TERRE HAUTE | Top five individual finish? Check. Top five team finish? Check.
David Osborn completed his to-do list for Saturday's state cross country finals, with a little bonus to go with it.
The Chesterton senior placed fourth to help the Trojans take runner-up honors as a team, and he also earned the Mental Attitude Award.
"My final race, my senior year, the big thing was not to have any regrets," Osborn said. "I couldn't see myself doing anything more than I put out there. There's not much more I could ask for."
Osborn led for an early portion of the race before champion Futsum Zeinasellassie took control, going on to win in 15:51.6. Osborn negotiated his way around the muddy grounds in 16:06.1.
"I tell ya' what, he's a warrior," Chesterton coach Tim Ray said. "He took it out hard and battled the second half of the race."
Among area teams, LaPorte (305) placed 11th, Valparaiso (407) 19th and Lake Central (488) 23rd.
"We weren't up close, but we had a really nice pack the whole time," Valpo coach Mike Prow said. "We wanted to show everybody we were a little better than where they had us ranked and we definitely did that."
The Vikings had six underclassmen in the race. The Indians, in turn, ran six seniors.
"We had four pretty decent races," L.C. coach Rudy Skorupa said. "You look at where they were as freshmen, for them to have gotten here, I'm real happy for that."
Living up to their T-shirt slogan, "2.5 (kilometers) to glory", a group of four Trojans finished strong behind Osborn. Andrew Morris (39th), Shane Kenney (41st), Ryan Cutter (47th) and Jon Rogers (57th) packed together, just nine seconds apart, to get Chesterton the second-place trophy. It scored 131 points, following Columbus North (63).
"We knew they'd have to get up and go," Ray said. "I was standing at the 2 1/2-K mark and they started moving up. The remarkable thing about this group is it seems, this postseason, to be a different five every race. That's a tribute to our depth. They believed they could accomplish great things and to see them accomplish their dreams, that's what it's all about. I couldn't be prouder."
Kouts' Jake Carden was the only other Region runner in the top 25, rallying to get into the all-state mix in 21st (16:48).
"What a way to end a career," Kouts coach Perry Heinold said.
"It finishes out a good year," Carden said. "I wanted to finish tired for once. Going up the hill, I was starting to doubt myself. I just held on and guys started falling off."
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY | STATE FINALS
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View more photos from Saturday's cross country state finals at nwi.com.
