Fresh off a big day at Garry Nallenweg Chesterton Relays, Aaron Resto looking to add to his versatility with a new event: the long jump

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A look at the results and names in the two relays in which Aaron Resto ran 400 meters at the Garry Nallenweg Chesterton Relays on Saturday furnishes all the proof necessary of the competition the senior faces daily in practice.
Fellow Chesterton burners Louis Raffin, Nathan Vaughan and Cal Wisniewski joined him in winning the 4x400 relay. A fourth teammate, Kieran Barnewall, was with Resto as they joined Gretta McCrovitz and Aubrey Bamber in running a fast enough time to qualify for a national meet in the mixed 4x400 in Philadelphia in June.
The Chesterton boys have five runners who would be the fastest 400-meter runners at plenty of schools in the region. Raffin, Vaughan and Wisniewski will be back next season. Barnewall and Resto graduate this year.
Saturday’s 4x400 relay time (3:23.21) set a meet record and is listed third on the state ranking of times so far this spring published on athletic.net, way behind Indianapolis Bishop Chatard (3:15.76) and not far behind Fortville Mt. Vernon (3:21.7). The same website shows that the school record of 6-10-1/4 that first-year high jumper Nolan Johnston set Saturday is the highest in the state so far.
“That was incredible,” Resto said of the 4x400 relay. “Each one of us had a pretty good split. We could have gone faster, but considering the conditions, a meet record, I’ll take that.”
Resto has no shortage of talent pushing him daily.
“Workouts get competitive,” he said. “We’re either battling each other or we’re battling to keep standing up. Our workouts definitely help us break records. I feel like if we can continue working like that, we’ll be at 3:20 or 3:19 by the end of the year.”
The school record of 3:18.32, set in 2004 by Geoff Lambert, Joe Bailey, Ryan Wells and AJ Thompson is a long way away, considering it would require the four runners all shaving an average of 1.23 seconds from their Saturday splits.
“Especially at state, when it’s warmer and we have warmer weather, we might even get that record,” Resto said. “We all blew our splits out of the water today. Mine was my second-best.”
So, with so much talent running with him daily, Resto must lose every now and then during workouts in practice, right? After all, nobody is sharp everyday.
“Never,” said Resto, who was told his split in the 4x4 Saturday was 49.3. He said he also ran a 50.1 spilt in the mixed race and in the 4x200 a 21.6 split. “Sprint workouts, yes, because Nate is faster than me sprinting, but the distance, no, usually never the distance.”
Another way of say of saying “usually never,” is “most of the time,” but he enters each workout convinced he’ll prevail.
“If it’s a long-distance workout, I’m on top,” he said. “Like broken 6s, so, 2,2,2, break, 2,2,2 , I’m in front because it’s more of an endurance workout.”
The competition from teammates is what keeps him sharp, he said.
Resto was Chesterton’s best 400-meter runner the day he set foot on the track as a freshman. He has finished second in the sectional open 400 for each of his three seasons. LaPorte’s Willie Clay beat him to the finish line in each of the past two seasons, but he’s running for Purdue Northwest now, so winning the sectional is a realistic goal for Resto, but not the ultimate goal.
He was at his best at the Valparaiso regional last spring, when he ran a 49.55 to finish third and qualify for state.
Resto could fly from Day 1 of his Chesterton track career. Now he wants to spread his wings and try the long jump.
“I did it for the first time in practice the other day and jumped 20 feet,” he said. “I’m going to do it in a meet this week.”
He will run the open 400 and 4x400 races in meets and said he plans to alternate long jumps with and 200 meters races.
His desire to become more versatile gives him plenty of company with his mates in the 400 meters. Barnewall holds the school record in both hurdles events. Vaughan long jumped 22-4 at home vs. Valparaiso, one of the top five jumps in the state so far this season. He also his personal best times in the 100 meters (10.97) and 200 (22.02) that day. He ran a swift 40.07 at the Nallenweg Relays in the 300 hurdles.
Raffin, an impending football star, complements his work in the 400 meters with long jumping and 200-meter sprints. Wisniewski runs both hurdles races.
Depending on how well Resto performs in the long jump, that could give head coach Bryan Nallenweg even more options on how to cobble together lineups when the postseason arrives.
If Resto catches on quickly in the long jump, that could add to his appeal as a college prospect.
“I want to run the 400, possibly the 200 and do the long jump in college,” Resto said. “Those are the three events I have picked out. Then it’s just deciding what college I want to go to.”
Resto won’t run the 200 in the postseason because the heats would sap his energy too much for the open 400 and the 4x400, but he intends to challenge Raffin for the second long jump spot alongside Vaughan.
Healthy competition is easy to find in Chesterton track and field workouts in multiple events, so many of which involve the team’s 4x400 runners.