Lady Warriors Finally Off And Running [VIDEO]
GOSHEN – After nearly a month of cancellations, delays and more indoor practices, the Wawasee girls track team finally were outside and running against an opponent from another school. In the Northern Lakes Conference opener for Wawasee, Plymouth and host Goshen Wednesday evening, the meet was a chance for all three schools to shake off some rust, and for Wawasee, to finally chase after a different jersey color.
The primary issue Wednesday night was a systems malfunction in the press box, which didn’t immediately produce accurate times or team standings for coaches or media.
It’s only fitting for a season that has been difficult from the start.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that this is their first year and they were scared to death, and others that have run in middle school and high school, they were ready to just get started,” said Wawasee head coach Scott Lancaster. “A lot of kids just haven’t had an opportunity yet since the indoor meets were for the top athletes, so this is really it.”
Wawasee had several athletes show well according to Lancaster, including Alexis Mangas and Hannah Winters in discus. LeighAnn Shrack was noted to have looked strong in the 100-meter dash and the final leg of the JV 4×100 relay and Catherine Yankosky also ran well in the sprints, winning the 100-meter dash. Lancaster also offered his distance corps as a whole showed promise with their efforts at Goshen.
“You can see Plymouth, this is their third meet. We’re still knocking the rust off,” Lancaster said. “I like it in a sense that our kids are all healthy. Obviously, I don’t like that we have very little to evaluate since we didn’t have anything before spring break. We’re having to do evaluations on the run, and that’s not a good situation.
“We’ll get together to move some kids around and reevaluate the relays,” continued Lancaster. “From what I have seen so far, the young kids have shown well. Effort is one thing, but what you do with it against this type of competition is another thing. We’ve seen some things today we definitely can work on.”
Wawasee’s next race day is Tuesday when it will travel to Elkhart County again for its second NLC triangular at Northridge and with Warsaw.
“Training-wise, this is ideal in it’s a lot like what you would get in college,” Lancaster said. “You prepare for a long time for one meet and set your sights on that. You focus on that meet, aim for your goals and then move on. In that respect, the goals here were like that. But on our end as coaches, it’s hard to evaluate when the competition is just today. We’d like to use today to get ready for the next meet, which is Tuesday at Northridge. And it’s only going to get harder when you are stacked up against teams like Northridge and Warsaw.”