WARSAW – What on paper looked like a tasty matchup of Northern Lakes Conference cross country heavyweights turned out to be a bland cracker. Tuesday’s showdown between Warsaw and Northridge was a Tiger tale, as Warsaw triumphed 23-33 over Northridge in the girls race and 24-34 in the boys race over the Raiders. Warsaw also took care of NorthWood in 15-50 and 19-42 scores, respectively.

Northridge would sweep the girls race against NorthWood, 15-50, and win the boys matchup with Wood 22-37.

The girls race had more of an intrigue based off of what happened last year at the NLC Championship. Besting Warsaw place for place, the Lady Raiders beat the Lady Tigers by one point to split the team title after Warsaw defeated Northridge in the regular season. Karma could be in place to happen again as Warsaw did its job on its home course.

Northridge’s Morgan Blyly was the superior individual on the hot and muggy afternoon, running a very fluid 18:54 to pull away from Warsaw’s Mia Beckham and Allison Miller. Beckham, who kept pace with Blyly at the 2,000-meter mark, fell off in the final third of the race and came home at 19:15. Miller, who was a victim of the heat, dropped to third at 19:33.

Warsaw’s Anna Craig and Brooke Rhodes came in fourth and fifth, Craig at 19:42 and Rhodes having to fight off Ridge’s Mariah King by three seconds at 20:02. Emma Hayward was the fifth score for Warsaw at 20:35, taking ninth place.

“Knowing we would be racing them early, that made our summer training that much more focused,” said Warsaw girls head coach Scott Erba. “Our top girls, we needed to be ready to go at the beginning of the season. There wasn’t going to be a time to ease into it. I know Northridge felt the same way.”

NorthWood’s top female runner was Erica Stutsman, who placed 18th overall at 21:50.

[weaver_youtube hSysoXLQzNc rel=0]

The boys race had an air of unpredictability as neither team had the notable depth as in year’s past. Aside from the alpha dogs for each club – Conner Sandt for Northridge and Owen Glogovsky for Warsaw – it was to be determined from the ranks. And Warsaw’s course knowledge and guts did the job.

Sandt and Glogovsky were in a class by themselves for much of the race, Sandt running away from everyone to win at 16:08 while Glogovsky, who ran despite feeling ill Tuesday, finished second at 16:46. NorthWood’s Ryan Price slipped in for third at 16:58, but Tiger freshman Zeb Hernandez continued to impress with a fourth-place time of 17:09.

Francisco Ramirez (6th, 17:19), Lucas Howett (7th, 17:24) and Jon Beres (9th, 17:48) wrapped up the win for the Tigers, which sit a comfortable 2-0 in the NLC.

“Northridge has three guys at the top but then they really drop off, and we knew that,” said Warsaw head coach Jim Mills. “Our guys ran close to or better than when it was 25 degrees cooler like it was last week. As a team, we are pretty happy.”

While it’s still a month before the NLC Championship at Ox Bow Park Oct. 3, both coaches know the measuring sticks Tuesday will tell a lot going forward.

“Ryan (McClane) has a way of getting his guys where they need to be, so I’ll take the win early,” Mills said. “We have some work ahead of us, and to have our freshmen and sophomores getting in 5,000-meter races after running 3,000 in middle school, the season starts to wear on them. But they are showing they are competitors, and I’m happy right now.”

Added Erba, “We still have many weeks to go before conference and they always run stronger and we will run stronger as well.”