By TR HARLAN

The Chesterton girls track team fought until the end, but came up just short and finished fourth at the West Lafayette Relays on Saturday.

With three events to go, there were just four sports separating the top four teams, but a 1-3 finish in the 3,200 from the host school was to much to overcome as West Lafayette won the overall title with 89 points.

Lawrence North finished second with 73 points, followed by Valparaiso (69) and Chesterton (68).

“The day had a lot of ebb and flow to it,” Chesterton coach Steve Kearney said. “It was a very competitive meet with a lot of really talented teams. We should feel privileged to be in the hunt here.

“A lot of these teams you don’t know much about, so you just tried to stay ahead of the kid next to you and we did that a lot today.”

The Trojans won just one event as they finished first and third in the long jump. Senior Katie McColly won the event with a jump of 17-0 1¦2, while junior Mallory Przybylinski was third (15-10 1¦2).

“First and third in the long jump with jumping in the rain is pretty good,” Kearney said. “You have to be happy with that and their efforts.”

Chesterton also finished second and third in the high jump as Chrissy Watts and Rachel Crawford both cleared 5-foot.

“Just like the long jump, the high jumpers had tough conditions to jump in,” Kearney said. “When the weather breaks, they’ll be ready to go.”

The Trojans finished second in the shuttle hurdles, while Brianna Guardiola and Kirstyn Nallenweg also finished fourth and fifth in the 300 hurdles.

“The hurdlers dropped a second in the shuttle hurdles from last week,” Kearney said. “Both girls had PR’s (in the 300’s) and I don’t know what more you can ask for.”

Chesterton also got a fourth and seventh place finish in the pole vault from Kelley Freeman and Chloe Lawson.

“I really liked the effort of the pole vaulters,” Kearney said. “Fourth and seventh overall is a phenomenal day. They were vaulting in the wind and everybody else wimped out and we didn’t. We have some pretty tough girls there.

“That really kept us in the meet. We had an unfortunate drop in the 4x100 and when everybody else steps up to carry you through it, you have the makings of being a solid team.”

Chesterton got a nice run from Kim St. Pierre in the 4x1600, while the 4x400 and the 4x800 quartets ran season-best times.

“I thought we competed well in most cases,” Kearney said. “I was really pleased with Kim St. Pierre in the 4x1600 with a 10-second PR. The 4x400 and the 4x800 were their best times of the year too.”

But, in the end, West Lafayette was just too much.

“West Lafayette’s two milers were really the difference,” Kearney said. “They killed everybody and I thought Milana (Socha) did a good job of running with them as long as she could. They outscored us 16-2 there and that was the meet.”

Team Results

1. West Lafayette, 89; 2. Lawrence North, 73; 3. Valparaiso, 69; 4. Chesterton, 68; 5. Merrillville, 58; 6. FW Concordia Lutheran, 38; 7. (tie) Bishop Chatard and Zionsville, 35; 9. Lafayette Jeff, 33; 10. McCutcheon, 25; 11. Franklin Central, 23.

Individual Results

3200 – 1. Linsey Daluga (WL), 11:17.35; 2. Carly Sobolewski (BC), 11:30.05; 3. Kaisa Goodman (WL), 11:37.71; 4. Katie Conrad (Z), 11:58.76; 5. Allie McGraw (Mc), 12:04.37; 6. Lisa Struch (Mc), 12:13.42; 7. Milana Socha (C), 12:15.98; 11. Malorie Crafton (C), 12:37.98.

300 HUR – 1. Stacia Weatherford (LN), 46.15; 2. Queennetta Reese (LJ), 47.63; 3. Stephanie Fisher (V), 47.95; 4. Brianne Guardiola (C), 48.38; 5. Kirstyn Nallenweg (C), 49.89; 6. Chelsea Villamore (LN), 49.98.

