Tigers Stay In NLC Track Hunt
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
WARSAW – It wasn’t pretty or overly thrilling. But the buzz in the Warsaw camp following a double dual wins over NorthWood and Plymouth Wednesday evening had the Tigers in good spirits heading into the postseason.
“Believe it or not, we still haven’t gotten our lineup completely to where we want it,” offered Warsaw head coach JW Maierle. “We’ve got some guys who are a little dinged up. And honestly, next Tuesday is our thing. We knew winning the meet tonight kept us in position, but we’re really focused on next week. Our goal in this program is to win the conference. Tonight sets us up to do that next week.”
Where the Tigers traditionally have overwhelmed opponents with tremendous depth and a host of ‘been there, done that’ athletes, the 2021 version of the boys track team is far less. With just three runners who have any lengthy varsity competition experience on the roster, Maierle’s group have been a mixture of jigsaw puzzle pieces he’s still trying to fit together.
Some of that experience, though, shone bright in Tanner Stiver, who mastered the 800 to a sub-2 at 1:59.27, and Sam Lechlitner, who waged a competitive race in the two-mile with NorthWood’s Jordan Burden, the two pacing each other for about six-and-a-half laps before Lechlitner made his move into the final lap of a winning 9:52.34 to Burden’s 9:58.46.
Cam Harness remained undefeated in high jump this year, clearing 6-0.
Andrew Frush was a double winner, taking both hurdle events (15.87 and 44.83) and Jeremy Johnson gave the Tigers a second double with wins in the 400 (52.90) and long jump (20-0).
Drew Heckaman edged teammate Aiden Binkerd in the 100 (11.65-11.69) and Warsaw also sprinted to a 45.78 in the 4×100 relay, and opened the meet with an 8:28.83 smash of the 4×800 relay. Will Wells took the discus at 130-11.5 and Morgan Johnson edged Plymouth’s Joe Cartwright in the 200 dash, 24.14-24.20.
Plymouth closed the meet with a convincing 3:41.87 in the 4×400 relay.
“We know what we have to do now, we’ve seen everybody,” Maierle said. “Northridge handed us the one loss, so we know we have to beat them if we want to reach one of our goals in winning the conference. But they are old, they have over 20 seniors on their team and have a lot of guys that have been around the block a few times. But we have a lot of guys who might not win the pole vault, but I feel like I have two guys who can score big points there. Maybe won’t win the long jump, but I have two guys who will score there. I think that helps us. So Tuesday when we turn on the lights, we’ll let our kids go out and just run and go for it.”
NorthWood wasn’t without reasons to be optimistic next Tuesday as the NLC Championships come back to Fisher Field.
Burden would win the mile at 4:46.66, with teammate Brady Hunsberger drafting him to a 4:46.74 for a convincing 1-2 finish.
Brad Demitruk continued to show well in pole vault, clearing 13-0 to win handily, and Brevin Miller added a win in the throwers column, taking shot put at 45-8.5.
“Jordan had a great night, wins the mile and was right there in the two-mile with a real chance to win that against a really tough runner from Warsaw,” NorthWood head coach Boonie Boocher said. “Brad has spent a lot of time on his craft and trying to get better, and it shows. He’s transitioning some of his equipment and it was good to see him get a good height with a different pole.
“We’re focused on specifics right now, times, distances and heights,” continued Boocher. “We’re explaining the meet to them and what we need out of them, and these kids are exceeding our expectations.”
The NLC Championships return to Warsaw next Tuesday with a 5:30 p.m. start at Fisher Field, the boys and girls all combined. Northridge is the boys leader after a 7-0 round robin, Warsaw at 6-1 and Mishawaka in third at 5-2. In the girls race, Warsaw is 7-0 and in the driver’s seat, with Northridge at 6-1. Winners of the NLC round robin claim half the title share, and the championship team winner claims the other half, Northridge boys and Warsaw girls can win outright with titles next week.