Warsaw Boys’ Track & Field Final Score: Warsaw 111-- Mishawaka 21; Warsaw 107- Goshen- 25 Season Record: Warsaw (3-0, 2-0 in NLC) The Warsaw Tigers opened their NLC season by visiting Mishawaka and Goshen on a sunny day. Expectations were high as Tigers looked to defend their 3 straight NLC titles with the rising Mishawaka Cavemen looking to take a shot at the Tigers Not to be left out, Goshen brought a number of high caliber runners who looked to push to the front of the sprint races and field events. As expected for a first NLC meet of the season, athletes and coaches were anxious and eager to compete and there were many performances that were worthy of early season praise. A multitude of Personal Bests were established by new and veteran athletes alike throughout the night. Warsaw swept the Discus and Shot Put events by taking the top 4 spots. James Leiter took the top spots in both events with a new PB and State Qualifying throw of 169’8” in Discus and an impressive 54’3” toss in Shot Put. Teammates Kam Kauffman (Discus- 164’2” also a State Qualifying throw) and Ben Booren were right behind him in both events. Jordan Randall won the High Jump event with a nice clearance over 7’ 0” and also ran a PB 11.35 to take second in the 100m. Ian Parrott vaulted to a new PB of 13’6” in Pole Vault to take first place honors. Josh Conley made his first appearance in an outdoor 200m in two seasons and ran away with the win with an impressive 23.3 effort followed closely by Cam Fox in 23.59 who also won the 400m in a new PB of 52.91. Sam Allebach showed serious grit by winning the 300H despite tripping over the sixth hurdle and rolling on the track before regaining his feet and sprinting off for the win. Jackson Gackenheimer led the 800m from start to finish in a new PB of 2:00.10. Tyler Mimnaugh paced himself to a 9:48 finish and first place in the 3200m over teammate Clark Meridew who finished just a few seconds back. The Tigers also swept all three relays with the 4x100m relay running the fastest early season time (44.22) in over 7 years. Other outstanding efforts from the Warsaw Tigers included: Sprinters/Hurdlers had 47 new PRs Distance Crew had 11 new PRs Shot Put squad had 5 new PRs Discus squad had 17 new PRs Jumpers had 3 PRs Next up for the Tigers is the Chesterton Invite on Saturday, April 19 and then their Senior Night on Wednesday, April 23 at 5:30p against NorthWood. Coach Erba, this was a big opening night with Mishawaka and Goshen. There was a lot at stake with two quality teams in the NLC (Mishawaka and Warsaw) battling it out for early season positioning in the Conference. How did the team prepare after so many canceled meets? “We talked in the locker room prior to the meet about the importance of these NLC meets and more importantly, the importance of preparing and performing at our best. If we take care of warming up and mentally setting up a race or event where we leave nothing behind, we can accept any result. If another athlete or team beats us at our best, we will tip our hats to them and then re-evaluate what we need to do to perform at an even higher level. We certainly do not want to walk away feeling we could have done more. We had A LOT of Varsity and developing athletes perform out of their minds. Multiple guys like Zander Bail (110H and 300H), Parker Sweet (110H and 300H), Zahmari Terry (100m & 200m), Ethan Sinclair (LJ and 100m), Ben Harp (JV 100m and 200m), Tristan Wilson (Varsity LJ, JV 100m and 200m), Cole Koontz (1600m), Issac Stemen (110H and 300H) and Quinton Wilson (Discus and Shot Put) had great nights and have shown they are ready for the spotlight. Returning It was great to see so many new faces get out and COMPETE tonight; that is going to be contagious to their teammates. Throughout the meet, the team got involved: they were verbally engaged, and the energy level kicked up several notches. The atmosphere around the track and field events throughout the night did a lot to elevate the performance levels of our athletes. Our guys stepped up even when we ran through some rough spots and had to overcome some mistakes. I am proud of our sportsmanship and competitiveness even when disappointment arose; I am proud of the character displayed by our athletes. We knew Mishawaka was going to be a tough match up and we showed that we can compete in the early season against NLC competition with an NLC title on the line. We have some additional work to do over the next several weeks. For some of our athletes, they are looking at just 3 more weeks of training and competition. For now, our focus shifts to the Chesterton Invite Saturday, and Senior Night on Wednesday when we take on NorthWood, another quality team in the conference. We want to reward our Seniors with another NLC victory on that special night.”