Fortunes can swing suddenly at track meets.

A false start, a stumble, a pulled muscle, a scratch and unfortunately for Chesterton, a dropped baton.

A fumbled exchange between Joe Troop and Jon Watson on the first exchange of the 1,600-meter relay put a damper on Thursday’s Portage Sectional for the Trojans.

Watson did not attempt to resume his leg after the mishap, walking off the track.

“It would've made a difference because they probably would’ve had a chance to get fourth and move on,” coach John Snyder said. “I blame the coaching. We talk about different things, but we don't spend time preparing for a situation like that. It’s unfortunate that it happened to a kid (Watson) who’s been in big meets, state meets, who’s won two state medals, in his senior year.”

Chesterton, which trailed Valparaiso by six points for second place going into the relay, finished third with 116 points, just ahead of LaPorte (113). The host Indians, a close third behind Valpo and Chesterton in the Duneland Athletic Conference meet, won the 1,600 relay to secure the title with 137 to the Vikings’ 128.

“In big meets, you always need help from other people,” Snyder said. “As good as Portage's sprinters are, at conference, Crown Point and Merrillville took some points away from them, and that made a big difference. That’s definitely not our strength, though our sprinters scored more than they did last week. We’re just not as deep as we were last year where we were able to score with our second guys.”

The Trojans' two firsts came from pole vaulter Justin Zosso (15 feet) and Ryan Cutter (800).

"Justin clearing 15 feet again, when you can consistently do that in the pole vault, you're setting yourself up for big things," Snyder said. "Ryan's overall speed is much better than people realize and he's got the endurance to finish from his distance races."

Cutter ran a 1:58.8 to hold off LaPorte's Mitch Hubner.

"My first real open 800 was at conference, so I'm still learning how to run it," Cutter said. "It's something we kind of decided early on, that I'd run the four by eight and (doing the 800 instead of the 1,600) would give me a little more rest. My problem was I didn't go out hard enough. It's a learning mistake. I'll be ready for (regionals) and hopefully another trip downstate."

Elsewhere for Chesterton, Kody Galloway was second to Valpo's Jordan Romanov in both jumps. Galloway slipped ahead of Romanov on his final long jump by a quarter inch, but Romanov answered with a 21-11 1/4 to reclaim first. Galloway went out at 6-2 in the high jump, where Romanov went on to clear 6-6.

Dan Dellumo and Nathan Brock went two-three in the shot put, the latter surpassing 50 feet for the first time with a heave of 50-2 1/4. Portage's Joey Little edged Dellumo 55-3 to 54-11 1/4 for the top spot, both reaching the state qualifying standard.

"It's Nathan's first time making (regionals) so he should be pretty hungry," Snyder said.

Among other Trojan qualifiers, Tyler Rusboldt was runner-up in the 1,600 and ran a leg on the 3,200 relay with Cutter, Manny Orlich and Austin Palombizio, coming in second to record-setting LaPorte (7:59.29). Troop and Watson were two-three in the 400 behind Portage's Alvin Best while Peter Fouts backed Zosso in with a third in the pole vault. Andrew Kearney took fourth in the 3,200 as did Kyle Galloway in the high jump.

"It's about moving on right now," Snyder said. "It's one and done. You get a chance at another week, and you've got to be at your best then or you are done. We've got a lot of kids who have been in big meets, state meets. I'd like to think they'll come prepared and be able to perform."

1. PORTAGE 137, 2. VALPARAISO 128, 3. CHESTERTON 116, 4. LAPORTE 113, 5. WHEELER 42, 6. MICHIGAN CITY 32, 7. NEW PRAIRIE 29, 8. WASHINGTON TWP. 21, 9. MARQUETTE 4, 10. WESTVILLE 1.

3,200 RELAY -- 1. LAPORTE (AUSTIN ALCORN, STUART WEST, MITCH HUBNER, JOSH HOJNACKI) 7:59.29 (MEET RECORD), 2. CHESTERTON (RYAN CUTTER, TYLER RUSBOLDT, MANNY ORLICH, AUSTIN PALOMBIZIO) 8:04.54, 3. VALPARAISO (AHMAD ALJOBEH, NICK VIOLANTI, NIKOLAS JEFTICH, DANIEL MARCHETTI) 8:04.61, 4. PORTAGE (CORY LAMPING, ALEX BECKER, DAVID CLEGG, JEFF CRAIG) 8:28.19, 5. Wheeler 8:55.06, 6. Michigan City 9:25.26.

110 HURDLES -- 1. ANDREW KITTRIDGE (V) 15.44, 2. CHRIS HIDALGO (Wh) 15.67, 3. ARTHUR WILLIAMS (MC) 15.6, 4. DEANDRE JACKSON (P) 15.85, 5. Richie Ruff (C) 15.94, 6. Josh Marciniak (V) 15.97.

100 -- 1. JERON BLAKE (P) 11.21, 2. ROBERT HURD (Wh) 11.36, 3. ALEX VASILE (V) 11.45, 4. JAMES O'NEAL (L) 11.46, 5. Jake Dixon (P) 11.56, 6. Anthony Catchings II (MC) 11.8.

