’s Syndey Lambert (18:25.05) rounded out the top five.

Northridge’s Mariah King (19:01.46) took 16th overall for the top time of any Northern Lakes Conference runners. Concord took 10th as a team.