NAPPANEE – Matt Thacker of Warsaw and Scott Lancaster of Wawasee were in complete agreement on one thing Monday night.

It was so nice to finally get a chance for the pair of boys track coaches to get to see their teams compete outdoors.

Mother Nature finally relented enough Monday evening, although she did throw in some rain showers, to allow the Tigers and the Warriors to open Northern Lakes Conference action at NorthWood.

Warsaw, which had its first three meets of the season cancelled due to the cold weather, started strong as expected with a pair of wins. The Tigers topped Wawasee 86-46 and NorthWood 106-26.

Wawasee picked up an 87-41 league win over the host Panthers. The Warriors had their first five outdoor meets of the season either cancelled or postponed before they competed this past Saturday at the Fort Wayne North Side Relays in terrible conditions.

Wyatt Jones led the way for the Tigers, the defending NLC champions. The senior won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.52 and topped the field in the 200-meter dash in 22.96. He also teamed with Chad Goon, Nathan Kolbe and Tristan McClone to win the 4 X 100 relay in a time of 44.79.

Chad Goon won the 400 for the Tigers in a top time of 52.65. Ryan Goon won the 300 hurdles in 42.37 for Warsaw. The Tigers also won 4 X 400 relay as the team of Nathan Kolbe, Michael Compton, Chad Goon and Ryan Goon prevailed in 3:39.27 and the 4 X 800 relay as the foursome of Nicholas Adams, Daniel Messenger, Compton and Tyler Houvener won in 8:43.51.

The Tigers also dominated in the distance events, led by senior standouts Jake Poyner and Robert Murphy. Poyner won the 3,200 in 9:45.04 with Murphy right behind in 9:45.15 and Owen Glogovsky third in 10:31.63. Murphy topped the field in the 1,600 in a winning time of 4:36.22 with Poyner second in 4:37.46 and Brysten James of the Tigers third in 4:52.08.

Poyner, a Wake Forest recruit, and Murphy, who is headed to run at Vincennes University, were among a handful of Tigers who competed in the Franklin Central Distance Showcase last Friday night in Indianapolis. The pair of standouts helped the Warsaw cross country team place fourth at the State Finals this past October.

“There was definitely some jitters and nerves out there tonight,” admitted Thacker, who returns a ton of talent from last year’s team that won the sectional and was regional runner-up. “Once we settled down and the rain let up, we did as we thought we would and competed and had some good performances.”

“Probably the best thing is how some of our young guys stepped up tonight. Guys like Nate Miller in the JV 1,600, Compton, Perry and Armey. That was good to see.”

“Jake and Robert are just special. The thing is that now we have some things to evaluate and see where we are at.”

Jeffrey Coulter won the pole vault by clearing 12-0 for the Tigers.

Warsaw was without standout distance ace Ellis Coon. The junior, who also ran last Friday at Franklin Central, is currently sidelined due to a foot injury.

“Ellis is getting his foot checked out and we’re not sure what the extent of the injury is right now,” said Thacker. “We just plan to be very cautious with it.  A big key for us is making sure we keep our guys healthy this season.”

Taylor Cone was second in both hurdles races for the Tigers. Stephen Kolbe, who tied for sixth at the State Finals in 2012 in the high jump, was second Monday night.

Sophomore Clayton Cook and senior Chad Eppley each had big nights for the Warriors.

Cook won the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.66 and also placed second in both the 100 and 200 dashes.

Eppley uncorked a throw of 48-0 to easily claim top honors in the shot put competition. He also placed third in the discus.

JJ Gilmer won the long jump competition for the Warriors with a top leap of 20-5. Ethan Brown won the discus with a top effort of 135-7, while teammate Jon Walker was second.

“I couldn’t be any happier,” said Wawasee coach Lancaster. “To me, we’re right where we need to be. The best thing to me tonight was that our kids came out and they competed. They went after people.

“We went over to North Side Saturday and had some good things and some not so good things. The thing I’m most pleased about tonight is that we had a lot of kids step up.

“I would say they exceeded my expectations. Eppley has a personal best by over three feet in the shot. We have kids like Adam Doll and Zach Cockrill perform well in the 800.”

Winners for Warsaw in junior varsity competition were Daniel Chalmers in the 100, Storm Stapleton in the 200, Nathan Miller in the 1,600, Ross Armey in the 110 hurdles, Caleb Klusman in the 300 hurdles and the team of Taylor Anderson, Ryder Worrell, Marcos Rodriguez and Dustin Atkins in the 4 X 100 relay.

The Wawasee team of Tyler Morgan, Ben Slabaugh, Jacob Hutchinson and Devan Courter won the 4 X 400 relay race in the JV competition.

Warsaw and Wawasee both return to NLC action Thursday night. The Tigers host Northridge, while the Warriors travel to Goshen to face the Redskins and Concord.