Trojans senior swimmer Wolfe Lutterman's big night in the Crown Point pool includes a win in the 500-yard freestyle race

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Crown Point’s Jackson Barnes was the favorite to win the 500-yard freestyle in Tuesday night’s dual meet vs. visiting Chesterton, based on having the lowest time of anyone in the field.
Barnes took the lead in the early going, but instead of gradually pulling away as is so often the case with early leaders in the longest race at high school meets, he couldn’t shake the competitor in the next lane, Chesterton senior Wolfe Lutterman.
Just a couple of yards shy of making the turn at the end of the 10th of 20 lengths, Lutterman passed Barnes to the delight of teammates supporting him loudly when he took the lead. Barnes never was able to regain the lead as little by little, Lutterman pulled away.
His big night in a close loss to Crown Point, 102-84, included a personal best time (4:56.55) in his 500 free victory, and a 1:04.04 in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.04) for a second-place finish. He touched the wall three seconds before Barnes in the 500 and a half second behind Barnes’ teammate Jackson Kuhlenschmidt in the breaststroke.
Lutterman was encouraged that he was able to do as well as he did in his first swims of the season.
“That was my best time for the 5, and for my breaststroke, it was not terribly off,” he said. “For being in a speedo, not in a tech suit, it was a really good swim.”
Lutterman, who also swam in two relays, has definite goals in mind for his two individual events.
“My goal in the 5 is probably to get a high school state cut (4:52.52) without suiting and for the breaststroke I want to break one double oh,” he said.
He counts on a season’s worth of training improving his endurance enough to reach his goals.
“The big thing for me is I go from the 5 to almost immediately into the breaststroke,” Lutterman said. “There are only two events in between, so as the year goes on, the endurance that I build to be able to do that gets better and better. It’s not easy to go from that heavy distance into the breaststroke, and it’s more like a sprint, so it’s definitely a change.”
Crown Point won three of the 12 events, including all three relays. Lutterman, junior diver Luke Hawkins (2:25.90) and sophomore Greydon Peroni (52.92 in the 100 butterfly) were the Trojans’ only first-place finishers.
Other Chesterton second-place finishers: Pieroni (1:49.17 in the 200 free), sophomore Liam Eschbach (2:05.80 in the 200 IM, junior Aaron Guzzo in the 100 free (52.10) and 100 backstroke (57.65).