Four years ago, Chesterton Boys Cross Country coach Tim Ray looked at an incoming freshman class and thought “these guys have a chance.”

Saturday afternoon they lived up to it and finished second place to State Champion Columbus North at the IHSAA State Finals in Terre Haute.

“From where we started early in the season to where we ended up is just incredible,” Ray said. “We stressed to the guys that it’s two seasons, the regular season and the post-season. You have to get the guys healthy and believing that you’ll be at your best in October.

“We ran the best race we could today.”

The Trojans posted 131 team points, while Columbus North tallied just 63 in winning the title. Indianapolis North Central, who featured individual state champion Futsum Zeinasellassie, finished third overall (189).

“To finish runner-up to those guys, that’s one of the best teams ever in the State of Indiana,” Ray said.

Senior David Osborn was the Trojans top finisher with his fourth place overall finish (16:06.1) that included time as the race leader early on.

“I went out and put myself out there and pushed the pace as much as I could,” Osborn said. “That’s what I wanted to do. The first K was 3:01 and I felt it slow down after that. I took the lead and tried to make it hurt other people. I didn’t want to leave it to the last 100 meters.”

Zeinasellassie took the lead from Osborn about 1/3 of the way through the race and never was challenged in cruising to a 10-second win over Carmel’s Chris Walden.

“David took it out hard and got swallowed up by the field in the middle of the race a little,” Ray said. “He’s a warrior though. The second half of the race, he really battled and worked his way back up to fourth.”

“I felt pretty good,” Osborn said. “Going up to the 3K mark, I was hurting a little bit. We naturally slowed down a little bit, so I was able to recover some. I have no regrets about that race.”

The key to the Trojans’ second place finish was the pack of four runners that were separated by just nine seconds as they finished from 39th-57th place.

“The remarkable thing about this group is that, in the post-season, it’s always a different five,” Ray said. “That’s a tribute to the depth of the team. They believed they could accomplish great things and to see them get that dream is really great.”

Junior Andrew Morris finished second for the Trojans (39th, 17:07.9) and was followed by senior Shane Kenney (41st, 17:09.3), junior Ryan Cutter (47th, 17:13.8) and senior Jon Rogers (57th, 17:16.8). Juniors Manny Orlich (112th, 17:50.0) and Thomas Halpin (150th, 18:15.3) were the other Chesterton finishers.

“We were just hoping the pack was up far enough,” Ray said. “The back of our shirts say ‘2.5 to glory.’ The back half of the race is where it’s going to be won. We knew we were going to have to get up and go there.

“I was standing at the 2.5 K mark and you could just see them start to go.”

It was the final high school race for Osborn, Kenney and Rogers along with teammates Jordan Hoover and Aaron Parker.

“It’s not the same group of seniors like when they were freshman,” Ray said. “David is really the only kid from the top guys when they came into high school that’s left. Jon and Shane really busted their butts for four years and worked their way up.

“It’s the guys that were back in the pack that we told, if they’ll do certain things, they’ll have a chance to do great things. To see them do that, I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

1. Columbus North, 63; 2. Chesterton, 131; 3. Indianapolis North Central, 189; 4. Carmel, 203; 5. North Harrison, 212; 6. Noblesville, 218; 7. Zionsville, 251; 8. Hamilton Southeastern, 253; 9. Huntington North, 284; 10. Terre Haute North, 299; 11. LaPorte, 305; 12. FW Bishop Dwenger, 307; 13. Concord, 320; 14. Culver Academy, 332; 15. Martinsville, 358; 16. SB St. Joseph’s, 360; 17. Pendleton Heights, 387; 18. FW Snider, 390; 19. Valparaiso, 407; 20. Bloomington South, 442; 21. West Lafayette, 475; 22. Perry Central, 480; 23. Lake Central, 488; 24. New Albany, 534.

1. Futsum Zeinasellassie (Indpls. North Central), 15:51.6; 2. Chris Walden (Carmel), 16:01.0; 3. Scott Vicenzi (Brownsburg), 16:02.5; 4. David Osborn (Chesterton), 16:06.1; 5. Tyler Byrne (North Harrison), 16:14.6; 6. Alejandro Arroyo Yamin (Culver Academy), 16:18.3; 7. Nathan Hendershot (Pendleton Heights), 16:20.4; 8. Tom Ohlman (Carmel), 16:30.8; 9. Andrew Diehn (Columbus North), 16:23.5; 10. James Martin (FW Carroll), 16:27.0; 11. Connor Geshay (Indpls. North Central), 16:28.7; 12. Jace Lowry (Martinsville), 16:31.6; 13. Bradley Hess (FW Carroll), 16:32.5; 14. Josh Genet (Northeast Dubois), 16:33.2; 15. Jason Crist (Franklin Central), 16:34.5; 16. Josh Graham (Huntington North), 16:36.8; 17. Evan Scruton (Columbus North), 16:37.2; 18. Christopher Kelsey (Columbus North), 16:40.0; 19. Corbin Brooks (Columbus North), 16:41.6; 20. John Mascari (Terre Haute North), 16:47.5; 21. Jake Carden (Kouts), 16:48.0; 22. Gabe Ocasio (Columbus North), 16:49.2; 23. Cameron Balser (Oak Hill), 16:50.8; 24. Kent Garrett (Guerin Catholic), 16:51.3; 25. Filimon Adhanom (Indpls. North Central), 16:51.9.

Other Chesterton finishers: 39. Andrew Morris, 17:07.9; 41. Shane Kenney, 17:09.3; 47. Ryan Cutter, 17:13.8; 57. Jon Rogers, 17:16.8; 112. Manny Orlich, 17:50.0; 150. Thomas Halpin, 18:15.3.

Posted 11/2/2009