Chesterton boys track makes up for deficit in field events and outruns visiting Crown Point 73-59

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Crown Point had a 17-point advantage in the five field events Tuesday at Chesterton and still couldn’t hang with the host, losing 73-59. The Trojans also defeated LaPorte 100-32.
Chesterton has too much depth at too many different running events for most teams to match.
In prevailing over Crown Point, the Trojans won 8 of 11 running events, including 2 of 3 relays.
Nate Vaughan was the most prolific winner, taking first in the long jump (21-09.75) and 200 meters (21.79), and running legs of the 4X100 (41.78) and 4X400 (3:24.38) relays.
Louis Raffin placed first three times, running the same two relays as Vaughan and winning the 300 hurdles (39.80), fell behind teammate second-place Cal Wisniewski (40.63), another member of the two winning relays, and passed him in the late stages of an exciting race.
Weston Moore won the 100 meters with a personal best 10.98, ran on the winning 4X1 and placed second to Vaughan in the 200 with a 22.40.
“That was Weston’s goal, to run sub-11, and he ran 10.98, which is the state standard,” Nallenweg said. “That just means if he runs that at the regional and he finishes sixth (or anywhere out of the top three) he’ll still get to state. So that’s big because typically guys run faster on Valpo’s track and typically it’s a little warmer than it is tonight. And if it’s warm at Valpo, you’re going to have a little tailwind.”
Ben Phillips won the open 400 (52.25) and a leg of the winning 4x4.
Spencer Martin won the 1600 meter with a personal best 4:24.65 and Nick Jakel hit the finish line first in the 3200 (10:00.57).
Carlos Leon, better known as a shot putter, qualified as the surprise winner of the night by taking the discus. A couple of weeks after deciding to get serious about the event, Leon threw the discus 134-04 to win the event by a few feet.
The most impressive performance was supplied by the 4X100 relay quartet of Moore, Raffin, Wisniewski and Vaughan, inching closer to one of the school record of 41.45, set in 2017 by Darren Corzan, Louie Razo, Braden Corzo, and EJ Biokoro. That’s just 0.33 faster than Tuesday night’s time. What Nallenweg said in reaction to Moore’s 100 time applies here.
Today’s runners have gone sub-42 multiple times.
“I think (the record holders) were pretty consistently in the low 42s all season,” Nallenweg said. “They may have only broken 42 that one time at the state meet, or may have had high-41s one other time. It’s like I told these guys, ‘You guys are consistently now sub-42.’”
A stickler for handoffs, Nallenweg never uses the word perfect when talking about them and believes there is time to be shaved there.
“I told them, I’m going to critique these and I’m going to critique these a lot because in the 4X1 every little thing matters,” the coach said. “The steps, how you get out, the handoffs, I’m going to critique everything that matters. After each race we get together and talk to each other honestly, in a constructive way, and say, ‘All right, what do you think?’ The guys have to be able to do that because they have to trust each other.”
To the untrained eye, all the handoffs looked good, but Nallenweg’s eyes know precisely what to look for to make them better.
“Weston to Louis was pretty good and Louis to Cal was really good and then Cal to Nate has been better,” Nallenweg said. “It was still decent but when we’re trying to get to the times they’re trying to get to you have to be as close to perfection as you possibly can. But they’re also fast enough to where they can make mistakes and make up for it.”