Saturday morning was the day Coach Jim Mills had been looking forward to since taking over the Tiger XC program more than 10 years ago. A day where the beloved colors of Black & Orange would reign high atop the Northern Lakes Conference Championships. And what a day it was.

"This NLC title is the culmination of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice by a group of young Tigers who I have a great amount of respect for." declared the winning coach. "The credit goes to a great group of hard working young men. I believe today was as much fun as I have ever had in 25 years of coaching. Let's keep train rolling!

Coach Mills went on to break down the race, "It all starts with Jake Poyner. Today he went out and ran 15:52 by himself which is so difficult to do. He just outworks everybody and when you couple that with the God-given gifts he has you get to witness greatness."

"We have a really good #2 runner in Ellis Coon. He and Jake make a killer 1-2 punch at the top of our lineup." Mills concluded, "then you throw in 5 other guys (Murphy, James, Calderon, Compton, & Hoskins) who can break 17 minutes & you are in the midst of something really special. The rest of this year could get very interesting"

The Tigers dominated both the Varsity race on their way to their first title in more than 2 decades.

Here are the team scores & the individual times:

VARSITY SCORES:
Warsaw 30
Northridge 54
Goshen 65
Concord 114
Wawasee 117
Northwood 177
Plymouth 187
Memorial 206

1st place Jacob Poyner 15:52
3rd place Ellis Coon 16:29
6th place Robert Murphy 16:51
9th Place Brysten James 16:55
11th place Michael Compton 16:59
18th place Ismael Calderon 17:12
24th place Cam Hoskins 17:32

Warsaw had 5 All-Conference runners in Jacob Poyner, Ellis Coon, Robert Murphy, Brysten James and Michael Compton. Honorable Mention All-Conference runners Cam Hoskins and Ismael Calderon.

In the JV race, Tiger Michael Smolen took the 1st place title as Warsaw dominated the field.

Jr Varsity results:
1st Michael Smolen 17:13
2nd Daniel Messenger 17:15
3rd Tyler Houvener 17:39
4th Nate Haller 17:45
6th Jacob Deboest 17:48
7th Dominic Kurosky 17:50
10th Ryan Goon 18:12
11th Nolan Haines 18:16
14th Nick Adams 18:31
20th Justin Oberlin 18:44
23rd Ricky Ochoa 18:49

Posted In: Boy's Sports > Cross Country