By TR HARLAN

When you go about rebuilding a program, you have to find a place to start and you have to have some early success.

Chesterton boys track coach John Snyder picked the 4x400 as his team’s signature event and it’s developing just as he planned.

“That’s one of the races we kind of focused on as we try to re-establish the program,” Snyder said. “We picked one race and tried to be successful at that. We want to experience some success and so far that’s been happening.”

The Trojans won the 4x400 Saturday at the 8th Annual Chesterton Relays as the quartet of Joe Stahura, Jon Watson, Adam Lukach and Joe Raffin turned in a time of 3:34.38.

“Jon Watson ran really well today,” Snyder said. “He had a really nice split in the 4x400. Adam Lukach in the 4x400 competed and didn’t let a kid go by him. I was really happy to see that.

“I’m very encouraged by that and that our kids are starting to understand that this is a team sport. He’s just an example of how the kids are responding to what we ask them to do.”

Chesterton also took top honors in the Shuttle Hurdles as the quartet of Jacob Holth, Matt Raffin, Chris Robinson and Joe Michalak beat second place McCutcheon by .06 seconds.

“I thought our kids did well,” Snyder said. “We’ve got a nice mixture of young kids and seniors. We’ve got some new seniors who are out this year and we just keep competing well.

“I’ve been really pleased and a lot of these top performances are from freshmen and sophomores.”

The Trojans also took first place in the Shot Put as the trio of Dan Dellumo, Sam Jaeger and David Raffin threw a total of 126 feet, 11 inches to beat West Lafayette by more than three feet.

“Our shot putter’s winning is nice,” Snyder said. “The same thing can be said for our hurdlers. You have to have depth to win things like that and it’s nice to see that developing.”

Chesterton also picked up four second place finishes. The High Jump trio of Chris Linn, Remy Lewis and Cody Galloway jumped 17 feet, 4 inches to finish second behind McCutcheon.

“In the high jump, Chris Linn jumping six foot on a day like today is very good,” Snyder said.

The other second place performances came from the trio of Tony Smith, Dan Baughman and Rob Surber in the Pole Vault (30-6) and the 4x1600 quartet of Chester Vanek, Ryan Cutter, Thomas Halpin and David Osborn.

The trio of Holth, Matt Raffin and Phil Frech also finished second overall in the 3x300 Hurdles.

“I’m cautiously optimistic about how much better we can get,” Snyder said. “You always anticipate that your times will drop when the weather breaks. We have some areas that we have to find a way to score some points though in some of our field events.”

The Trojans travel to Portage to face the host Indians and Valparaiso beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Chesterton Relays

AT CHESTERTON

DIS – 1. Munster, 350-11; 2. Michigan City, 333-7 1¦2; 3. Chesterton (Mark VanDenburgh, Sam Jaeger, Dan Dellumo), 330-5 1¦2; 4. McCutcheon, 323-2 1¦2; 5. West Lafayette, 308-1; 6. Highland, 289-1 1¦2; 7. Andrean, 246-11; 8. South Bend Riley, 208-6 1¦2.

HJ – 1. McCutcheon, 17-9; 2. Chesterton (Chris Linn, Remy Lewis, Cody Galloway), 17-4; 3. South Bend Riley, 16-6; 4. Michigan City, 16-0; 5. Munster, 5-6; 6. Highland, 5-4; 7. West Lafayette, 5-0.

LJ – 1. West Lafayette, 55-4 1¦4; 2. South Bend Riley, 52-8 3¦4; 3. Chesterton (Chriss Linn, Ryan Knarian, Matt Kollar), 51-10 1¦2; 4. McCutcheon, 51-2 1¦4; 5. Andrean, 50-1 1¦2; 6. Munster, 46-7 1¦4; 7. Highland, 38-2 1¦2; 8. Michigan City, 36-7 3¦4.

PV – 1. McCutcheon, 33-6; 2. Chesterton (Tony Smith, Dan Baughman, Rob Surber), 30-6; 3. West Lafayette, 27-6; 4. Munster, 19-0; 5. Michigan City, 16-0.