DISCUS -- 1. AUSTIN EPPLE (L) 136-11, 2. VINCE FISCHER (P) 136-11, 3. LOGAN FISCHER (P) 132-6, 4. ZACH CANNON (WT) 129-2, 5. Nathaniel Jordan (V) 128-9, 6. Dan Dellumo (C) 124-6.

SHOT PUT -- 1. JOEY LITTLE (P) 55-3, 2. DAN DELLUMO (C) 54-11 1/4, 3. NATHAN BROCK (C) 50-1 1/4, 4. JAKE GROSSNICKLE (V) 49-8 3/4, 5. Lonnie Pappas (V) 48-7, 6. Kody Kleine (NP) 47-10 1/2.

LONG JUMP -- 1. JORDAN ROMANOV (V) 21-11 1/4, 2. KODY GALLOWAY (C) 21-9 1/4, 3. JAKE DIXON (P) 21-0, 4. SCOTT SCHREIBER (L) 20-11, 5. Brandon Ciolli (M) 20-9 1/4, 6. Justin Garrett (L) 20-8 3/4.

POLE VAULT -- 1. JUSTIN ZOSSO (C) 15-0, 2. MITCH RODRIGUEZ (P) 12-6, 3. PETER FOUTS (C) 12-6, 4. RYAN CRUM (P) 12-6, 5. Paul Andrie (V) 12-0, 6. Andrew Matchett (WT) 12-0.

800 -- 1. RYAN CUTTER (C) 1:58.8, 2. MITCH HUBNER (L) 1:59.9, 3. DAN MARCHETTI (V) 2:00.82, 4. STUART WEST (L) 2:01.21, 5. Kyle Nurse (Wh) 2:01.26, 6. Austin Palombizio (C) 2:01.54.

200 -- 1. PAYTON MCCOY (L) 22.34, 2. JERON BLAKE (P) 22.53, 3. ROBERT HURD (Wh) 22.99, 4. BRANDON HOGGE (WT) 23.38, 5. Jason Roman (P) 23.39, 6. Adam Thoma (V) 23.76.

HIGH JUMP -- 1. Jordan Romanov (V) 6-6, 2. KODY GALLOWAY (C) 6-0, 3. ALVIN BEST (P) 6-0, 4. KYLE GALLOWAY (C) 5-10, 5. (Tie) David Clegg (P) and Elijah Owen (L) 5-10.

3,200 -- 1. AHMAD ALJOBEH (V) 9:39.71, 2. PEYTON REED (V) 9:45.44, 3. JOSH HOJNACKI (L) 9:56.08, 4. ANDREW KEARNEY (C) 9:57.6, 5. Max Zmija (P) 10:05.34, 6. David Dailey (MC) 10:09.06.

1,600 -- 1. MITCH HUBNER (L) 4:24.82, 2. TYLER RUSBOLDT (C) 4:28.36, 3. DAVID DAILEY (MC) 4:28.99, 4. IAN SILVER (NP) 4:29.66, 5. Michael Bobos (V) 4:36.87, 6. Xavier Reed (V) 4:37.24.

300 HURDLES -- 1. SKYLER COBURN (L) 39.34 (MEET RECORD), 2. OTHIE FREENY (P) 40.08, 3. ALEX VASILE (V) 41.18, 4. KEITH FISCHER (NP) 41.5, 5. Josh Marciniak (V) 42.0, 6. DeAndre Jackson (P) 42.18.

400 -- 1. ALVIN BEST (P) 49.94, 2. JOE TROOP (C) 50.23, 3. JON WATSON (C) 50.56, 4. CODY ZANDER (V) 52.01, 5. SAM HOJNACKI (L) 52.33, 6. RICARDO ROSARIO (V) 53.33.

400 RELAY -- 1. PORTAGE (DETREK SUGGS, JERON BLAKE, JAKE DIXON, OTHIE FREENY) 43.08 (MEET RECORD), 2. LAPORTE (JAMES O'NEAL, SKYLER COBURN, JARED ROSS, PAYTON MCCOY), 3. WHEELER (KYLE NURSE, DEREK HARTWIG, CHRIS HIDALGO, ROBERT HURD) 44.43, 4. VALPARAISO (ADAM THOMA, ANDREW KITTRIDGE, ALEX VASILE, JORDAN ROMANOV) 44.6, 5. Michigan City 44.68, 6. New Prairie 45.55.

1,600 RELAY -- 1. PORTAGE (DETREK SUGGS, ALVIN BEST, JERON BLAKE, FLORIAN FRENZEL) 3:25.27, 2. LAPORTE (AUSTIN ALCORN, SKYLER COBURN, SAM HOJNACKI, PAYTON MCCOY) 3:26.81, 3. VALPARAISO (DAN MARCHETTI, JOSH MARCINIAK, NICK VIOLANTI, ALEX VASILE) 3:31.03, 4. WHEELER (DANE ECKWEIER, EDDIE HANSEN, DEREK HARTWIG, KYLE NURSE) 3:37.74, 5. New Prairie 3:40.17, 6. Michigan City 3:49.47.

Posted 5/20/2011