TERRE HAUTE — Chesterton senior Jakob Kintzele was surrounded by strangers.
Well into Saturday’s boys cross country state meet, he couldn’t find a familiar face among his pack of runners
“I was looking for some of the guys I normally run with,” he said. “There were a lot of times when I could’ve dropped back, but I really wanted to stay with that top group. I just kept telling myself to stay on. It was tough out there.”
Running on a frigid day at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, Kintzele was the top Region runner, finishing in seventh place with a time of 15 minutes, 35 seconds.
He was the only runner from Northwest Indiana to earn all-state honors, given to those finishing in the top 25.
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Kintzele said he had some thoughts about running with Hamilton Southeastern senior Gabe Fendel, who won in 15:17, but conditions on the course prevented that.
“Once I got out there, it was so windy that it would’ve been a waste of my energy,” he said. “I wouldn’t have caught him. But I wasn’t too far off, either. I wanted to get in the top 10 and I knew that if I got with that top pack, they’d carry me through.”
There was only one team from Northwest Indiana to reach the podium and that was Valparaiso, which finished fourth with 200 points — right on target.
“We thought that, if we could get around 200, we had a good chance to get on the podium,” Valparaiso coach Aaron Crague said.
Valparaiso jumped up 16 spots from their finish at last year’s state meet with just about the same roster.
“We had six of these guys here last year and we got 20th,” Crague said. “To come back here and get fourth says a lot about these seniors and their leadership. It starts with your seniors. Those are the guys who set the tone.”
Senior Collin Huber was the first to finish for the Vikings, ending up 36th overall at 16:08.
“I was in disbelief,” he said. “My whole career has been a roller coaster, getting 20th (as a team) here last year. I was really disappointed about that one. To come back and get fourth means everything.”
It was all smiles for Valparaiso, but not for Lowell.
The semistate champions finished 12th in the team standings, with no runner more disappointed than senior Alec Fleming. He finished fifth at the 2016 state meet and was a 2017 semistate champion but fell back to 157th (17:08).
“As I got to the finish line, I remember thinking it was like a bad dream,” Fleming said. “You want to wake up at some point, but you’re not going to. It’s just reality.”
Crown Point finished 14th and Chesterton took 20th.
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.