4x100 – 1. Merrillville, 48.92 (MEET RECORD); 2. West Lafayette, 50.99; 3. Valparaiso, 51.17; 4. Bishop Chatard, 51.40; 5. Lafayette Jeff, 52.64; 6. FW Concordia Lutheran, 53.60.

4x200 – 1. Lawrence North, 1:45.00 (MEET RECORD); 2. West Lafayette, 1:45.89; 3. Merrillville, 1:48.68; 4. Bishop Chatard, 1:48.88; 5. Zionsville, 1:49.10; 6. Chesterton, 1:49.13.

4x400 – 1. Lawrence North, 4:04.55; 2. Franklin Central, 4:09.50; 3. Valparaiso, 4:11.42; 4. West Lafayette, 4:15.14; 5. Chesterton, 4:16.74; 6. Merrillville, 4:19.83.

4x800 – 1. West Lafayette, 9:52.96; 2. Zionsville, 9:53.70; 3. Bishop Chatard, 958.42; 4. FW Concordia Lutheran, 10:01.38; 5. Lawrence North, 10:02.90; 6. Franklin Central, 10:04.53; 8. Chesterton, 10:21.19.

4x1600 – 1. West Lafayette, 21:59.91; 2. Zionsville, 22:23.95; 3. Bishop Chatard, 22:26.25; 4. FW Concordia Lutheran, 22:51.28; 5. McCutcheon, 23:22.08; 6. Valparaiso, 23:28.22; 7. Chesterton, 23:29.81.

SPRINT MEDLEY – 1. Merrillville, 1:50.98; 2. Lawrence North, 1:52.63; 3. West Lafayette, 1:54.37; 4. Valparaiso, 1:55.64; 5. Bishop Chatard, 1:56.53; 6. Chesterton, 1:56.54.

SHUTTLE HURDLES – 1. Valparaiso, 1:09.53; 2. Chesterton, 1:11.75; 3. FW Concordia Lutheran, 1:13.46; 4. West Lafayette, 1:14.40; 5. Franklin Central, 1:16.41; 6. Zionsville, 1:21.60.

HJ – 1. Rebecca Neville (M), 5-2; 2. Chrissy Watts (C), 5-0; 3. Rachel Crawford (C), 5-0; 4. Brittany Letcher (WL), 4-10; 5. Ruth Sander (V), 4-10; 6. Kailey Miller (Mc), 4-8.

PV – 1. Abbey Sutton (V), 10-6; 2. Maddie Miskulin (V), 9-6; 3. Laura Grabowski (WL), 9-6; 4. Kelley Freeman (C), 8-6; 5. Danielle Bly (M), 8-0; 6. Kristin Cochran (LN), 8-0; 7. Chloe Lawson (C), 8-0.

LJ – 1. Katie McColly (C), 17-0 1¦2; 2. Rebecca Neville (M), 16-5 3¦4; 3. Mallory Przybylinski (C), 15-10 1¦2; 4. Melissa Moeller (V), 15-4 3¦4; 5. Miranda Shaw (LN), 15-2 1¦4; 6. Kelsey Swift (Mc), 15-1 1¦2.

SP – 1. Felisha Johnson (LN), 46-7 (MEET RECORD); 2. Tara Perigo (LJ), 39-0; 3. Briane Fife (Mc), 38-10; 4. Chelsea Gerbers (FWCL), 36-6 3¦4; 5. Erin Nolan (LJ), 35-7; 6. Claire Goldsbrough (WL), 34-10; 11. Maria Schuster (C), 30-11; 18. Elizabeth Eberhart (C), 27-3.

DIS – 1. Felisha Johnson (LN), 139-4; 2. Tara Perigo (LJ), 132-11; 3. Chelsea Gerbers (FWCL), 112-0; 4. Takesha Dockery (M), 105-2; 5. Claire Goldsbrough (WL), 104-2; 6. LaTeasha Hill (FC), 103-9; 14. Aris Ringas (C), 84-7; 18. Maria Schuster (C), 77-8.

Posted 4/21/2008