WARSAW – The Warsaw boys track team performance was not as good Thursday night as coach Matt Thacker would have probably liked it to be.

The Tigers, in the end though, were still good enough to continue their stranglehold on the Northern Lakes Conference.

Host Warsaw fought off a strong challenge from an impressive Goshen squad to earn a 71-61 conference win. The Tigers also topped Elkhart Memorial 82-50 in the NLC opener. Goshen bested Memorial 98-34.

Thacker, who has seen his program dominate the NLC the last four years, did not sound like a coach who had just posted two wins.

“I was concerned about our attitude in preparation for tonight,” noted Thacker following the meet. “We addressed on Monday at practice that we have a target on us. Teams are going to come at us harder and with their best. We have to understand that. I was very impressed with Goshen tonight.

“We still have to figure some things out this season. We’ve been blessed the last four years to have some very talented athletes. We still have the same high expectations with this team. If you don’t have high expectations, what do you have? We have to challenge them.”

Warsaw, now 3-0 on the season, had not competed since an 82-50 win at Penn in the outdoor opener back on March 31.

Owen Glogovsky picked up a pair of wins to highlight the night for the Tigers, who won both sectional and regional championships last season. The standout distance ace  won the 1,600 in a time of 4:43.64, holding off Spencer Dibley of Memorial (4:44.45). He then took top honors with a strong 3,200 to win in 9:49.54.

The Tigers also got a key 1-2-3 finish in the long jump completion for big points. Senior Rashaan Jackson went 20-5 3/4 for first place honors. D’Andre Street was second at 19-8 with Rane Kilburn third at 19-5.

The outstanding hurdles duo of Ross Armey and Caleb Klusman went 1-2 in the 300 hurdles. Armey won in 41.33 with Klusman second in 43.13. Klusman was also second in the 110 hurdles and Armey fourth.

The combination of Riley Rhoades and Landan Perry earned a key 1-2 finish in the 400 for Warsaw. Rhodes took first in 51.65 with Perry runner-up in 52.17.

“We got good leadership in the 400 from Riley and Landan,” noted Thacker. “Caleb and Ross were big in the 300 hurdles, we did well in the long jump and high jump and Reinholt (Brandon Reinholt) gave us a big second in the 200.

“After the 100, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. We responded. We battled and were able to pull it out tonight.”

Daniel Messenger won the 800 for the Tigers in 2:04.43. Nick Adams was second in 2:08.08.

Brock Riley soared 6-3 to take top honors in the high jump for Warsaw. Luke Wilson was third and Joseph Harness fourth.

Andrew Scheidt placed second in the discus and Ben Plummer was third in the shot put for the Tigers.

Warsaw put an exclamation point on the tough win by claiming first in the 4 X 400 relay to close the NLC triangular. The quartet of Rhoades, Perry, Street and Messenger blazed to a win in 3:31.87, more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Goshen.

Warsaw returns to NLC action versus Wawasee and Concord next Thursday night at Concord. The league meet is set to begin at 5 p.m.