By MIKE DEAK
Sports Editor
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The night just got gloomier for the Wawasee girls track team as time progressed on the final Northern Lakes Conference match of the season Tuesday at NorthWood.
What began with rain throughout the afternoon in the area ended with the same, a parade of NorthWood wins that kept raining down on Wawasee after an 87-45 loss to the Lady Panthers. The loss capped an NLC round robin record of 0-7 and little momentum heading into the final week before the conference tournament on May 8 at Warsaw.
On a night when NorthWood’s seniors were honored and eventually paraded, Wawasee found little solice in the family atmosphere.
“We have to be able to perform in spite of the circumstances,” said Wawasee head coach Scott Lancaster. “Our goals are to place high in the conference, but to get out of the sectional and make it to regional. They are going to have to be able to pound laps and hopefully we are at that point.”
Competitively speaking, Wawasee won six of the 16 events, taking all three of the individual distance races as well as a pair of throws from Jordan Edington.
Hannah Wilczynski won the 800 at 2:35.46 in a clean sweep for Wawasee, with Jen Slabaugh looking motivated in a 5:47.58 win in the mile and Courtney Linnemeier running basically unopposed for much of the 12:12.64 two-mile win. Bre Robinson claimed Wawasee’s other track triumph, a 1:04.59 in the 400.
Edington put together a good pair of throws heading into the postseason, going 36’04” in shot and 98’03” in discus to lead the field. Hannah Winters hovered near her personal mark in the discus with a 92’05.75 to take third place while Breann Johnson fought through illness to throw 32’02” in shot.
Sarah Rozow had a tough go on pole vault, but still achieved a tie of the school record she previously set, clearing 9’04” but still fell short of Jessica Tuttle’s 9’08”.
“Jordan PR’ed by three-quarters of an inch in shot put, but she has been consistent,” Lancaster said. “Breann was sick, but did a nice job responding when the NorthWood girl passed her in discus. Even Bones (Emily Rodes) did a nice job, and she threw out near her PR.”
Angelica Ramon gave NorthWood wins in the 100 (13.07) and 200 (27.42) while Allison Purcell took the 100 hurdles (18.42) and the high jump (4’08”) as repeat winners.
Both NorthWood (3-8, 2-5 NLC) and Wawasee (0-10) will take part in the Goshen Relays this weekend ahead of the NLC meet next Tuesday. The Warsaw Sectional will take place on May 15 and Warsaw will also host the regional on May 22.