NAPPANEE – It was a tad sleepy, a tad emotionless. But Warsaw carried on and got the job done Thursday night in Northern Lakes Conference swimming at NorthWood. The Tigers won the boys meet 142-41 and the Warsaw girls cruised 120-61.

“Yeah, we are definitely swimming a little tired,” admitted Warsaw head coach Tony DeBrota following the meet. “We were a little shaky at first, could definitely tell they were tired. We’ve been doing a lot of practice, a little dry land work. I’m glad NorthWood was able to push us in some races, opened our eyes a little bit.”

Warsaw triumphed in 19 of the 22 swim events, and the boys were a perfect 11-for-11. Zach Taylor, Ethan Cook and Brenna Morgan were all 4-for-4 in event wins to lead Warsaw, which did have its ‘A’ lanes look rather impressive.

Taylor won both the butterfly (59.16) and the was part of all three relay wins, the medley (1:49.64) with Hudson Snyder, Ethan Cook and Adam Doyle, the 200 free (1:38.05) with Matt Wildman, Evan Borchers and Cook, and the 400 free (3:41.66) with Snyder, Doyle and Alex Cook.

Wildman added two wins in the 200 (1:57.63) and the breaststroke (1:06.94), Ethan the 50 (24.06) and the 100 (52.84), Snyder the 500 (5:17.85), Nick Zogbi the backstroke (1:00.22) and Kaleb Schneidewent the individual medley at 2:16.79.

Morgan did most of her damage early in the meet, teaming with Laurel Moeller, Audrey Curson and Allison Thompson to take the medley relay (2:11.18), then came right back to win the 200 free (2:03.58) and the 50 (26.28) before returning with Izzy Ray, Liz Slough and Thompson later on to win the 200 free relay at 2:00.44.

Moeller was tops in the 100 (1:01.41) and Curson the 500 (6:20.53). Delaney Wihebrink was the winner in the backstroke (1:07.47) and Bridgette Yoder claimed the breaststroke at 1:18.80.

“We just wanted to go back to the drawing board and work on the things we needed to from practice, and do it against some pretty good NorthWood swimmers tonight,” DeBrota said. “You just have to keep delivering. And they are still trying to learn that. It’s coming around, but I think there a few areas that we could have done better tonight. The more experience they get, obviously, the better they will be.”

NorthWood’s Kate Jarvis was the lone swimmer to break through against Warsaw, and did so in fine fashion. Jarvis won the individual medley (2:28.60) and the butterfly (1:07.67) and was on the 400 free relay that claimed victory at 4:18.31 with Paige Barrett, Mackenzie Weaver and Megan Stankovich.

NorthWood also had the premier divers Thursday, with the girls sweeping the top three spots led by Betsy Nunemaker at 165.00. The Panther boys had Teagan Stutsman outduel Tiger Tyler Paseka 202.90-193.10.

Warsaw picks up its first girls and second boys NLC wins of the season, but the competition will jump drastically starting Saturday with the Warsaw Invites at 10 a.m. followed by a trip to Middlebury Tuesday to meet Northridge and Elkhart Memorial.

“I think a few of our younger kids are going to get caught offguard with some of the talent they are going to see in the next few days,” DeBrota said. “We’ll talk about it a little tonight and at practice tomorrow and prepare for it as best as we can. I think a lot of our freshmen may learn some good life lessons here in the next couple weeks in the competition we are going see in the pool.”