WARSAW – The Northern Lakes Conference season opened for both Warsaw and Wawasee swim programs Saturday morning. The Tiger girls and Warrior boys both claimed team wins, harboring in the long dual season.

The girls from Warsaw won eight of the 12 events and posted a 109-71 dual win. Five different Warsaw swimmers won an event – Delaney Wihebrink with two wins – and the Tigers won both the medley and 200 free relays. Wihebrink claimed the 100 free at 56.75 and the breaststroke at 1:09.33, the latter a showdown with Wawasee phenom Rileigh Atwood, who went 1:11.90 in what could be an early sneak preview of the conference championship in January. Atwood would win the individual medley at 2:27.00.

Olivia Herman took the 50 (25.78), Lauren Kuhl the backstroke (1:08.78), Taylor Gunter the butterfly (1:06.24) and Warsaw grabbed the medley relay (1:57.39) and the 200 free relay (1:47.06). Emma Pena won diving with a score of 140.70 to round out the Warsaw top finishers.

Ella Park took a double for Wawasee, winning the 200 free (2:07.18) and the 500 free (5:38.08) and helped Wawasee to a 400 free relay win at 4:07.54.

“The team did really well on finishes and kicking,” said Warsaw head coach Tony DeBrota of his girls. “Great swims from Lauren Kuhl, Laurel Moeller, Delaney Wihebrink, and Olivia Herman. We seemed to have more endurance for the first meet, compared to last year. Relay exchanges were slow though. We need to work on them for next week.”

Wawasee and Warsaw split the six event winners, but the Warriors had enough for a 96-87 win.

A free 13 points in diving became the difference for the Warriors, which had Dane Jenkins led the field of five Wawasee divers at 193.90, to which Warsaw didn’t enter a diver.

Jared Krugman and Brady Robinson both won a pair of races for the Warriors, Krugman the 200 (1:52.52) and the butterfly (56.12) and Robinson the IM (1:56.72) and the backstroke (56.65). The pair were bookends of the 400 free relay that came in at 3:30.47.

Alex Cook won the 50 (23.12) and the 100 (51.73) to spark the Tigers. Warsaw also had the medley relay in at 1:41.99, the 200 free relay at 1:33.13, Nick Zogbi in the 500 at 5:22.14 and Grant Knight in the breaststroke at 1:02.97.

“They looked tired today,” noted DeBrota of the boys’ performance. “They should be, but I expected a little more from the team as a whole. We really struggled in the individuals, and Wawasee was able to pick up some points within each event that we couldn’t make ground on. Still, Alex Cook, Nick Zogbi, and Grant Knight had some nice swims for us. Still, we’ve got to revisit our stroke work. I think Wawasee really did a nice job at exposing out weak points. We’ll need to turn it up for next week.”

Wawasee swims Tuesday at Elkhart Memorial while Warsaw next works Thursday at NorthWood.