It just wouldn’t be fall without the Northridge High School girls cross country team winning the Northern Lakes Conference championship — even if it is shared.
The Raiders packed their five scoring runners among the Top Ten finishers, totaling 32 points to capture the title in the conference meet Saturday at Ox Bow County Park.
Warsaw went undefeated during the round robin portion of the schedule to claim a share of the title.
Warsaw was second on Saturday with 36 points, followed by NorthWood 124, Goshen 126, Concord 128, Elkhart Memorial 140, Wawasee 140 and Plymouth 166.
It’s the 19th time in the last 20 years Northridge has won the title outright or shared it.
The last time the Raiders shared the championship was in 1991 with Plymouth.
“With some of the injuries we have had, we are thankful to be sharing the title with Warsaw,” Northridge coach Ryan McClane said. “We told the girls that if we ran well and got beat by Warsaw that was OK. Warsaw is an excellent team.”
For Northridge, Allie Pladson was third (19:40), Skylair Hilton fourth (19:45), Autumn Elliott seventh (20:30), Jennifer Schrock eighth (20:38) and Madeline Royce 10th (20:44).
“The girls did not go out hard,” McClane said. “We are trying to make this a 5,000-meter run and not an 800 sprint. That has been our downfall this season. We tried this approach the last couple of weeks and it seems to be working.
“Someone had to step up for us and Royce was the one. She dropped abut 30 seconds off her best time.
“The rest of the season we are going to be working on getting more consistent and getting our fifth runner closer to our pack.”
Warsaw had an impressive showing with Ashley Erba first (19:00) and Cendall Ogle second (19:24).
“The good thing is we will be seeing Warsaw the rest of the tournament series,” McClane said. “At regional you throw Penn in the mix and at semistate you throw a lot of other teams in there.”
Scoring runners for Goshen were Juni Schirch 11th (20:46), Desiree Maran 12th (21:02), Meghan Neff 30th (22:32), Jessica Wynn 35th (23:00) and Addie Picking 38th (23:15).
“We were going after third place, but we ran a little flat,” Goshen coach Maggie Yoder said. “NorthWood has a strong team.
“Schirch and Maran ran well, but I would like our other three farther up. Schirch and Maran were running for all-conference so we will have to find some other incentive for next week.”
Cynthia Medina finished fifth (19:53) to lead NorthWood.
“With the injuries and illnesses we have had I was not expecting to get third place,”
NorthWood coach Brooke Tobias said. “Our fifth runner (Brittani Grove) we didn’t even know if she was going to run until right after warmups.”
Summary
Northridge (32) — 3, Allie Pladson 19:40; 4, Skylair Hilton 19:46; 7, Autumn Elliott 20:30; 8, Jennifer Schrock 20:38; 10, Madeline Royce 20:44. Also: 52, Sydney Bailey 24:18; 53, Kayla Rothi 24:22.
Warsaw (36) — 1, Ashley Erba 19:00; 2, Cendall Ogle 19:24; 3, Brooke Kline 20:11; 13, Lilly Fleming 21:17; 14, Creigh Ogle 11:21. Also: 15, Amber Plummer 21:24; 18, Bethany Plummer 21:28.
NorthWood (124) — 5, Cynthia Medina 19:53; 9, Lindsey Roe 20:41; 26, Karlie Kratzchmar 21:53; 34, Layla Rhodes 22:56; 50, Brittani Grove 24:07. Also: 55, Emily Wenger 24:35; 56, Cassie Griffin 26:16.
Goshen (126) — 11, Juni Schirch 20:46; 12, Desiree Maran 21:02; 30, Meghan Neff 22:32; 35, Jessica Wynn 23:00; 38, Addie Picking 23:15. Also: 39, Janessa Katzer 23:17; 46, Morgan Short 23:44.
Concord (128) — 16, Abby Riley 21:25; 20, Lindsay Ogle 21:31; 23, Miranda Good 21:46; 28, Laura Housman 22:17; 41, Laura Schroeder 23:22. Also: 43, Casey Cartwright 23:31; 44, Sarah Clark 23:34.
Memorial (140) — 22, Ana Walterhouse 21:44; 25, Lauren Burket 21:50; 27, Morgan Severeid 22:10; 29, Michele Corpe 22:23; 37, Melissa Peterson 23:11. Also: 40, Maria Paez 23:19; 42, Julie Erwin 23:23.
Wawasee (140) — 17, Ellie Gilbert 21:27; 24, Stephanie Rhodes 21:48; 31, Nicole Rhodes 22:41; 32, Sarah Jones 22:47; 36, Tessa Riley 23:00. Also: 47, Brittany Robinson 23:53; 54, Cassidy Parker 24:28.
Plymouth (166) — 19, Allasyn Slater 21:29; 21, Katelynn Brashere 21:42; 33, Brittany Gantz 22:49; 45, Gabriela Ramirez 23:42; 48, Justina Hite 23:54. Also: 49, Danielle Wise 24:04; 51, Bobbie Jo Stiles 24:14.
All-NLC — Autumn Elliott, Skylair Hilton, Allie Pladson, Madeline Royce and Jennifer Schrock of Northridge; Cynthia Medina and Lindsey Roe of NorthWood; Ashley Erba, Brooke Kline and Cendall Ogle of Warsaw.
Honorable Mention — Desiree Maran and Juni Schirch of Goshen, Abby Riley of Concord, Lilly Fleming, Creigh Ogle and Amber Plummer of Warsaw.
Coach of the Year — Jerry Gackenheimer of Warsaw.
JV Top Ten
1, Leah Moore (Warsaw) 21:30; 2, Sara Worth (Warsaw) 21:45; 3, Kristin Quick 22:11; 4, Marissa Holaway 22:51; 5, Tiffany Tat (Warsaw) 23:00; 6, Michelle Feng (Warsaw) 23:05; 7, Destinee Moore (Warsaw) 23:26; 8, Jenica Corbett (Goshen) 23:30; 9, Marleigh Maldonao (Warsaw) 23:36; 10, Jennifer Slabaugh (Wawasee) 23:44.
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