Chesterton senior Veronica Wilgocki, runs at Garry Nallenweg Chesterton Relays with coach Lindsay Moskalick encouraging her

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A veteran of two state track and field meets running a leg of the 4x800 meters for Chesterton, has run the metric mile once, not counting in a relay, and the time she ran it in was well faster than anyone on the team.
Wilgocki ran a 5:25.86 to take third place in a meet with host Crown Point and LaPorte on Tuesday.
“It’s new to me but I do really enjoy it,” said Wilgocki, who accepted an offer to run track at Evansville University on a partial scholarship. Her brother Oliver also runs there.
Later in the meet at Crown Point, Wilgocki
ran the best 800 meters of her life, clocked in 2:24.49.
Wilgocki’s first time running 1600 meters in a high school race came in the Garry Nallenweg Chesterton Relays when she ran a 5:32 split in the Trojans’ 4x1600, a race not run in most meets.
“I was hoping to run in the 5:30s and I ran a 5:32, so that’s good,” Wilgocki said afterward. “Low expectations because I never ran it, so I didn’t really know.”
She was happy to knock seven seconds off her time at Crown Point, and explained how training for the longer race has made her better in the 800 meters.
“She’s been upping my mileage, so making me run more, which is building my endurance, and that helps me hold a faster pace for a longer time, so that’s been helping me a lot,” Wilgocki said of coach Lindsay Moskalick.
Wilgocki was excited to report that freshman Hannah Harring, “dropped a 2:24, an insane split” in the all-freshman 4x800 at Crown Point to go with her 2:27.61 for third place in the open 800.
“We just went at it,” Wilgocki said of winning the meet at Crown Point. “We raced like we were supposed to. I really enjoyed it. Preseason, we really made sure to push and work hard and now it pays off hopefully.”
The Trojans race in the Princess Relays in Mishawaka tonight and will hold senior night Tuesday at a meet with Merrillville and Portage.
Joining Wilgocki in being honored on senior day are: Samantha Benzer, Kaylee Dade, Bethany DeLong, Hailey Geiser, Ava Kontos, Alexia Levy, Ellie McClelland, Alaina McGrogan, Sydney Morris, Ava Persin, Kylia Peterson, Aubriana Pulsoni, Luciana Raffin, Beth Shideler, Autumn Spencer, Isis Spruth, Carmen Stark and Liz St. Marie.