The Warsaw boys track team will be a familiar spot again tonight.

The Tigers are the team to beat as postseason action commences with sectional competition statewide.

Warsaw is the heavy favorite to make it four straight sectional championships as the cream of the crop in the 11-team field at the Goshen Sectional.

The Tigers, who won sectional and regional championships en route to a fifth-place finish at the State Finals in 2013, are coming off a dominating effort at home last week to win their fourth straight conference championship.

“Our main goal is to stay healthy, get as many guys onto the regional as possible and to get into the fast heats of the regional,” said Warsaw coach Matt Thacker. I would have to be really nitpicking to find something that we need to work on from the NLC meet.  The team truly performed well and hopefully, we can continue to compete at a high level on into the sectional.

“We are going to take things one week at a time and see where the chips fall.  If we get ahead of ourselves and dwell on things that are out of our control there is a potential to lose focus and have our goals that we have aspired for disappear.”

The Tigers piled up 135 points a year ago at Foreman Field to claim the sectional crown, well ahead of runner-up Fairfield (85). Senior Seth Fouts is the defending champion for Warsaw in the shot put and senior Gabe Furnivall won the 400 in 2013.

Warsaw dominated the Northern Lakes Conference Meet at home on May 13. Fouts won the shot put and Furnivall won the 400. Senior Ellis Coon won both the 1,600 and 3,200, while Mike Miller won the 100, Stephan Kolbe the high jump, Rashaan Jackson the long jump and Andrew Scheidt the discus.  The Tigers also won all three relay events at the conference meet.

“The weather kind of dictated the focus for us last week and we used those days to ice and work towards healing some nagging injuries,” said Thacker of the preparation for the sectional.

Wawasee will look to its outstanding pair of juniors Clayton Cook and JJ Gilmer tonight to make a lot of noise.

Cook won both hurdles races and the 200 at the NLC Meet. He is the defending sectional champion in the 100 hurdles and was fifth in the 300 in 2013. Gilmer, who won sectional and regional titles a year ago in the high jump, was second in his specialty at the conference meet.

“They are both feeling good and understand what they can do,” said Wawasee coach Scott Lancaster of his pair of standouts. “Both of them are very goal oriented and focused on the task at hand. They are not looking past anything.

“I know that JJ is excited about the sectional. He loves the competition that he will see Thursday night in the high jump.

“The fun thing as a coach with these two is that both of them really want to be successful and they listen and are easy to coach.”

The field at Goshen tonight includes Warsaw, Wawasee, Concord, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Elkhart Christian Academy, Fairfield, Goshen, Jimtown, Northridge and NorthWood.

Action at Foreman Field in Goshen begins with field events at 5:30 p.m. The 4 X 800 relay starts at 6 p.m.

The top four finishers in each sectional event at Goshen advance to the regional at South Bend St. Joseph on May 29.

The other area sectional hosts tonight include Plymouth and Fort Wayne Wayne.  Both Triton and Tippecanoe Valley will compete at Triton, while Whitko will be in action at Fort Wayne Wayne.

The South Bend St. Joseph Regional May 29 will include qualifiers from the sectionals at Goshen, Plymouth, Penn and Western.