CULVER – It was a final showcase for most teams at Saturday’s Culver Academy Cross Country Invite, a mega meet that will take much of the field into next week’s conference tournaments and later into the sectional level of the state tournament.

The gigantic meet, which featured over 4,000 athletes from multiple states, had a handful of local teams involved.

Wawasee had its boys and girls varsity teams working as well as freshmen/sophomores getting experience in the ladder. The Warriors had its boys team take third in the Open (big school) division and the girls place 11th in the Open. NorthWood and Warsaw also had boys teams involved.

Spencer Hare continued to impress with his performances, taking third overall with a time of 16:49, trailing just Amani Morrell of St. Joe (16:17) and Thomas Rohr of Rochester (16:28). Wawasee had all five of its scorers in the top 50 overall, with Michael Hammer 21st (17:45), Luke Griner 24th (17:50), Thomas Conley 38th (18:26) and Bennett Hoffert 50th (18:41). Plainfield East (Ill.) won the Open division with 69 points, Elkhart Central second at 130 and Wawasee at 135 in the 18-team field.

NorthWood was 12th in the group at 317, Tyler Evers the top Panther at 17:55 for 26th overall. Arron Smith (53, 18:48), Daniel Hochstetler (76, 19:30), Lane Flowers (82, 19:41) and Cameron Hershberger (96, 19:55).

In the freshman-sophomore boys race, NorthWood’s Garrett Myers was 14th overall at 10:34, Warsaw’s Jacob Kissling was 20th at 10:43, and Wawasee’s Karlson Hand was 41st at 11:06. NorthWood’s team was fourth at 147 and Warsaw was eighth at 231.

Warsaw ran in the Elite field, placing eighth as a team at 239, Neuqua Valley (Ill.) willing the team title at 49 points. For the Tigers, Lucas Howett was 20th at 16:43), with Xavi Ramirez (30, 16:58), Taylor Mills (45, 17:21), Sam Lechlitner (69, 17:45) and Justin Fleming (75, 17:51) the Tiger scorers.

The Lady Warriors saw Kenzie Smith take 17th overall at 21:11. Coming home for Wawasee were Aubrey Kuhn (64, 22:55), Reagan Atwood (65, 22:56), Valeria Pizana (85, 23:34) and Autumn Turner (92, 23:38). Wawasee scored 304 points, a far cry from champion LaPorte’s 47 points and Fort Wayne Concordia’s 48 points.