Monster year for boys track and field team has returning distance standouts Spencer Martin and Ryan Nix and others hard at work already, eager to improve with 2027 in mind

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The 2025 DAC cross country champion, Chesterton’s Ryan Nix, barely had time to lick his wounds after missing state by one place when he received a text that reset his competitive clock.
It was a coach from downstate informing him that he had been selected as an Indiana All-Star, which meant he would compete on a team of junior all-stars in a dual meet vs. a group of senior all-stars last Saturday at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers in the 52nd Annual Midwest Meet of Champions. The golfers all were honored that day at a noon banquet, were treated to gear and competed at night.
Nix won the 3200 sectional by staying right behind New Prairie’s Braden Bachmann and then passing him late in the race. The following week, Bachman defeated him by seven seconds for the third and final automatic qualifier.
Nix was hanging out with friends a day after the state meet took place he received the text about being selected as an Indiana All-Star.
“It was really good timing,” meaning that it came in the wake of the disappointment of finishing fourth. “It doesn’t take away anything I did the whole year, but it didn’t end the way I wanted. But to get this, almost like a second shot to perform, is really nice.”
The boys’ track team’s historically accomplished senior class, led by Nathan Vaughan, Louis Raffin and Cal Wisniewski, obviously can’t be replaced, but the returning talent is fired up and ready to prove that Chesterton can reload better than some might think.
The returning distance running group led by rising seniors Nix, Spencer Martin and Nick Jakel is a nice place to start when discussing next year.
Martin ran a 1:56.61 split, easily his best, in the state 4x800 relay.
“I think Spencer came along tremendously. I think it was really nice for him to have a full season that he was completely healthy,” Nix said. “I think that made a tremendous difference for him confidence-wise going into races, just being healthy not having to worry about worsening an injury. He put in a lot of work during the season in workouts and you could definitely see it during the meets. He was so much faster and had a better ability to compete because of it.”
Jakel and Nix log more miles year round than anyone on the team and Jakel keeps raising the bar on expectations for him. The miles take care of the endurance and he’s showing more speed than most would have guessed.
On the day Nix was competing at Hamilton Southeastern, where he finished third in the race with Martin was running in a qualifier to make it into the field for a Junior Olympic qualifier. Running way ahead of the pack the whole race, Martin ran a 4:05.01, which according to MileSplit’s conversion calculator equates to a 4:23.07 in the 1600 meters, which would be a personal best.
“I sprinted out, took the lead immediately and heard some footsteps behind me for about 200 meters and then I think they realized I wasn’t going to let down and then they just slowly faded,” Martin said.
Martin’s 1:56.61 split was all the more impressive given the heat when he ran it.
“I’m healthy as a horse right now and it’s going pretty great,” Martin said.
He said that injuries in the past kept him from getting a deep enough base of high mileage for his endurance to be what it needed to be for him to go as low as he wanted to in the mile as a junior.
Nix and Martin didn’t take any time off from training after the season ended.
“I’m still increasing my mileage every week because I’m getting ready for cross country,” Martin said.
Obviously, losing Nathan Vaughan, Louis Raffin and Cal Wisniewski to graduation leaves the Trojans in rebuilding mode in the events that gave them enough points to finish fifth at the state meet, but there is some talent returning there in the shorter races as well.
Sprinter Weston Moore ran the best 100 meters of his life in getting the 4x100 relay that ran a 40.65, second-fastest time not just of the night but in the history of the state meet, off to a great start and the experience has him excited about expanding his range to the 400 meters. Moore and rising sophomore Ben Phillips, who blazed to a sub-49 split in the 4x400 at state as a freshman, will be the runners around whom that relay will be built.
“Ben and I, that’s two guys for sure,” Moore said of next year’s 4x400 relay, which had three seniors on the relay that broke the record three times this past season. “It’s going to be a very vibrant 4x1, 4x4 roster because there is such a big power vacuum now that all the seniors are graduating, so it’s going to be really interesting to see who comes out and shows up.”
Moore and Phillips will vie for snaps at receiver for the football team and in Phillips’ case perhaps he could play some cornerback as well.
Given the size of Chesterton’s track and field roster, usually approximately 100 athletes, there are bound to be athletes who make huge gains in a year.
Head coach Bryan Nallenweg’s Trojans finished fifth at the state meet in large part because of depth, taking a pair of second-place finishes in relays, plus Vaughan placing fifth in the long jump and 300 hurdles.
“There are a lot of schools with great athletes walking the halls who don’t come out for track,” Chesterton long jump/high jump coach Phil Long said. “Bryan gets them out.”
The key to Nallenweg’s strong enrollment numbers and consistently high retention rates?
“He’s just a really nice guy,” Moore said. “He likes to joke around a lot and he's also just a really nice guy to talk to. He’s not a harsh or strict coach. He's not going to start bashing you for being too slow or something stupid like that.”
Nix voiced similar sentiments.
“I think a lot of it is Nallenweg is just a really good guy, so you know if you’re coming to practice you have a really good coaching staff to work with and I would say on the team we’re all pretty connected,” Nix said. “If you go to a track meet and look around, you will see a lot of people from different events supporting the distance guys or you’ll see distance guys supporting the 4x4. On a lot of teams you don’t see that. To be in the 32 and hear someone from the 4x4 or the 4x1 supporting you and cheering you on is really cool. Supporting each other is a big thing in helping people come out year after year.”
Moore raised another interesting reason the roster size is so big.
“All the freshmen I’ve talked to, they said they just wanted to do it for fun or to help with their other sports,” Moore said. “We have a lot of football players on the track team, and a lot of them really want to improve with football. Track gives you a really solid foundation for any sport you want to get into at CHS. It's unfortunate that a lot of basketball and baseball kids can't come out because with their seasons it gets a little complicated.
“But the kids from other sports who do come out, they have a lot of potential, too, and they get so much better at those sports because of track. So I'm really excited to see what next year is going to be.”