SP – 1. Chesterton (Dan Dellumo, Sam Jaeger, David Raffin), 126-11; 2. West Lafayette, 123-8; 3. McCutcheon, 123-7; 4. Munster, 121-10; 5. South Bend Riley, 111-2. 6. Highland, 109-10 1¦2; 7. Michigan City, 108-9 1¦4; 8. Andrean, 90-4.

4x1600 – 1. McCutcheon, 18:49.43; 2. Chesterton (Chester Vanek, Ryan Cutter, Thomas Halpin, David Osborn), 18:56.24; 3. West Lafayette, 19:00.91; 4. Munster, 19:03.16; 5. Andrean, 19:44.32; 6. South Bend Riley, 20:32.27; 7. Michigan City, 20:44.71; 8. Highland, 22:58.41.

SHUTTLE HURDLE – 1. Chesterton (Jacob Holth, Matt Raffin, Chris Robinson, Joe Michalak), 1:04.18; 2. McCutcheon, 1:04.24; 3. Munster, 1:08.69; 4. West Lafayette, 1:11.95; 5. Highland, 1:13.25; 6. Andrean, 1:16.56.

4x100 – 1. McCutcheon, 45.49; 2. West Lafayette, 45.71; 3. Michigan City, 46:06; 4. Chesterton (Jacob Holth, Zach Carnahan, Cole Galloway, Matt Mabry), 46.16; 5. South Bend Riley, 46:64; 6. Highland, 48:33; 7. Andrean, 49:63.

4x400 – 1. Chesterton (Joe Stahura, Jon Watson, Adam Lukach, Joe Raffin), 3:34.38; 2. South Bend Riley, 3:34.80; 3. McCutcheon, 3:36.89; 4. Munster, 3:40.19; 5. West Lafayette, 3:43.34; 6. Highland, 3:46.75; 7. Andrean, 3:53.84; 8. Michigan City, 3:58.32.

4x800 – 1. West Lafayette, 8:12.29; 2. Michigan City, 8:25.77; 3. McCutcheon, 8:43.74; 4. Munster, 8:55.97; 5. South Bend Riley, 9:01.60; 6. Chesterton (Chris Noel, Ethan Hall, Andrew Morris, Ian Smith), 9:16.75; 7. Andrean, 9:40.21; 8. Highland, 9:59.18.

3x300 HURDLES – 1. Michigan City, 2:12.56; 2. Chesterton (Jacob Holth, Matt Raffin, Phil Frech), 2:13.81; 3. McCutcheon, 2:16.87; 4. Munster, 2:17.21; 5. West Lafayette, 2:20.48; 6. South Bend Riley, 2:26.34; 7. Highland, 2:28.00.

4x200 – 1. West Lafayette, 1:33.23; 2. McCutcheon, 1:33.81; 3. Munster, 1:36.46; 4. South Bend Riley, 1:36.99; 5. Chesterton (Jon Watson, Ryan Knarian, Matt Mabry, Zach Carnahan), 1:37.25; 6. Andrean, 1:41.94; 7. Highland, 1:47.84.

3x3200 – 1. McCutcheon, 30:02; 2. Chesterton (David Osborn, Chester Vanek, Ian Smith), 30:53; 3. West Lafayette, 31:14; 4. Andrean, 31:21; 5. Munster, 32:02; 6. South Bend Riley, 33:03; 7. Michigan City, 33:54.

DISTANCE MEDLEY – 1. West Lafayette, 10:54.59; 2. McCutcheon, 11:06.68; 3. Munster, 11:15.58; 4. Michigan City, 11:32.65; 5. South Bend Riley, 12:09.15; 6. Chesterton (Joe Stahura, Josh Szczudlak, Andrew Morris, Ryan Cutter), 12:16.79; 7. Highland, 12:26.17; 8. Andrean, 12:31.26.

SPRINT MEDLEY – 1. West Lafayette, 1:37.81; 2. South Bend Riley, 1:39.47; 3. McCutcheon, 1:39.65; 4. Chesterton (Cole Galloway, Matt Mabry, Jon Watson, Joe Raffin), 1:41.09; 5. Munster, 1:41.67; 6. Andrean, 1:44.35; 7. Michigan City, 1:48.35; 8. Highland, 1:52.25.

Posted 4/14/2008