By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
Fort Wayne Northrop (Ind.) and Northridge (Ind.) captured the Viking Stampede Saturday at Southwestern Michigan College.
Northrop won the boy's portion of the meet with 47 points, while Northridge captured the girl's title with 36 points.
Hot and humid conditions made it extremely tough on the runners on Saturday, especially those from Michigan who began fall practice on Monday.
Northridge was second in the boy's portion of the race with 54 points, while Portage Northern was third with 86 points. Rounding out the top five squads were Fort Wayne Concordia with 135 points and Michigan City with 153 points.
Mishawaka (Ind.) was sixth (154), Marshall seventh (207), Lakeshore eighth (240), Parchment ninth (243), Otsego 10th (258), host Niles 11th (277) and Dowagiac 12th (295).
Concordia finished second in the girl's race with 74 points, while Portage Northern was third with 107 points, Michigan City fourth with 123 points and Marshall fifth with 145 points.
Otsego finished sixth (148), Lakeshore seventh (154), Northrop eighth (172), Three Rivers ninth (258), Niles 10th (258) and Dowagiac 11th (330).
Northrop's Bobby Moldovan was the overall winner in the boy's race with a time of 16:36. Loren Spirito of Northridge was second with a time of 16:53, while Nick Tecca of Parchment was third with a time of 17:03.
Rounding out the top five were Jordan Pulver of Northrop (17:07) and Kyle Schmidt of Concordia (17:08).
Northridge's Megan Jackson, the defending state champion in Indiana, was the girl's winner with a time of 19:27.
Anna Weber of Michigan City was second with a time of 19:36, while Jenna Matthews of Otsego was third with a time of 20:02.
Rounding out the top five were Ylva Elhammer of Otsego (20:22) and Kristan Fletcher of Concordia (20:32).
A total of 135 boys and 109 girls participated in the meet.
Dowagiac was led by Mike Kasper, who finished 54th with a time of 20:08.
Bradley Lee was 57th with a time of 20:22 and Adam Hess 58th with a time of 20:23. Evan Bressler finished 62nd with a time of 20:39, while Clay Hewitt was 64th with a time of 20:57.
Rounding out the boy's squad were Andrew Cuthbert and Jason Tabbert who were 65th and 71st respectively with times of 20:59 and 21:53.
Niles was led by Steve Scally who finished 38th with a time of 18:56.
Andy Karsten finished 41st with a time of 19:14 and Brett Ortiz 63rd with a time of 20:47. Dan Geiger finished 66th with a time of 21:11, while Shaun Calhoun finished 69th with a time of 21:25.
Rounding out the Niles finishers were Derek Purcell who was 78th and Matt Ftacek who was 80th. Purcell and Ftacek ran times of 23:56 and 26:59.
Kayla Saviano finished 60th with a time of 28:35 to lead the Chieftain girls.
Katie Hewitt was 63rd with a time of 30:00, while Chelsey Preston was 67th with a time of 32:02. Crissy Huff and Ashley Willis were 69th and 71st with times of 32:13 and 34:39 respectively.
Niles was led by Samantha Brawley who finished 31st with a time of 23:06. Elizabeth VandenHeede was 34th with a time of 23:19, while Tami Madison was 61st with a time of 29:20.
Amanda Smith, Nikki Horvath, Chelsea Clark and Mehgen Flynn rounded out the Lady Vikings' finishers.
Smith was 64th (30:13), Horvath 68th (32:05), Clark 70th (34:32) and Flynn 72nd (34:39).
Dowagiac travels to Paw Paw on Thursday for a non-conference meet scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.