Chesterton senior Braden Corzan couldn’t stop moving.
The Trojans sprinter kept walking around and stretching out to offset the cramps that he said were developing all over his lower body.
“It’s all the way down my right leg now,” he said through gritted teeth.
But Corzan shrugged off the pain as a small price to pay for a dominant night in Wednesday’s Duneland Athletic Conference Meet at Merrillville.
Corzan won the 100 meters in 11.04 seconds, the 200 in 22.01 and the 400 in a blazing time of 47.76 — a meet record and faster than the winning time at the 2017 state meet (47.91).
And Corzan hadn’t run the 400 competitively before this season.
“I started learning things through the season,” he said. “At first, I’d pace off the guy in the lane outside of me, like it was the (1,600 relay). But I wouldn’t be as tired as I am now, so I knew I wasn’t running hard enough.”
And after decommitting from Akron earlier this spring, Corzan hopes that 400 time will register on the radar of college programs.
“I wasn’t satisfied with 49.35,” Corzan said. “I knew colleges didn’t care about that — at least not the ones I wanted go to anyway. Hopefully that turns some heads.”
While Corzan handled the sprint events, Merrillville senior Brett Norton controlled the throwing events with a pair of personal-best marks. He threw the shot put 60 feet, 1.25 inches and the discus 176-4.
“I’ve been throwing that far in practice,” Norton said. “I just hadn’t been able to get one in a meet yet.”
The early portion of the season required adjustment from Norton, who no longer had the daily benefit of throwing alongside former teammates Alfred Stubbs and Anthony Sams — both 2017 graduates.
“We had such good competition every day at practice,” Norton said. “It affected me a little bit. But now it’s been a lot of work on my technique.”
Norton’s points helped Merrillville score 104 points, good for second place behind Crown Point (110).
Senior Aaron Kamstra helped earn 20 of the Bulldogs’ points, winning the 800 in 1:56.88 and as joining Cole Simmons, Matt Hanlon and Josh Whitaker on the first-place 3,200 relay (8:04.59).
More Top Picks Best Running Shoes For Plantar Fasciitis
Kamstra credited that relay team’s success to additional workouts that the group has doing before school, three days each week.
“We’ll meet in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” he said. “And go to the weight room and work on our core to make sure everything is strong and balanced. And we have a new warmup this year that’s helped activate our muscles. All of that, combined, has made our whole team better.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.