When reviewing clutch moments from Chesterton athletes during the 2024-2025 school year, don’t forget to include the final discus throw from Autumn Spencer at the Portage regional

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com

Quick, what clutch plays from Chesterton athletes during the 2024-25 school year come to mind first?
Guard Tobias Ray’s pull-up mid-range jumper for the final points in an upset of Portage in a thrilling homecourt win during the regular season won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it.
Ditto for Hannah Florian’s walk-off, two-run home run vs. Valparaiso to win the title game of the Chesterton sectional, 11-9. She earns bonus points for the school against which she delivered the dramatic moment.
Big home crowds erupted for both of those moments.
Another clutch moment from a Trojan took place in front of fewer people at the discus sector on a field northeast of where the rest of the Portage regional girls track and field meet took place.
Autumn Spencer was down to what would be the last throw of her career if it didn’t go better than the rest of the day had gone. Spencer barely had snuck into the finals with the second-lowest mark of anyone making the cut. Fouls, which had haunted her throughout her career, dogged her yet again. She fouled in her first two of three throws in the finals. Another foul and Spencer would have been remembered fondly as a thrower. She was a two-time sectional champion, and as a senior had matched her lifetime best throw of 119 from her junior season.
Yet, a big experience was missing: a trip to the state track and field meet. She had one more chance to get there, and matching her personal record wasn’t going to earn her the trip. She needed a better throw than that. She delivered in the clutch. Did she ever. Spencer uncorked a 127 on her final throw at the regional, shattering her personal mark by 8 feet.
“It would have been a bummer (if she didn’t make it) but also I felt like I was a 50/50 going into today,” Spencer said after qualifying.
Going into the day, she studied the numbers of the field against which she competed.
“There was a good possibility, but there was also a good possibility I don’t, so I don’t think I would have been too torn apart, but also it was really cool to make it,” she said. “I had thrown that far a lot at practices. I just hadn’t seen it in a meet yet. I’m glad it transferred over.”
Spencer’s clutch throw pushed Munster freshman Nwanmachideluuli Odeluga (120-6) into fourth place, denying her the trip she would have earned without Spencer coming through at the end.
Had Spencer fouled again instead of earning six points for the team on her final throw, that would have pushed Crown Point sophomore Hannah Hiestand from sixth to fifth, an extra point for the Bulldogs and the Trojans would not have earned those six points. In that scenario, instead of finishing third at the regional, Chesterton would have tied Crown Point for fifth place with 53 points. Third sounds so much better than tied for fifth, just as 127 feet sounds better than 119, and two sectional titles and a trip to state sounds so much better than two sectional titles.
Plagued by fouls again, Spencer didn’t have a good day at state and finished 25th, but she made it and heads to Purdue University in West Lafayette not having to wonder what it would have been like to compete in the state meet.
Her throwing days are behind her, and she plans to room with track and field teammate Luciana Raffin, a pole vaulter for the Trojans.
Spencer plans to major in elementary education, where her strong core and gentle exterior project to serve her well in the classroom.