Wawasee’s Austin Trowbridge competes in the high jump Thursday night against Northridge and Elkhart Memorial. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – The Warrior boys track team lucked out with its only home meet of the season as it was one of the few meets to not be rained out this season. Unfortunately, it happened on a night when Wawasee could have used some thunder and lightning in its performance. The Warriors dropped both matches in the triangular meet, losing to Elkhart Memorial 71-61 and to Northridge 76-56. Northridge beat Memorial 66.66-65.33.

Adam Baker of Wawasee takes off during the triangular against Elkhart Memorial and Northridge.

Warrior head coach Scott Lancaster talked about what he saw from his team, “I just felt we were a little flat. We were close to both teams today, which is a plus because we can score points. We just were not on our game tonight like we were over the weekend and on Monday night.”

One area that Lancaster had to be impressed with Thursday night was the field events. Of the five field events, the Warriors would take first in four and place third in the other.

Ethan Brown started the successful field day for the Warriors by placing first in discus. Brown won with a throw of 142 feet, a personal best for the junior. Teammate Chad Eppley claimed third place in discus, throwing 117’05”. Memorial’s Tanner Faus took second with a throw of 127’10.5″.

Brown’s performance was one of note from his coaches point of view.

“Ethan threw a personal best today in the discus. He is just getting better every time out. He has really gotten into a groove and we are happy to see that,” Lancaster stated.

Eppley left the discus ring with third place but would step into his wheelhouse at the shot put pit. The Warrior team captain threw 44’10.5″ to take first place. It was not the best Eppley has thrown but it was more than enough to top the second place distance of 42’6″ from Memorial’s Charles Hawkins.

Thanks to JJ Gilmer, the Warriors would also take first in two other events. In long jump Gilmer measured in at 20’0.5″ to beat out Northridge’s Austin Heeley by less than a foot. GIlmer also took first in the high jump, jumping an even six feet.

The only field event that Wawasee did not win was in the pole vault. Northridge’s Devin Puckett and Josh Rheinheimer both cleared an even 13′ to occupy the top two spots. Wawasee’s Chase Corrigan placed third with a height of 9’6″.

Clayton Cook of Wawasee looks to make ground in the 110 high hurdles.

On the track, the Warriors simply did not have the depth to keep up with the Chargers and Raiders. One of the bright spots for the Warriors was Clayton Cook.

Cook took second place in the 110-meter hurdles, both the 100 and 200-meter dash as well as finished second with his team in the 4×100-meter relay.

Adam Doll finished wedged between two Raiders in the 1600-meter run. Doll placed second with a time of 4:33.90. Northridge’s James Bradberry won the event with a time of 4:31.28 while the Raider’s Blake O’Dell finished at 4:37.13.

In the final event of the evening, Wawasee took third place in the 4×400-meter relay finishing with a time of 3:45.66. The event provided some drama for the meet’s other two teams as Memorial’s Devontea Millsaps passed Northridge’s Nolan Rhodes on the final turn to clinch a one-point victory for the Chargers, or so they thought.

After a scoring correction was made in the high jump following the meet, the scores were recalculated and had given the Raiders enough to sweep the triangular meet.

While the Raiders left the field feeling great, Wawasee (2-4 in the NLC) still has some questions to be answered according to Lancaster.

“We hope we can do better,” Lancaster said. “We have limited individual events this weekend (at the John Reed Relays in Kendallville) and there are some things we need to accomplish before we get into conference and sectional meets. To be honest, the main thing I am looking for is for us to get the bad taste out of our mouth from this meet.”

The hopeful palate cleanser for the Warriors is the John Reeds this Saturday at East Noble High School. Events begin at approximately 9 a.m.