Ryan Nix takes individual title and the Trojans the team title at the Chesterton boys cross country meet at Sunset Hill Farm

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Seventy-four years after winning its first boys cross country sectional championship, Chesterton won its 11th and its first since 2020 Saturday at muggy Sunset Hill Farm.
Running all but the first 300 meters of the 5,000-meter race by himself, Trojans junior Ryan Nix added individual and team sectional champion to his growing list of cross country achievements two weeks after doing the same at the DAC championship meet.
All seven Chesterton runners were at the awards ceremony, accepting ribbons for finishing in the top 20.
Nix ran a 16:16.3. Portage’s Ethan Walsh (16:43.4) was a distant second, Valparaiso’s Otto Leake (16:51.7) third. Chesterton’s Ray Hundt, cleared to run a full race without having to stop to walk for a minute in the middle of the competition, placed fourth, just five months after undergoing surgery on both hips to repair torn labrums, placed fourth, clocked in 17:04.7. Teammate William Roberson (17:17.2) was fifth.
Other than his running partner Nix for 700 miles over the summer, Nick Jakel was the highest-placing non-senior at sixth with a 17:22.2. Fellow junior Nolan Harrington (17:36.2) placed 11th. Those five runners places added up to 27 points. Valparaiso took second place with 42 points. The remaining three schools that qualified for next Saturday’s regional at New Prairie were Portage (90), Morgan Township (144) and Washington Township (161).
Sophomore Xander Sierazy was Chesterton’s sixth finisher, so his time didn’t count toward the team total, but he had yet another strong race during his big season of development by placing 14th in 17:46.4. William Morgan placed 18th and was clocked in 18:03.4.
“We knew if we wanted to win, we needed to represent what we’re going to do next week and what we did at DAC, and everyone did that,” Nix said. “Ray had an incredible run. After being out all season, the past two meets, he’s been incredible. I was really, really impressed with him.”
The Trojans were able to win easily without having No. 2 runner Spencer Martin competing. Head coach Tom Moeller said he didn’t yet know what Martin’s status would be for the regional meet, where the competition level intensifies greatly.
The humidity made times higher than they otherwise would have been, but there is a time and a place for everything and the place is far more important than the time in the postseason.
“This is all about place, all about place,” Moeller said. “The runners care about times, but it’s all about place, especially next week.”
Moeller already knew that the forecast for New Prairie next Saturday called for a high of 52, an ideal temperature for distance runners. That coupled with the quality of the competition is sure to result in quick times on the hilly course.
“I love New Prairie,” Nix said, looking forward to the regional. “It’s my favorite course.”
Placing seven runners in the top 18, winning the team and individual titles gave the Trojans everything they hoped to get out of the sectional meet.
“We needed this meet to go well to go into next week with a lot of confidence,” Nix said. “This week we had a really good chance to make it to regionals, but nothing is guaranteed next week.”
Whereas Nix drafted Lake Central’s Ben Perschon for most of the DAC race, then passed him and never surrendered the lead, beating him for the first time, this race was different. No one was projected to stay close to Nix and no one did.
“It was pretty hard,” Nix said of running alone. “I wanted to go out fast to try to resemble (pace-wise) what next week is going to be like, and that’s just the kind of way it fell today.”
The Trojans added to the school’s sectional hardware collection that already included trophies from 1951,1956, 1969, 1977, 1978, 1990, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2020.
The top five teams at the New Prairie regional advance to the state meet. Northridge is the favorite to win the regional and Penn has had the next-strongest season. After that, it’s wide open. Five schools: Chesterton, Crown Point and Lake Central from the DAC, plus Goshen and Concord from the Goshen sectional, on paper have the strongest shots at competing for the final three spots.