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The track and field season at Warsaw Community high school would feel incomplete without the annual Max Truex Invite, which took place on Friday night. With nine teams making up a competitive field, Penn ended up winning the event for the third consecutive year with a score of 110.33. The Tigers separated themselves in the final events of the night, including a record-breaking performance for Tucker Reed, to finish second with 100 points.
The invite, named after the two-time Olympian who set the national high school mile record (4:20.4) during his time at Warsaw, features a unique combined scoring system. For a school to gain points in any given event, it must have at least two athletes compete in it. Both competitors times, distances or heights are then combined to determine each event’s winner.
While the leaderboard fluctuated a bit over the course of the night, Penn took control early thanks to victories in the 100 and 400 meter dashes as well as the 400 meter relay. Warsaw and Homestead battled for second and third place over the course of the evening, but catching the Kingsmen looked to be a lost cause about midway through the evening, as the representatives of the NIC were putting together a very consistent evening as they defended their title.
Warsaw’s first win of the evening came in the 1600 meter run. Senior and Indiana commit Jackson Gackenheimer paced the field in this one with a time of 4:27.46, finishing nearly three seconds ahead of second place. Eli Swinehart took seventh in the race, which was enough to win the event by nearly two seconds. Gackenheimer would return later to put together an even more impressive showing.
Warsaw's Jackson Gackenheimer distances himself from the pack en route to finishing first in the 1600...Nieter
Next door, the field events were in full swing, and this is where Warsaw really stacked up the points. The first to conclude was discus, which put another victory on the board for the Tigers. Quinton Wilson’s throw of 150 '2 " was the best in the field by a good three feet, and with Ethan Rivich placing fourth with a 140' 2”, the event was dominated by the hosts, who won it by a staggering 17 feet to earn another 10 points.
Then followed the long jump, and with reigning state champion Jordan Randall headlining the competition, the Tigers were able to pick up another team win. Randall’s jump of 6’10” bested second place finisher Jackson Hummel by eight inches. Miles Rager earned a fourth place finish for Warsaw with a jump of 6’ even, giving the hosts a combined score of 12' 10”, which gave them the win by nearly a foot.
Earlier in the night, the Tigers took a third place finish in the 110 Meter high hurdles. The first heat was incredibly close, with the top three competitors being separated by six hundredths of a second. Warsaw’s Parker Sweet took second place there, finishing .01 seconds behind the winer, Homestead’s Taisean Elizondo-Waters. Zander Bail finished in third place in his heat with a time of 15.19 to clinch the podium finish for the hosts.
Penn continued its hot stretch with a team victory in the 3200 meter run by placing a pair of competitors in the top five.. The Tigers earned a second place finish in the event, but Gackenheimer was the story. The senior finished with a time of 9:35.83, a full 14 seconds faster than second place and 20 quicker than third. Swinehart settled for a 10th place finish.
With things starting to wind down, Warsaw earned a second place finish in the shot put, with Wilson leading the way again. His throw of 49 feet 4.5 inches placed him in second, while Rivich took seventh. LaPorte won the event to pick up its only victory of the night, with Casey Cochran taking first place.
The final event of the night provided another major highlight for the Tigers. Tucker Reed dominated the pole vault, winning it by nearly two feet with a jump of 15 feet and two inches, which set a new school record in the process. With Cooper Hummitch taking third place, Warsaw was able to finish the night with a victory to secure second place.
A few meet records fell over the course of the evening as well, as Penn set a new best mark in the 400 meter relay, while Homestead’s Mike White’s jump of 23’8.5” in the long jump broke a record from 1994.
Other notable finishers for Warsaw included: Isaak Kennedy (2nd place 400 meter dash), Benjamin Harp (3rd place, 100 meter dash), Parker VanDusen (3rd place 200 meter dash), Samuel Allebach (4th place 300 meter hurdles), Hudson Dirck (5th place 200 meter dash).
