Raiders Squeeze Past Panthers
By Adam Yoder
InkFreeNews
NAPPANEE – For the second time in as many nights, NorthWood hosted an NLC track and field contest. This time it was the ladies turn at home as head coach Mark Mikel’s Panthers welcomed in the Northridge Raiders.
With a home baseball game and tennis match going on just north of the track and field complex, the softball program taking on Wawasee at Stauffer Park, the boys’ track team leaving the facility as the two ladies teams arrived, and the boys golf team getting some swings in at McCormick Creek, a cool, yet sunny Friday night in the Wa-Nee district had all the feels of what we missed out on a year ago without an IHSAA spring season.
While the Panthers fell 80-52 to the Raiders, the Panthers clung to an early lead thanks to some solid field event performances and a victory in the 3200-meter relay (Kaitlin Burden, Kendal Miller, Alea Minnich and Emilie Allen) with a time of 10:51.63.
NorthWood’s field event prowess was buoyed by freshmen Kady Hutsell’s long jump victory at 15-9.75, Kaitlyn Chapman’s discus win at 81-11, Iliya Smith’s runner-up in the high jump at 4-6, and Karissa Kauffman’s second place finish in the shot put at 30-10.
The Raiders would slowly chip away on the track after the opening relay. However, that wasn’t without some fighting and clawing from the home squad.
NorthWood sophomore Megan Mikel won the 100-meter dash with a time of 14.03, and senior Kaitlyn Burden won the 1600-meter run in 5:53.94.
Those two victories on the track would be the only two NorthWood could garner after the opening relay win, however.
“We were right there with them and they caught us and took the lead around the 300 hurdles. Hannah Chupp is our top 300 hurdler and she’s gone this weekend, so she would have been competitive there. We missed her in the 100 hurdles as well,” Mikel commented.
The Panthers saw a lot of JV runners put up some excellent times as well, and that had Mikel feeling very positive about the night.
“Kids that were here performed well tonight, top to bottom,” noted Mikel. “Alanna Horvath PR’d in the in the 800 and the 1600, so we’ve got a good problem to have some JV runners challenging for spots. We’re young, inexperienced, and a little shorthanded right now, but we’re showing improvement in not only our performances but how we manage ourselves during the meet.”
In an outstanding display of sportsmanship, after the final scores were announced, the Panthers lined the straight-away and cheered their congratulations to the Raiders during their cool-down run before taking the track for their own.
Mikel commented, “That did my heart good. Great kids we have here.”
The Panthers get a rare Saturday off before traveling to Warsaw next Tuesday for a double dual meet with the host Tigers and the Wawasee Warriors.