The Wawasee Unified Track team, center, poses with the other teams from the Central Noble Sectional Monday. (Photos by Page Desenberg)

ALBION – Warsaw put its state title on the line Monday in the fourth running of the Unified Track state tournament. The Tigers were unable to advance in the state tournament, finishing fifth and outside of the top three needed to advance at the sectional held at Central Noble.

Warsaw’s MaKenna Till in the shot put

The tournament, which was postponed from a rainy Saturday afternoon in Albion, saw Fort Wayne North Side take the sectional championship with 122 points, followed by Elkhart Memorial at 112 and Homestead at 97 as the three advancing teams. Fort Wayne Carroll was fourth at 92 and Warsaw at 91 among the nine teams. East Noble (86), Central Noble (77), Goshen (74) and Wawasee (57) rounded out the field.

The Tigers did have two top performances on the day, with Jacob Green winning the 400 dash at 59.28 and the 4×100 mixed relay timing at 55.33 to cap its second top showing. Other top-fives for Warsaw included Josh Bradford fourth in the 100 dash at 13.05 and Thomas Boyer fifth in long jump at 13-7.

“The team has been awesome! Every week they come out and continue to improve,” said Warsaw coach Rachel Hardy. “Every athlete on the team gave their best every day and they should all be proud of themselves. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of athletes to compete with.”

Wawasee’s Paul Mendoza was second in the long jump at 17-3.5 and third in the 100 dash at 12.73 to highlight the Warrior performers. Derek Smith was third in shot put at 38-0, Nate Haines was fourth in the 400 at 1:00.60 and the 4×100 relay was fifth at 1:03.54.

Winning titles at the sectional were Elkhart Memorial’s John Rhemels and Logan Mullins, Rhemels running 12.40 in the 100 and Mullins flying 17-5 in long jump, and East Noble’s Nate Weimer, throwing 40-1 in shot put.

Fort Wayne North Side, Elkhart Memorial and Homestead will compete at the Kokomo Regional this Saturday. The state finals will take place on Saturday, June 3 at Indiana University.

Page Desenberg contributed to this story