Chesterton senior and UW Oshkosh recruit Nate 'The Great' Vaughan surprises even himself by running a stunningly fast 38.93 in just the third 300-meter hurdles race of his life

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton senior Nate "The Great" Vaughan woke up “feeling great,” Wednesday morning, so he figured his first outdoor track meet of the season would be a good one, but even he couldn’t have guessed just how good.
In his third of four events on a windy day, the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Vaughan tore his way to a 38.93, just 0.18 seconds from friend Kieran Barnewall’s school record.
Going into the double dual meet in which the Trojans defeated Highland 119-13 and Gary West Side 116-16, Vaughan considered his best events to be the long jump and the 200 meters. It’s time to reconsider. His 300 hurdles time would have placed him 10th at the state meet last spring.
Forgive him for not knowing how low he could go in the longer hurdles race. Wednesday marked only his third time running it in a meet.
“I ran it one time last year and I ran it one time freshman year,” Vaughan said. “I wasn’t really expecting too much. I was going to be happy if I broke 40.”
Vaughan made it to state in the long jump (12th) and 200 meters (27th) last season. Since the 300 hurdles and 200 meters are too close together in a meet to do both, he has a decision to make.
“I think I’ll run (the 300 hurdles) all the time. That time will get a top 10 just about every year,” he said. “I think I might choose that over the 200. I’ll run a 200 and see how that goes. It takes about a 21.7 to make it on the podium.”
His personal best is a 21.96 and he appears faster since packing muscle on his frame in the offseason, so it might amount to a tough call.
Vaughan attributes his improved speed to enhanced weight training and better nutrition in the offseason.
When school started, he said he did as many as three lifting workouts on some days, first in strength and conditioning coach Matt Wagner’s class, then after school with Wagner, then at night with Trojans offensive lineman Braxton Ozug.
When track practices started, he eased off on the weight training, resumed running and continued his nutritional changes.
“I stopped eating a bunch of junk food. I don’t really eat candy anymore. I don’t drink pop,” he said. “I ate ground beef and rice two to three times a day for like three months. That’s all I ate, besides breakfast. That was different. I put on a lot of weight, but it was good weight.”
If the added strength and smarter eating translates to a faster 200 time it won’t be easy for him to answer: Should I sprint or should I hurdle?
Vaughan has no such tough calls in the long jump, in which Coach Bryan Nallenweg considers him to be a legitimate contender to win the state title.
Vaughan got off to a nice start toward that goal in his first event of the meet and reached 22-9.75, which would have landed him 10th at state in the long jump last spring. His other jumps were in the 22s as well. His 22-9.75 came on the one jump in which he didn’t touch the board. He took off from the end of the board on another, so if he had done that on his best jump, “I think it would have been a school record. I really do,” Vaughan said. “I’ll get it. I’ll get it.”
Jeff Bakaitis’ leap of 23-6.5 in 1993 stands as the record.
In his second event of the outdoor season, Vaughan anchored a 4X100 relay that ran a 42.21, preceded by leadoff man Weston Moore, Louis Raffin and Cal Wisniewski. That time would have tied for ninth at state in 2025.
So, that’s three marks involving Vaughan worthy of top 10 at the state meet.
He also ran a terrific lead leg in the meet’s final event, the 4x400 relay. He gave the Trojans a big lead, blasting out of the blocks on his way to a 50.2 split. He, Wisniewski, freshman Ben Phillips and Raffin ran a 3:21.93, not too far off the 3:19.21 that earned the Trojans seventh place at state last season.
Vaughan’s big day started with the sun shining brightly and ended well after sunset. But the shades he wore in the long jump had nothing to do with the sun.
Wearing his brother’s Meta sunglasses, Vaughan recorded the whole thing from his vantage point, but had to borrow his brother’s phone to make it happen, so he’s not surhe’ll do it again.
“I might get my own,” he said. “I was taking pictures and videos the whole time, just having fun. That’s what it’s all about, you know?”
He gets it. He takes very seriously doing what’s necessary to improve, but he always makes having fun his priority.
Finding a place he could have fun in college played a big part in him choosing UW Oshkosh, a Division III track and field powerhouse, as his college destination. His academic record earned him what the school calls a “Titan scholarship,” which enables him to pay in-state tuition, roughly half of what out-of-staters typically pay.
The campus is a 15-minute walk to the shores of Lake Winnebago, so Vaughan will pack his fishing pole.
“I’m pretty excited,” Vaughan. “Fishing was a big part of my decision. I’m going to fish the ‘Battle on Bago’ on Lake Winebago every summer. It’s a walleye tournament. There are walleye and a lot of sturgeon in that lake. I’ve never caught a sturgeon, so I’m excited.”
He doesn’t limit his favorite hobby to summertime. He and his father are avid ice fishermen: “My dad’s talking about buying an ice-fishing house. It’s like a trailer and it’s got holes in it and you drive it out on the ice and you sit in it and fish. He’s trying to convince my mom to let him buy one of those so we can go up there and fish together. It has a little stove and a TV, a couch, and a couple of beds.”
Going to those lengths to catch a fish doesn’t float everybody’s boat. Then again, neither does trying and conquering so many different track and field events.
For a while, Vaughan toyed with the idea of making decathlon his college event. Ten events packed into one, the decathlon’s the ultimate test of an athlete’s versatility.
“That’s one thing I thought I might be good enough to maybe compete for a national title in vs. hoping I’m good enough at the long jump or the 100 or something,” he said.
For now, he has put that idea on hold.
“I haven’t counted it out yet,” he said days before the start of the outdoor season. “The main reason I didn’t want to do it yet is because I didn’t want to give up the opportunity to really grow in one or two events. You have to train 10 things, so I might never know my potential in the 100, the 400, the long jump, if I have to learn to throw the shot put, the discus and the javelin.”
He didn’t even mention the 300 hurdles then, but after nearly breaking the school record in just his third time running the event, he realizes that too belongs on his list of possible best events in the long run.
In addition to believing he will break the school record in the long jump, he’s aiming for the 300 hurdles record held by Barnewall, a freshman hurdler at Indiana State.
In the event he takes Barnewall’s record, Vaughan said he will text him, “probably five minutes after the race is over.”
In Vaughan’s mind it’s not a case of “if.”
“He knows it’s coming,” Vaughan said of Barnewall. “He knows it.”
If it happens, expect Barnewall to congratulate him and remind him that the 300 is not his better of two Chesterton records. That would be the 110 high hurdles (13.82). Vaughan then could break the tie by making the long jump his second school record.
This season offers so many exciting possibilities for Vaughan.