Juniors Spencer Martin and Ryan Nix lead way for boys cross country, giving Chesterton a legitimate shot at making it to state as a team

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Driven cross country runners forever in search of moving up in the pack must find that sweet spot at which piling up miles and staying healthy intersect.
It’s a lot to try to figure out, which is why teenage runners who let their coaches chart the map and then follow it tend to be better at pulling off the challenging balancing act than those who follow their own paths.
Walking that tightrope requires running year-round to build up endurance, running fast on hard workout days, taking the foot off the pedal on recovery days, and communicating honestly when something doesn’t feel quite right.
Ryan Nix and Nick Jakel, the former blessed with more natural ability, have stayed the course and they are healthy and strengthened by reaching their summer target of 700 miles.
Sometimes a distance runner can do everything right, follow the coach’s plan, and still end up breaking down. The body has the final say. That’s why if dedicated senior Ray Hundt becomes a factor this season, it won’t be for a while. He is coming off labrum tears on both hips and wasn’t cleared to run even one lap around the track until last Friday. That’s what he did to start his road to recovery. He ran one lap around the track.
And then there is the case of junior Spencer Martin, a beast of a competitor when healthy, but a runner with a tendency to want to chart his own map and it’s one that can conflict with reality. He wants the world, and he wants it now, but does he have the discipline to train year-round at an intensity level that matches the time of year? Can he put in the miles with no races in sight, and when the races draw closer, can he dial it back when his body needs a recovery day?
The answer to those questions will determine whether the Martin can maximize his potential in high school and beyond.
Coach Tom Moeller believes in Martin’s talent, believes in it so deeply that he thinks he has the potential to break a record that runs 40 this coming spring, Braden Smith’s 4:14.20 in the 1600 meters, but only if Martin hops on a sound training path and doesn’t veer off course.
“Spencer is intense as far as being a competitor goes. He’s inconsistent as far as his training goes. He likes the races,” Moeller said. “The training part, he really needs some outside pushing to do the training part and he’s so good that he can run fairly well without a whole lot of training. The question is does he really want to reach his potential because if he hung out with Ryan over the summer, he arguably would be the top guy in the region.”
Slow, steady and consistent is the prescription for much of the summer because it builds a nice springboard for the season. More mileage, if distributed properly, can decrease the chance of injury.
“What happens is Spencer goes from zero to 60 and when he goes 60, he gets hurt,” Moeller said. “If he would just do it little by little, maybe the volume wouldn’t hurt him.”
As enjoyable as it is to watch Martin hunt down a top runner in a race, it must be 10 times as exhilarating to be the guy doing it, so dialing it back in training, sometimes even in a race if that’s what makes long-term sense, isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Yet it’s undeniable, as Martin has been told, that it’s more important to beat Lake Central’s Ben Perschon in the regional to get to state than it is to beat him at LC’s Rudy Skorupa Invitational on Aug. 30, at which the top three finishers are awarded a cane. Spencer wants the cane, and he wants it now. He wants Perschon shrinking in his rear-view mirror, and he wants that now and forever. But trying to make that happen so soon after resuming training might be counterproductive in terms of injury risk.
Shin problems limited Martin’s summer training, and that injury tends to flare up when runners too do much too soon upon resuming running.
Martin will run his first race of the fall at Saturday’s Larry James Invitational. He wasn’t far enough into training to run in the season-opening Valley Kickoff at the Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
Nix ran in it. Did he ever.
He finished ninth with a time of 16:49.5 on a muggy day with a temperature close to 80 degrees. A year ago, Martin finished 11th in that race with a 16:44.50. If Martin can stay healthy, he and Nix would make a formidable 1-2 duo for the Trojans, who have enough behind the top two to have a good shot at making it to state as a team.
Senior Will Roberson was Chesterton’s next finisher, running a 17:32.6 to finish 41st. Jakel ran a 17:48.8 for 56th place. Junior Nolan Harrington (17:51.7) placed 61st and sophomore Aaron Pieters (17:52.3), was the fifth runner to have his place count toward the team score.
Chesterton placed eighth among 29 schools in the team standings in a meet won by Indianapolis North Central. Bloomington North finished second.
Non-scoring Chesterton finishers in the varsity race,
Sophomores: 93. Xander Sierazy (18:25.2), 102. Elijah Fletcher (18:29.8), 129. Max Redman (19:05.9).
Seniors: 109. William Morgan (18:38.1), 149. Logan Booth (19:23.3).
Sophomores: 93. Xander Sierazy (18:25.2), 102. Elijah Fletcher (18:29.8), 129. Max Redman (19:05.9).
Chesterton JV race results, by class:
Freshmen: 9. Ryan Seaman, (20:07.2), 38. Ben Hiestand (21:18.2), 53. Job Hennigar (22:15.3), 64. Ben Pemberton (22:22.3), 71. Carter Nadratowski (24:56.6), 72. Ben Malinovsky (24:56.6).
Sophomores: 8. Nathan Hernandez (20:05.2), 40. Jake Billings (21:24.8), 42. Colton Beckwith (21:29.6), 45. Andersen Himan (21:45.9), 51. Colton Smith (22:11.4), 60. Mason Kubath (22:37.6.
Juniors:13. Wyatt Lambersie (20:10.8), 57. Dom Orlando (22:31.0), 61. Finnegan Smith (22:39.2), 62. Jackson Foster (22:57.4), 66. Noah Stofko (23:54.6), 86. Justin Bircher (26:23.4).
Seniors: 12. 58. Will Brizendine (22:35.2), 12. Jeffrey DiCesare (20:09.9).