In The News!

Hobart's Guerrero defies long-standing expectations
By Josh Weinfuss josh.weinfuss@nwi.com, (219) 933-3374 nwi.com
Posted: Friday, October 1, 2010 10:00 pm

Celena Guerrero knew Hobart cross country coach Ty Artherhults couldn't wait for this season. Last year, he'd make sure to find Guerrero before she ran in middle school track meets and give her advice on how to approach her events.
And occasionally he'd drop an obvious hint.
"He would tell me he was looking forward to having me on the team next year," Guerrero said.
Nothing like a little subtlety.
But considering Guerrero's success as a freshman this season, Artherhults did a good job of containing his joy. She's won seven meets heading into today's Northwest Crossroad Conference meet at Lowell High School.
As a seventh-grader, Guerrero's skill was hard to ignore.
"Even off her seventh-grade times, I knew she'd be a very good high school runner," Artherhults said. "She's a real hard worker, which I guess you'd expect. I imagine one thing that helps her is we practice boys and girls together, and she hops right in with the boys. When we do repeats and things like that I just put her where her time is.
"She exceeds what I expect out of her during practice. If I expect her to run 1:20, she runs 1:18. She's very coachable."
And she's also very good.
Guerrero's personal record this season is 19 minutes, 3 seconds in the 3.1-mile races. If she hasn't won, she's finished as close as possible, coming in second in the Crown Point Invitational and the Bob Thomas Invitational. At New Prairie she was sixth.
"I was hoping (to do well this year)," Guerrero said. "I wasn't sure. I was just training hard to do the best I could this season.
"I knew high school competition was a lot tougher and there were a lot better runners. I really surprised myself with that."
Guerrero has been on Artherhults' radar for years, and he made it a point to follow her career in person last season. She didn't disappoint, becoming the Brickies' top runner on the first day of fall practice.
"The idea is to get a good supporting cast around her," Artherhults said. "I don't know if it's necessarily that you would say build around. That's definitely one piece of the puzzle you don't have to worry about."
Guerrero said she used to try harder when Artherhults was watching her middle school meets, trying to impress the high school coach.
She doesn't need to work on catching his eye anymore.
"I don't want to make it sound like Celena is the greatest thing since sliced bread," Artherhults said. "But she's very good, and I think she realizes she's very good. "