The Chesterton boys cross country team has a rich and successful history. It’s being turned over to a new group starting Saturday in Carmel.

“They’re young and inexperienced,” Chesterton coach Tim Ray said. “The kids put their own expectations on themselves. As coaches, we just try to get them to do the best that they can. Our goal is always to reach the State Finals if we can.

“We’ll keep training and working hard and just see where it all ends up.”

Senior Andrew Kearney and junior Kevin Kenney will handle the top two spots for the Trojans.

“Andrew (Kearney) and Kevin (Kenney) are really the only two guys back from last year’s team,” Ray said. “They’ll be our front runners. They’ve never had to be the leaders before, but they’ve learned from the guys that were ahead of them and they’ll do a good job for us.”

The next three spots in the Trojan lineup seem to have been taken by senior Evan Mazurkiewicz, junior Jonah Noel and sophomore Mitch Wilborn.

“Evan, Mitch and Jonah have separated themselves from the other guys a little bit to round out our top five,” Ray said. “After that, it’s up for grabs.”

The Trojans have a solid group vying for the final spots in the top seven and, depending on the workout, all have shown signs of taking the job.

“We’ve had different workouts where it’s been different kids,” Ray said. “We’ll have to see how that all plays out once we started running competitively.”

Sophomores Alex Genetski, Robert St. Pierre, Bobby Maletta, Michael Amling and David Tincau are pretty solid,” Ray said. “Freshman Emmett Sullivan and Parker Whitmore have also shown some promise.”

Posted 8/16/2012