COLUMBUS NORTH, NORTH CENTRAL SOPH WIN BOYS CROSS COUNTRY TITLES
The Columbus North boys team and North Central’s Futsum Zeinasellassie took championship honors at the IHSAA Boys Cross Country State Finals in Terre Haute on Saturday.
Zeinasellassie, last year’s state runner-up as a freshman, returned to capture the top spot in 15:51.6 over the soggy, 5,000-meter LaVern Gibson Championship Course. He became the first sophomore to win the boys race in 10 years and the second North Central product to do so (Bart Phariss, 1997).
Carmel junior Chris Walden came in second (16:01.0), Brownsburg senior Scott Vicenzi was third (16:02.5), Chesterton senior David Osborn fourth (16:06.1) and North Harrison senior Tyler Byrne rounded out the top five (16:14.6).
In the team competition, Columbus North totaled 63 points, outdistancing Chesterton (131) by 68, for the school’s third boys cross country state championship. Rick Weinheimer, the Columbus North boys and girls coach, also led the Bull Dogs to state titles in 2002 and 2003. North Central of Indianapolis was third with 189, Carmel fourth at 203 and North Harrison finished fifth with 212.
Columbus North’s Andrew Diehn, a sophomore, led the Bull Dogs five scoring runners. Diehn finished ninth overall in 16:23.5. The next three finished 17th, 18th and 19th. Senior Evan Scruton was 17th (16:37.2) and was followed by sophomore Christopher Kelsey (16:40.0) and senior Corbin Brooks (16:41.6). Junior Gabe Ocasio placed 45th overall in 16:49.2.
It was the eighth time a school swept both genders and second year in a row after Carmel pulled the trick in 2008.
CHESTERTON’S DAVID OSBORN NAMED MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD WINNER
Following the race, Chesterton senior David Osborn was named as the winner of the Charles F. Maas Mental Attitude Award.
The award is presented annually by the IHSAA Executive Committee to the senior who best demonstrates mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability during his four years of high school.
Osborn finished fourth on Saturday helping the Trojans to a second place team finish. He is a three-time All-State selection.
Academically, he ranks in the top 50 of his senior class and serves as Vice President of the National Honor Society. He’s undecided about college but intends to major in chemical engineering.
He is the son of Ted and Carolyn Osborn.
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance presented a $1,000 scholarship to Chesterton High School in the name of Osborn.