Sprinter/jumper Nate Vaughan explodes with big night for Chesterton in season-opening, 99-33 win a dual meet vs. Valparaiso

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

On a nippy, gray mid-April afternoon, the elite athletes on Chesterton’s loaded boys track and field team opened their season on fire and continued that way well throughout the night.
By the time the 16th and final event was in the books, host Chesterton had logged a 99-33 victory over rival Valparaiso in a dual meet.
Based on so many athletes being in top shape already, it’s evident that this team’s commitment matches its talent, which is saying plenty.
Nobody had a better day than Chesterton junior Nate Vaughan, who won three individual events, plus a relay, and set two personal records and nearly a third in the season-opener.
Vaughan came out in midseason form in the wake of the first offseason in which he trained year-round. Funny how that works.
His day started in the long jump, where he came within a half inch of a personal record with a leap of 22 feet, 4 inches. Knowing that would be good enough to win it, not needing him risking straining a muscle with extra sprints down the runway on a 45-degree day and needing him to rest for his remaining three events, head coach Bryan Nallenweg told him not to jump again.
Next, Vaughan burned down the track through the cold and took advantage of a mild tailwind that fell far short of forecasts to clock a personal best 10.97 in the 100 meters, winning that event easily.
Vaughan blew away the competition again, tearing through 200 meters in 22.02, his best by 0.26. Trojans Devin Throw, a junior, and Weston Moore, a sophomore, finished second and third to him in both races.
Aided by a tailwind but hurt by Chesterton’s long jump runway having an ever-so-slight incline as opposed to some that are downhill, Vaughan said he considered his first jump of the season the best he ever has taken.
“I missed the whole board,” he said. “In the video, my whole entire foot’s behind the board, so it could have been a 23-foot jump.”
The great start to his junior season on a chilly night didn’t take Vaughan by surprise.
“I’ve definitely gotten stronger, and I practiced through the fall instead of just picking it up in the wintertime,” Vaughan said. “Cal (Wisniewski), Kieran Barnewall, Noah (Hauble) and I were out practicing in the fall, two or three times a week with coach Nallenweg since about the beginning of September, instead of coming out late in November. We would meet at the old middle school.”
This is a serious bunch, aware that the collection of talent on the team doesn’t come together often, so they’re doing everything they can to maximize it.
“We want it,” Vaughan said. “We all want to be on the podium at state for sure.”
So fast and so springy, Vaughan comes naturally to hurdling and is very good at it, but athletes are limited to four events a meet, so he didn’t run the hurdles in Tuesday’s season-opener and might score more points for the team with the four events he competed in vs. Valpo in most meets.
Vaughan had plenty of company in coming out of hibernation with a roar.
On his first throw of the season and the only on which he didn’t foul, senior Owen Edlen shattered his personal record in the discus with a toss of 159-8, bringing the school record (166-1, Shawn Schleizer, 1989) into hollering distance, and holler Edlen does every time he tosses a metal object. Throwin’ Owen also won the shot put despite falling more than a half-foot shy of his best throw with a 48-8.5. All 18 points awarded in the two throwing events went to Chesterton football players. Juniors Carlos Leon (45-6) and Tyler Nevious (44-8) took second and third in the shot, junior Colin Kellog was second in the discus (132-01) and senior Ryan Gray took third with a 125-07.
Falling a pole vault victory shy of a sweep of the field events, Chesterton had a pair of high jumpers clear 6 feet. AJ Brandon didn’t have his best night with a 6-2 for second place, but Nolan Johnston did with a personal best 6-6. Brandon, who went as high as 6-8 over the winter, didn’t start jumping until his junior year, and Johnston didn’t join his friend until this season as a senior. Former Indiana University basketball/movie star Matt Nover holds the school record at 6-10.
Chesterton senior Kieran Barnewall, school record-holder in both hurdles races, took care of those events Tuesday the way Vaughan did the sprints. Barnewall covered the 110-meter hurdles in 14.21, just a tenth of a second off the school record he set last season. Later, he won the 300 hurdles in 40.06, well shy of his 38.78 record set last season. Junior teammate Cal Wisniewski placed second in the 110 (16.18) and 300 (41.53).
Senior Aaron Resto (51.22) and juniors Louis Raffin (51.80) and Patrick Mochen (54.25) swept the 400, and the top two finishers ran legs of the winning 4x400 relay. Vaughan, Resto, Raffin and Wisniewski ran a 3:28.84 in the night’s final race. Barnewall sometimes runs that race as well, giving Chesterton an embarrassment of riches from which to choose for the event.
Moore, Throw, junior Alex Zairis and senior Matthew Villareal won the 4x100 in 44.86.
Always tough in the distance events, Valpo won the 800 (Sam Carpenter), 1600 (Sam Sienkowski) and 3200 (Mason Nobles), as well as the 4x800, the meet’s first race.
It always pays to pay attention when Sienkowski and Chesterton sophomore Spencer Martin are in the same race. No matter how long the race or the surface on which it’s run, it tends to end with him and Chesterton sophomore Spencer Martin matching each other’s effort with all-out sprints to the finish line. They took to the track what they had done in cross country, and Sienkowski won this won by 0.06 of a second, 4:33.77 to 4:33.83, a nice time for Martin, who missed all but one dual meet last spring with a hip injury and kicked the spring off with a strong effort in the mile. Martin also took second in the 800 (2:05.14).
The Chesterton throwers and vaulters, hurdlers and jumpers, sprinters and long-distance runners, boys and girls, will be back in action Saturday at home for the Garry Nallenweg Chesterton Relays, a fun event that includes relays in events that don’t typically have them, including the field events. The event gets underway at 10 a.m.