Warsaw’s boys and girls cross country teams pose for a joint team pic after winning dual regional championships at the Culver Academies Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

CULVER — Warsaw’s cross country teams made Saturday’s regional run around the Culver Academies look more like a walk in the park.

The boys tightened up their pack on the way to a sixth straight regional title with a dominant score of 32, and the Lady Tigers, although they showed room for improvement, easily coasted to a fifth straight championship with a score of 55 Saturday morning.

The Tigers beat out host Culver Military’s runner-up score by a full 50 points, while Plymouth finished third in the standings with an 87 score. Caston placed fourth with a score of 121, and Manchester grabbed the final team berth out to next weekend’s New Prairie Semistate with a 145. In the girls race, meanwhile, Rochester followed Warsaw with an 81 in second place, Maconaquah was third with a score of 99, Western finished fourth with a 106 score, and Culver Girls Academy placed fifth with a 135.

The Tigers squeezed each of their top four into the top 10 in the field and six of their top seven into the top 25 overall en route to their dominant score.

Lucas Howett led Warsaw once more with a 16:40 for third place behind runner-up Thomas Rohr of Rochester and repeat champion Mitchell Rans of Caston, who set the pace in 16:19. Taylor Mills (17:02) and Francisco Ramirez (17:15) traded places after last weekend’s sectional in fifth and seventh, while Justin Fleming (17:24) finished 10th, and Nathaniel Gottshalk (17:29) completed the Tigers’ team score in 12th place. Even the Tigers’ sixth man, freshman Hunter Thompson, broke into the top 25 with his 18:10 stop.

It’s been a tougher go than Warsaw expected in the state tournament since the announcement of junior returning All-State runner Zeb Hernandez’s suspension, but the Tigers have risen to the occasion.

“We came here trying to tighten up that pack again, and it was maybe a little bit better. Our guys competed,” said head coach Jim Mills.

“I’m so proud of these guys. Once again, running without Zeb, they still come and compete. They could mope around and feel like they didn’t have a chance, but if you talk to every one of them they just want to hit it next week and move on, and they feel like they can.”

In the girls race, Mia Beckham followed up her sectional championship turn with a third straight regional title at Culver Academies, clocking 19:04 to beat out Maconaquah’s Madison Winegardner by more than half a minute.

“Before that you had Allie Miller win it, then you had Ashley Erba winning them so it’s kind of cool to keep the streak alive,” said Lady Tigers coach Matt Campbell of Beckham’s third straight title. “I’m happy with her. She’s had a great career at Warsaw. Got a couple more races, but definitely going to miss her a lot and what she brings to the team.”

Behind Beckham, Emma Bohnenkamper followed up last week’s sectional runner-up finish with a personal-best time of 19:59 for fourth place Saturday, but the Lady Tigers fell off the pace rapidly after that. Carmen Yoder (21:08) and Angie Sanchez-Vijil (21:11) were 16th and 17th, and Taylor Gunter’s 21:28 was good enough for 21st as her team’s last scorer.

Angie Sanchez-Vijil leads runners into the chute in Saturday’s girls race.

“I wish we would’ve come out a little bit stronger today, to be honest with you,” said Campbell. “Obviously Mia did her thing today. Bo is running awesome right now, PR’d. We have three or four other girls that run with Bo in practice, and they’re a minute, minute-and-a-half behind. We’ve just got to get mentally stronger. We’re just lacking there. I think that’s with inexperience and stuff like that.”

With back-to-back sectional and regional championships at the Culver Academies, Warsaw’s cross country teams now turn their attentions to next weekend’s New Prairie Semistate, where their real goals have waited all along.

Instead of the top five teams, the top six squads from each race will advance to the state finals in Terre Haute Oct. 28. But even with the extra wiggle room, both Warsaw teams will be on the bubble next weekend. Still, Mills likes his team’s chances.

“Every year there are always some surprises. Some teams choke; some teams run above where they belong,” he said. “ But the main thing is now we all come together. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done at these other courses, and we still think if we run well we’ve got a good shot at getting out.”

“We’re going to know right away at the 2 or 3K if we’re in it, and so far this year they haven’t done that. We’ve got nothing to lose, and we need to race like that,” said Campbell.

Manchester’s boys were led by Lance Bennett’s 17:34 for 13th place, while Carter Bedke (17:59) also broke into the top 20 in 19th place. Ben Reichenbach (18:25) was 30th, Montgomery Pattison (18:50) was 49th, and Reece Adamiec (19:15) was 61st. The Lady Squires didn’t make the team cut, but two individuals made it out to semi state was Jaelyn Webb (20:21) finished eighth overall and fourth among individuals from non-advancing teams, and Torina Runkel (20:47) was 12th overall and sixth among individuals from non-advancing squads.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Jordan Owens also advanced individually with a 17:48 stop, good enough for 15th in the boys race and second among individuals from non-advancing teams.