WARSAW – There was a lot to unbox from the NLC Cross Country Super Duel of the second round robin on Tuesday.

On the one hand, Northridge’s senior Jack Moore won the boys’ race in 15:23, setting a program record in the process. He won the race by 29 seconds over senior Goshen Cole Johnston, who crossed the finish line second in 15:52.

Despite Moore’s record performance, Goshen was able to have a better team performance than Northridge, as the RedHawks edged the Raiders, 27-29, in the head-to-head duel. This gave Goshen’s men’s team the Northern Lakes Conference regular season title, going 14-0 in both round robin games.

Then, less than 10 minutes after the start of the girls ‘run, the lighting hit – literally – causing the girls’ run to stop at the halfway point. The weather only got worse from there, forcing the girls’ race to be officially postponed until 6 p.m. Wednesday back in Warsaw.

Needless to say, it was an eventful night of cross country in Kosciusko County.

MOORE SETS RECORD

One of the things that helped Moore in the track season last spring was getting quick starts. He did this consistently during the 3,200-meter track season, helping him to finish sixth in the event at the state competition.

On Tuesday he applied that strategy to the cross country course.

“I think my biggest hit was as soon as the gunshot went off, honestly,” Moore said. “I just came out in a full sprint, just telling myself all the first 1K that I can’t let (Goshen’s runners) come out in front of me or it’s over. I knew I was going to gain about 500 meters, so I just started to smile. I was really happy.

Moore missed out on last weekend’s Minutemen Classic at Ox Bow Park as Northridge coach Ryan McClane decided to rest his top runner ahead of Tuesday’s meet. The rest worked, in Moore’s mind.

“I think McClane taking us out of this race gave us such a good advantage to have quality training on Saturday,” said Moore. “I just trust McClane, and it worked.”

GOSHEN BOYS WINS NLC

Goshen’s No. 17 men’s team maintained their strong season by winning the NLC title in the regular season. Johnston’s time of 15:52 was completed by senior Drew Hogan third in 16:11 and junior Tommy Claxton was fourth with a time of 16:14.

Under the super double scoring rules, the match is scored as if each school were facing each other one-on-one. For example, in the Goshen versus Northridge head-to-head, Northridge scored points for having finished first, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth if there were only the two teams competing. The runners from Goshen then finished second, third, fourth, seventh and 11th. You add up the first five times, and the team with the lowest score wins.

While Johnston, Hogan, and Claxton typically finish near the top five together, RedHawks coach Mike Wynn paid tribute to his team’s fourth runner Luis Loera for helping them beat the Raiders in the lead battle. -headed. Loera finished 14th in the overall individual standings with a time of 17:08.

“The biggest one for us was Luis Loera,” said Wynn. “If he hadn’t broken up some of these things, it would have been the other way around.”

The victory earns Goshen at least a share of the NLC title. The other half of the Conference Championship is decided at the NLC Championship Race on October 2 at Ox Bow Park.

GIRLS TO RUN WEDNESDAY

The girls’ leaders had reached about the 2km mark of the 5km race when lightning struck, stopping the race.

Northridge entered Tuesday’s super duel 7-0 since the game opener on August 31. McClane thought his daughters were running long before the weather shutdown.

“It’s frustrating for everyone [eight] teams, ”McClane said. “This is not the first time that we have to do this… you have to come back and you have to refocus. We kind of knew it could happen here, but now we have to talk about refocusing and coming back here (Wednesday). We always know what we have to do; nothing changes there.

Wynn explained how running again on Wednesday could affect part of the team’s training strategy later in the week.

“It’s not ideal, but we’re going to make it work… We had planned a tough training this week, and it won’t be that hard for the girls,” Wynn said.

NLC CROSS COUNTRY SUPER DUAL, ROUND ROBIN # 2 – TEAM RESULTS

BOYS:

(full individual results can be found at the bottom of the web version of this story)

Goshen (7-0): def. Mishawaka 19-40, def. Northridge 27-29, def. NorthWood 18-39, def. Plymouth 15-46, def. Warsaw 21-35, def. Wawasee 15-50, def. Concorde 15-46.

Northridge (6-1): def. Concorde 19-43, def. Mishawaka 22-38, def. NorthWood 18-41, def. Plymouth 15-48, def. Warsaw 24-33, def. Wawasee 15-50.

Warsaw (5-2): def. Concorde 20-41, def. Mishawaka 26-33, def. NorthWood 24-31, def. Plymouth 19-42, beaten. Wawasee 15-50.

NorthWood (4-3): def. Concorde 20-41, def. Mishawaka 27-32, def. Plymouth 21-40, def. Wawasee 15-50.

Mishawaka (3-4): def. Concorde 22-33, def. Plymouth 21-35, def. Wawasee 15-41.

Concorde (2-5): def. Plymouth 25-33, def. Lake Wawa 16-41

Plymouth (1-6): def. Wawasee 24-31.

Wawa Lake (0-7)

NLC Men’s Cross Country Regular Season Final Standings: Goshen 14-0, Northridge 12-2, Warsaw 10-4, NorthWood 8-4, Mishawaka 5-9, Concord 5-9, Plymouth 2-12, Wawasee 0-14.

GIRLS: The race did not end because of the weather. Will be rebroadcast Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Warsaw.