SYRACUSE — Tuesday’s Northern Lakes Conference triangular between host Wawasee, Warsaw and Plymouth offered an interesting glimpse at two of the top boys teams in the league.

Not quite yet returned to full strength, Wawasee’s boys fell short of Warsaw, 24-31, but the two squads’ next NLC meeting at the conference championships at the end of this month could be anyone’s race. Both beat Plymouth — Warsaw by a 21-36 margin and Wawasee by a similar, 22-35 tally.

“This was our most competitive meet that we’ve had. We’ve had just all kinds of crazy things, some of it self-inflicted, some of it outside of our control. We’re getting close to being back to full strength; we’re not 100 percent,” explained Wawasee boys coach Chad Hoffert. “We ran much more competitively. That’s good for us psychologically, and hopefully we can get everything where it needs to be in the next three weeks and make a run.”

“Once again, it’s a good win for us. I think they’ve had some problems with their team, so probably by the time the conference meet shows up, they’ll be a little bit stronger than they were today,” said Warsaw boys coach Jim Mills.

“Our guys ran good. They’ve still got to get confidence in themselves. They are young kids and are afraid to challenge themselves in the early part of the race, and they get too far back, then they’ve got to work too hard to catch up. That’s the thing we’re working on right now, is just getting our confidence level back.”

The Tigers got it done with depth.

Zeb Hernandez set the pace in 16:33, but Spencer Hare and Luke Griner — both recently returned to the Warrior lineup following a suspension and an injury, respectively — clocked 16:51 and 17:01 in second and third place, followed by Warsaw’s Sam Lechlitener and Tanner Stiver in fifth and sixth place with respective times of 17:10 and 17:13, then Wawasee’s Michael Hammer just two seconds back of Stiver for seventh place. But Jacob Kissling and Fernando Niebbia crossed the line next for the Tigers in ninth and 10th place with times of 17:38 and 17:46 to complete their team’s score. Camden Powell clocked 17:55 to finish 12th, and Carlson Hand turned in an 18:13 time in 14th place as the Warriors came up a few places short of the rival Tigers.

“That’s where we’ve been winning races — at four, five, six and even seven pushing a four runner or even a three runner back,” said Mills. “That’s kind of the team we’ve got right now. We’ve got two guys — Tanner Stiver and Sam Lechlitener — that should be a lot close to Zeb than they’ve been running. If we can get them up a lot close to Zeb and then our other guys just keep running together like that, we’re going to be a pretty good team.”

Hernandez continued to show rapid development after sitting out most of last season with a suspension and taking a fall at his team’s season-opener earlier this fall. And the senior front-runner still has room to improve, says Mills.

“It’s taken time,” explained the Tigers’ boss. “He didn’t run a lot in between the suspension and now, but I knew he’s got the natural ability, and he’s a competitor. It’s just going to take time, and hopefully by the time the tournament rolls around he’ll be the old Zeb. He’s slowly taking those times down.”

On Senior Night in Wawasee, Warrior upperclassmen Hare and Griner weren’t terribly far back of Hernandez through most of Tuesday’s meet, although the Warsaw pace-setter got some separation late in the race and entered the home stretch with plenty of room to spare.

Hare is back from his own recent suspension and seemed eager to compete. Griner has struggled with a nagging injury that has impaired his ability to train and is only just returning to form. Both could be faster at the NLC Championships at Oxbow Park Sept. 29, which could make for an exciting rematch between the Warriors and the Tigers.

“Spencer had a good race. I think he was hungry to get out there and run because he hasn’t been able to run in about three weeks due to a suspension. I thought he looked like he was in good form, and hopefully he’ll just keep putting the pieces together and get everything all lined up for the beginning of October,” Hoffert said.

“Griner has run a couple meets but he hasn’t been training with miles. He’s had an injury with a knee so he’s been swimming and doing a lot of things with an elliptical and stuff so he’s not really in racing condition, but he has started getting back on the ground.”

The Lady Tigers ran away with Tuesday’s triangular, meanwhile, collecting eight of the top 10 spots to beat their hosts by a lopsided 19-44 margin.

Adree Beckham paced the girls’ field with a winning stop of 20:09. Wini Barnett finished third in 20:21, Alex Hermann was fourth in 20:48, Remi Beckham placed fifth in 20:57, and Amslie Howett rounded out her team’s top five in seventh place with a 21:16 time.

Tuesday’s was Adree’s race, but the top of the Lady Tigers’ lineup has changed hands throughout the season so far.

“That’s what we were just talking about as a coaching staff. With the way we’ve been training and the way we’ve been running, every night we’ve got somebody different, and we’ve got another two, three right there in their back pocket,” said Warsaw coach Justin Fleming. “That’s the mentality that we’ve been training and that’s what we’ve been talking to the girls about — you’ve got to keep moving as a group and you need to move that group farther up.”

Wawasee’s girls lost both legs of their meet, coming up just short of Plymouth, 27-28, meanwhile.

Senior Kenzie Smith turned in a 20:20 stop for runner-up honors behind Adree Beckham on Senior Night in Syracuse, but it was more than a minute before Emma Ebright crossed the line in 21:38 for 12th place and nearly another minute before Bailey Mayhew finished up her run in 22:18 for 21st place in the field. Lily Tyler and Cammy Kryder finished 25th and 26th, respectively, with times of 23:02 and 23:06.

Wawasee coach Doug Slabaugh wants to see his runners close up some of the long gaps between them, but he was happy with the overall improvement he saw Tuesday in conditions finally conducive to running after an extremely hot front end of the season and miserably muddy conditions at Saturday’s race at Indiana Wesleyan University.

“It’s nice to actually have a race that kind of works out. We’ve raced in the 100 degree heat and then Saturday we were down at Indiana Wesleyan in the mud fest,” said Slabaugh.

“Times, we definitely made improvement, that’s for sure. It’s definitely a step in the right direction. We’ve got to close gaps; our gap time is what killed us today. I would guess off the top of my head probably 16 of the 18 ran season-bests and maybe a couple of them were PRs in there. At the end of the day, yes we were racing other teams but at the same time the kids are racing the clock.”

On Senior Night, Wawasee cross country celebrated the contributions of Smith, Caitlin Wortiner, Morgan Ebright, Ashlyn Longenecker and Tamara Bruder on the girls’ side and Griner, Hare, Bennett Hoffert, Michael Drabenstott and Clay Kelsheimer on the boys’ side.

Warsaw competes next at Saturday’s New Prairie Invitational. Wawasee won’t run again until another NLC three-way versus Concord and host Goshen next Tuesday.