Xander Sierazy running strong in season of major improvement as a sophomore for the Chesterton boys cross country team

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

No telling what can happen to cross country runners as they negotiate their way through races that span 3.1 miles, each route different from the previous as they twist around corners and over tree roots, on top of rocks and everything else nature might put in their path, sometimes doing it in crowded spaces.
Anything can happen, such as what happened to Chesterton sophomore Xander Siearazy early in the Rudy Skorupa Invitational at Lake Central on Aug. 30, a day he ran most of the race with one shoe off and one shoe on.
“At Lake Central, when you sprint out you go into this very tight tunnel section, so we’re all going through there sprinting so someone steps onto the back of the shoe and tore it off (although not completely off) and I was able to hold onto it for about a half mile (until it fell off), and then I had to run the rest of the race with one shoe on.”
Presented with a situation nobody would have imagined, Sierazy had three options at his disposal: 1. He could become his own pit stop crew, step aside and get the shoe back on his left foot.
“I thought about it a lot but I would lose way much more time than I would have gained,” he said.
2. He could step aside, remove his other shoe off, and run in two socks instead of one for better balance.
“I was thinking about that, but it also would have taken too much time because I tied it tight,” he said.
3. He could run the race with one shoe off and the other shoe on.
Siearzy chose Door No. 3 and finished the race in 17:33.02, a personal record and a swift pace considering the circumstances. Clearly, he made the right decision.
He said it felt strange “at first but I kind of got used to it after a while. The worst part was going up the hill and all the rocks, which felt a little weird but I think because I had the other spike on I was able to push myself up it.”
It’s easy to assume that Sierazy would have had a much better time without the shoe mishap. Not so fast.
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “I think there was some almost drive to go faster because I had one shoe on. I pushed myself harder to compensate for having one shoe on.”
Sierazy showed what he could do with two shoes last Saturday at Sunset Hill Farm, where he placed 15th in the sectional and was Chesterton’s sixth runner to cross the finish line, timed in 17:46.4.
Comparing times run on different courses doesn’t work in cross country because some are hilly, others flat. Sunset Hill is a much tougher course than Lake Central’s.
Sierazy’s performance was encouraging, and based on how well he kicked to the finish line, he looked as though he had more in the tank.
He has made a huge leap forward since his freshman season, which he attributes to a few factors. For one, he built up a strong foundation by running almost 500 miles over the summer. Plus, he has stayed healthy all season.
Xander’s older sister Ali, a sophomore distance runner for Butler University, had her Chesterton career interrupted by having surgery to repair a torn labrum in both hips.
“Last year at the beginning of the season, I stopped running because my hip started to bother me a lot and that was after my sister had hip surgery, so I was nervous,” he said. “I decided to take it down and rest for most of the season. And then I bumped up to low 19s at the end of the season. Then at the Turkey Trot I was in the 18:20s.”
It was evident from early in the season that this would be a much better season, and since the extra mileage in the summer worked so well for him he plans to up it next summer.
“Is that right?” Coach Tom Moeller said. “He hadn’t told me that. I’m excited to hear that.”
Juniors Ryan Nix and Nick Jakel ran 700 miles last summer. Jakel has run well and Nix was individual champion at the DAC and sectional meets, both won by Chesterton.
“I wasn’t even close to Ryan (Nix) and Nick (Jakel),” Sierazy said. “I’m going to try to get 600, 700 next summer.”
He said he expects his best race in the spring to be the mile, which, as he noted puts him “right in the middle” of Ali, whose best event was the 2 mile, and his senior brother, Zarek, a soccer star who has run mostly 800 and 400 races.
Is everything fine with the hip?
“Oh yeah, it feels really good,” he said.