TERRE HAUTE – Calvin Seitz won a cross-country state title a year ago by two-hundredths of a second. He left no doubt Saturday.

Seitz became Southern Indiana’s first two-time champion, smashing a 46-year-old state meet record on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course. Seitz covered 5,000 meters in 14 minutes, 34.7 seconds and won by 25.7 seconds – third-biggest margin of victory since 1968.

After a 4:17 first mile, the only thing on the course near him was the GATER ... and driver of that lead vehicle had the pedal down.

“I kind of knew it wasn’t smart for me to go out and hang with him,” said runner-up Jack Wilbourne, a junior at Signature, an Evansville charter school.

Seitz is the most decorated athlete out of Springs Valley High School since Larry Bird. The runner is headed to Oregon, where Cole Hocker stopped off in college en route to an Olympic gold medal.

Seitz is the first to win back-to-back since Carmel’s Ben Veatch in 2014-15. Other multiple winners include North Central’s Futsum Zienasellassie (2009-10-11), Franklin Central’s Aaron Fisher (1998-99-2000) and Hammond’s Rudy Chapa (1974-75).

“It’s an honor to be among some of the greats,” Seitz said. “There’s just so many to pick from.”

He said most meaningful was to share the moment with his family, including father Adam Seitz, a 10.4 ppg basketball scorer from 1998-2002 at the University of Evansville.

Seitz’s time bettered the long-standing 14:42.3 by Owen Valley’s Curt Carey at South Grove Golf Course, Indianapolis. Best at state on this course was 14:46.9 by Fishers’ Sam Quagliaroli in 2024.

In the Nike XC Town Twilight race Oct. 3, Seitz (14:42.1) and Evansville Reitz’s Carter Zieren (14:42.4) became the two fastest Hoosiers ever at LaVern Gibson.

Seitz climbed to No. 5 on the course's all-time list, behind four boys from the 2022 Nike Midwest Regional. Early on, he was challenging the record of 14:21.8 by Hunter Jones of Benzie Central (Mich.).

“It wasn’t the plan,” Seitz said. “But if that’s how it worked out, that’s how it worked out, you know?”

He was coming off a 14:30.70 regional time at Crawford County, where he broke the course record by 50 seconds and beat runner-up Zieren by 44 seconds.

Wilbourne’s time was 15:00.4, followed by the Fort Wayne Carroll duo of Sam Sweet and Kai Feasel.

Carmel’s Lucas Bartlett was fifth in 15:06.9 and Zieren sixth in 15:09.5. Jonah Kaul, also of Carmel, was eighth.

Fort Wayne Carroll, ranked 20 th nationally by DyeStat, placed three boys in the top seven and won the team title with 66 points. Carmel was second with 105, a score good enough to win in many years.

Defending champion Columbus North was third with 124 and Brownsburg fourth with 206.

“There’s no defense, right? I would have set something up if I could,” Carmel coach Colin Altevogt said of Carroll. “They’re a really good team. We just wanted to come out and do what we could do.”

In the past 15 state meets, the Greyhounds have finished first or second 12 times. They coped with some illnesses this season, Altevogt said.

“This has been one of our better teams, but this was a really strong year,” he said. “We really ran well in October. On the last day of October, I feel we had our best race of the season.”

Carmel will return to Terre Haute on Nov. 15 for the Midwest Regional in a bid to qualify for Nike nationals, set for Dec. 5 at Portland, Ore.