Top Trojan: Chesterton’s Max Goldak secured the final all-state individual spot with a 25th place showing at the state meet on Saturday. The Trojans placed 12th as a team.

(Tribune photo by Jimmy Kissee)

By JIMMY KISSEE

Max Goldak knew he ran a pretty good race, but he wasn’t quite sure if it was good enough.

“I don’t exactly know where I finished, but I know it’s going to be close,” the Chesterton junior said about cracking the top-25 individually to earn all-state honors.

Close. How about 0.03 of a second. That was the margin by which Goldak ousted Bloomington North’s Matt Gustanitis for the 25th and final all-state position Saturday at the cross country state meet in Bloomington.

“I might have got out a little too fast, but I was still in pretty good condition at the end,” said Goldak, who crossed the finish line in 16:19.6.

“I think I ran a pretty smart race. Hopefully next year I won’t die in the end, because every year so far I die later on in the race.”

Goldak’s 25th place finish, along with Adam Martin’s 33rd place showing paced the Trojans to a 12th place team showing - the exact same as last season at state.

The Trojans totaled 286 this season compared to last season’s 299. Columbus North cruised to an easy repeat with 40 team points, followed by Fort Wayne Northrop in second at 146, Carmel third with 167, Huntington North fourth with 171, and Hamilton Southeastern fifth at 193.

Duneland Athletic Conference foes Crown Point placed sixth as a team, while Portage was 15th and LaPorte 16th.

“Awesome, all the boys did an awesome job,” Chesterton coach Tim Ray said. “They were all focused from day one and they did what they had to do to get here. Anytime you get to the state finals you are happy no matter what the outcome is. First, second, or 20th, if you’re here you are one of the elite teams in the state.”

Even with his 33rd place finish, Martin was rather displeased with the race.

“I didn’t feel strong at all,” said the sophomore, who placed 60th as a freshman at state. “I went out too hard and I was done after the first hill. It was just a bad race all together. I had a tough time getting oxygen from there out.”

Martin went on to add he learned a valuable lesson after his second try on the Indiana University Cross Country Course.

“I know now though that I need to go out harder than I did freshman year, but slower than I did this year,” he said.

“If I do that than maybe I will finally have a good race here. Overall though, this was a pretty big disappointment for me. I would’ve liked to be up there closer to the front, but I have next year to give it a go again.”

There was a pretty big gap after the Trojan top two.

Russell Wilk, competing in his first state race, was the fifth best freshman in the state, placing 85th overall with a time of 17:07. Matt Osborn recorded a time of 17:31 for 129th place, followed by Ed Lawson in 143rd at 17:51, and Matt Campbell 157th at 18:05. Jon Pol was the seventh runner for Chesterton, but his time and place wasn’t posted on the results.

The fact that Campbell and Pol even had a chance to run at state in their final seasons was quite a feat in itself. Both were sidelined this season for decent amounts of time with nagging injuries.

“It’s nice to come back and even be able to run today,” said Pol, who was the Trojan’s top runner at state last season. “Campbell and I helped this program get to where it is today, and that should carry over next year and the years after that.”

While it was a rewarding ending for Pol and Campbell, it was a rather tough one for senior Geoff Lambert. You can only run seven runners at the state meet and Lambert was the odd man out.

“It was tough, but I was just out here to support the team and make sure they all stayed focused,” Lambert said.

“They were all ready to go at the start line and that’s where I stepped to the side and let them do their thing. This team had the talent to do better than what we did today, but we have to be satisfied with what happened. Some of the guys weren’t where they wanted to be, but Max (Goldak) deserves a lot of credit for getting all-state.”

With the return of Trojan’s top two runners, along with an improving Russell Wilk and key new additions, Ray has nothing but high hopes for next season.

“The future looks rather promising for us,” Ray said. “The kids have to continue doing what they are doing and nothing but good things are going to happen for them. We are excited about what they did today and for what the future holds for this team.”

2003 Boys XC State Meet

At Indiana University XC Course

Team Scores

1. Columbus North, 43; 2. Fort Wayne Northrop, 146; 3. Carmel, 167; 4. Huntington North, 171; 5. Hamilton Southeastern, 193; 6. Crown Point, 195; 7. Lawrence North, 208; 8. West Lafayette, 226; 9. Northridge 249; 10. Warren Central, 250; 11. Bloomington North, 266; 12. Chesterton, 286; 13. Fort Wayne Snider, 295; 14. Mt. Vernon (Posey), 312; 15. Portage, 364; 16. Laporte, 375; 17. Evansville Mater Dei, 396; 18. (tie) West Noble, 402; Terre Haute North, 402; 20. Floyd Central, 412.

All-State Individuals

1. Christian Wagner, Columbus North, 15:37.4; 2. Rob Grote, Batesville, 15:44.1; 3. Alan Hiner, Fremont, 15:51.0; 4. Brock Hagerman, Pendleton Heights, 15:52.3; 5. Sean Hudson, Shelbyville, 15:55.4; 6. Brad Wheeler, Franklin, 15:55.5; 7. Joel Shaw, Carmel, 15:55.7; 8. Jared Campbell, Franklin, 15:58.8; 9. Luke Stoffel, Wawasee, 16:00.6; 10. Tim Sirbek, Hammond Morton, 16:01.0; 11. Ryan Dixon, Columbus North, 16:01.7; 12. Justin Roeder, Hamilton Southeastern, 16:04.3; 13. Brad Untraver, Mt.Vernon (Hancock), 16:05.9; 14. Ken Collins, Northridge, 16:06.1; 15. Jeff Hoover, South Bend Adams, 16:07.3; 16. Blaine Zimmerman, Hamilton Heights, 16:11.7; 17. Zack Schwab, West Lafayette, 16:12.3; 18. Brennon Plotner, Fort Wayne Northrop, 16:12.7; 19. Aaron Smith, Columbus North, 16:14.0; 20. Chris Mcgrew, Martinsville, 16:15.1; 21. Ben Milroy, Columbus North, 16:15.6; 22. Desean Turner, Warren Central, 16:17.3; 23. Adam Lenz, Blackford, 16:18.6; 24. Justin Mason, Indianapolis Cathedral, 16:19.1; 25. Max Goldak, Chesterton, 16:19.6.

Other Chesterton Results

33. Adam Martin 16:30, 85. Russell Wilk 17:07, 129. Matt Osborn 17:31, 143. Ed Lawson 17:51, 157. Matt Campbell 18:05, Jon Pol (time and place unlisted).

Posted 11/3/2003