Natalie Williams hits first postseason opportunity out of the park for Chesterton girls cross country squad that competes in New Prairie regional on Saturday

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Technically, alternates accompany teams to postseason sporting events in case of last-minute scratches, but the benefits extend well beyond that.
Not only did Chesterton sophomore Williams get a chance to soak in the atmosphere of postseason cross country and track competitions as a freshman, she used the experience to fan her competitive flames. And Williams said her sidekick and classmate Natalie White did the same.
“We kept telling ourselves that we won’t be alternates, and we’ll make it through, and we’ll race postseason,” Williams said.
And here they are, the two Natalies, both among the seven runners competing for Chesterton at the New Prairie regional Saturday.
The Natalies join fellow sophomores Hanah Haring and Paige Clancy, junior Natascha Lepinsasse and seniors Allison Van Kley and Aubrey Bamber as the Trojans attempt to emerge from a crowded battle for one of five qualifying spots for the state meet.
After running a 20:45.2 to win the DAC JV meet, Williams was granted a chance to show she belongs on the varsity, was given it, and nailed it with a 20:32.9 at the Chesterton sectional, the team’s fourth-fastest time. It earned her a 15th-place ribbon, quite the postseason debut.
White ran a 20:58.3 in the varsity DAC race, sat out the sectional, and is back in the lineup after running a strong time trial.
Williams’ late-season surge has her looking forward to seeing what she can do in her first race at New Prairie.
“I’ve consistently dropped 15 seconds off my PR for three meets in a row,” Williams said. “I want to drop below that barrier of 20:20.”
She plans to run with White for much of the race, the hope being that they both can stay close to Clancy. That’s how cross country works. The team aspect of the sport comes into play with runners trying to stay close to those who typically finish ahead of them. It amounts to them pulling each other along through 5,000 meters.
Motivated by watching postseason varsity meets a year ago, Williams said that in practice, running with White, “I would make sure to finish every single workout to the best of my ability and do everything I could to have success.”
As a result of that focus and consistency, Williams said, “I feel a lot stronger.”
She keeps a busy schedule. For example, early last Saturday morning, she was on the ride to Sunset Hill Farm, ran her race, then took a ride with her parents back to the high school in time to make the Trojan Guard marching band bus to a competition and returned to the school after the competition, which sometimes involve the band members returning as late as 11 p.m. That’s why Natalie wasn’t in the stands to watch her sister Brooke, a senior, win the school’s third sectional volleyball title by winning once in a match that started in the morning, again in a match that started at night.
Natalie plays the mellophone for the Trojan Guard.
“I play French horn in normal band class and you can’t march French horn, so I had to learn the mellophone,” Williams said.
The brass instrument’s forward-facing bells send the sound toward the audience better than a French horn, not as well suited for outdoor environments.
“It looks like a big trumpet, but I think it sounds prettier and more mellow,” she said.
Williams proudly shared that the Trojan Guard “made it through to semi-state.”
Williams also plays in the pep band in the winter and will run track and field. She wrestled as a freshman, but said she will concentrate on running this winter, again aiming to find a spot somewhere on the postseason roster.