Chesterton sophomore Spencer Martin kicks off one-sided track meet in entertaining fashion

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton boys track team is so deep this season that in far more events than not, the Trojans have at least one entertaining, big-time achiever.
The hits started right from the opening event Tuesday night with Lake Central and Michigan City at Chesterton’s track.
The first running event at track meets is the 4x800 relay, and since the 110-meter hurdles is the second event, only the first two lanes were cleared of hurdles on the home stretch, so as to expedite setting up for the next event.
By the time Chesterton’s anchor man, Spencer Martin, received the baton, he was well behind Lake Central’s Kristofer Garner.
Whereas watching Chesterton burners Kieran Barnewall and Nate Vaughan, especially when they are running hurdles races, calls to mind gazelles because of their graceful strides and agility, not the same can be said for all runners.
Even some accomplished ones, aren’t nearly as balletic in negotating their way around the track. Chesterton sophomore distance runner Spencer Martin has enough speed to stand out in the 800 meters and enough endurance to put a big distance on the closest 3200-meter competitor.
But his running style won’t remind anyone of a gazelle or cheetah. More like a bear, a thinner, hungry bear determined to devour anything between him and the finish line.
This time, Garner was the prey he stalked and it wasn’t the first time. In the fall, Martin chased down Garner at Lake Central’s Rudy Skorupa cross country meet. Martin took third, Garner fourth. This time, Garner had a head start.
Martin took off in a hurry, making it look like he might be trying to get it all back too fast, but he said that wasn’t what was on his mind.
“I was trying to get up to him so I could use him for the wind because I knew there was going to be wind as we were kicking,” Martin said. “I was just trying to get up on him so I could pass him when I needed to.”
When that time came, near the beginning of the final lap’s home stretch, “there was actually some running traffic,” meaning runners about to be lapped. That and the hurdles created congestion, so Martin altered his plan slightly and passed Garner a little sooner than he wanted.
“I was like I might as well start kicking now so I can get around him because I could see he was starting to struggle to get around these guys (being lapped),” Martin said. “I know what kind of kick he has because I’ve raced him in a 5K before I’ve seen his kick plenty of times. Every school around here I’ve kicked against someone.”
Martin said things went well strategically but he was upset with himself for not preparing as well as he should have.
“I have to be honest, the entire time I was super dehydrated, haven’t been drinking enough water, so I was just going off pure will,” he said.
Martin authored an entertaining, relentless hunt. Chesterton ran an 8:23.27, LC an 8:24.
There would be no stalking for Martin in his race near the end of the meet, the first 3200 meter race of his career. He missed all but one meet of his freshman season with a hip injury, so he’s experiencing more firsts than most sophomores at his talent level.
Martin took the lead instantly, steadily widened it from there and won it with a time of 9:53.26 to lead Chesterton’s sweep. Sophomore Ryan Nix finished second in 10:13, and junior Ray Hundt was third(10:25.05).
As tends to be the case with Martin, he set the bar of expectations too high for his first 2-mile race. He said his 9:53.26 was “not at all” the time he thought he would run.
“I thought 70s across the board would be easy, and that was a rude awakening because 70s across the board is 9:20,” Martin said. “That’s 4:40, 4:40, so I thought I could do that. I didn’t really take into consideration I haven’t run it before and there is wind on this stretch, plus I’m already dehydrated and I already had a race in me.”
Plus, 9:20 is not a realistic time for a sophomore running the race for the first time. Portage distance star Shane Conroy was the only one to run as fast as that at last year’s regional.
Martin is convinced he can run faster than he did Tuesday, which is realistic.
“Oh, absolutely. I need another crack at that,” he said. “Also, I was kind of in no man’s land. I wasn’t chasing anyone down. I thrive off that competition.”
Martin was far from the only one to finish his races strong in a meet in which Chesterton defeated Lake Central 106-26 and Michigan City 199-3.
Vaughan came from behind to win the 100, running an 11.36 into a headwind, won the 200 in 22.33 and the long jump with a leap of 21-9. He also anchored the winning 4x100 relay, finishing what Weston Moore Devin Throw and Cal Wisniewski started.
Aaron Resto won the 400 with a 51.27, and Louis Raffin was second (51.55). Resto also finished third in the 200 (23.13) and, long jumping for the first time in a meet, reached 20 feet for third place.
Barnewall won the 110 (14.44) and 300 hurdles (39.80) and Wisniewski finished second in both races, running 16.32 and 41.17.
Zarek Sierazy won the 800 meters in 2:05.09 and Hundt won the 1600 in 4:43.16.
In the shot put, the top three spots went to Trojans: Owen Edlen (50-2.5), Tyler Nevious (46-8.5) and Carlos Leon (43-10.25). Chesterton also swept the top three places in the discus: Edlen (155-8), Colin Kellogg (132-10) and Ryan Gray (131-8).