Natalie White reaps benefits of busy summer of training becomes fourth-place Chesterton’s first runner to cross the finish line at Larry James Invitational

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

In addition to her regular distance workouts, Chesterton junior cross country runner Natalie White was busy pitching in to clean the tree debris from the derecho scattered on the Whites’ yard in the 10 days leading up to Saturday’s Larry James Invitational.
White ran so well that she’s probably hoping that nobody, namely her parents, view that extra activity as the key to more strong performances because even if it didn’t help Natalie, it certainly didn’t hurt.
White was Chesterton’s first runner to cross the finish line and was timed in 20:09.6.
“I was doing yard work all week,” Natalie said after catching her breath. “Some people came over to help and my sister came over, so that was kind of fun to have all those people over.”
She’s used to having fun while engaged in exhausting physical activities, such as daily cross country practices.
White’s too smart to fall for anyone trying to tie the extra yard work for her trimming more than a minute-and-a-half from her time at last season’s Larry James. She has an answer at the ready that crushes the landscaping made it happen argument.
“I had a great summer,” she said. “I had a great summer, lots of training. I ran here a lot.”
Asked whether she enjoyed the runs at Sunset Hill Farm, White said, “Some days. It’s kind of challenging because of all the hills, but that’s what cross country is.”
The team had not run the course since after the derecho because there were too many trees down. The work of all those who readied the course for the invitational was appreciated by the runners.
Not surprisingly, Lake Central won the race in a landslide and had the top three finishers: senior Macey Thompson (18:152.2), junior Lana Bruggeman (18:19.6) and senior Chloe Neal (18:52.5).
LC totaled 26 points, followed by 2. Morgan Township (80), 3. Northridge (90), 4. Chesterton (99) and 5. Warsaw (108), 6. Portage (155), 7. Valparaiso (224).
No other DAC members were in the 14-school field.
White called her time “a good start, especially with a workout involved in the race. We had a prescribed workout pace for the first mile, so we went a little slower then and then we took off. We tried to stay as a group for the first mile.”
Chesterton runners following White: juniors Hannah Haring (15th, 20:11.8), Natalie Williams (20th, 20:21.7), sophomore Evie Fortney (21st, 20:23.2), junior Paige Clancy (20:55.5), senior Natascha Lepinasse (21.07.0), senior Eshaal Ali (23:16.5).