Ever since 2006, Andrew Cartwright and Chase Lewark have been running with and from each other. Junior High track, seventh grade is when the speedy duo met and have been running together and grown closer as friends ever since.

Both Chase and Andrew have a long-standing passion for running. Andrew has run both cross country and track all four seasons of high school, two years of junior high, and also participated in track events at Happy Hollow. His first memories of track are of running hurdles in the fourth grade. Since then, he has switched specialties, running mostly distance events.

Chase also has had a long term commitment to running track and cross country. Track runs in his family; his grandfather is the current cross country coach. In addition, his father has also assisted coaching cross country. Chase has also been running track since fourth grade, and in seventh grade transferred to running at West Lafayette Junior Senior High School, where he met Andrew.

While it may be common for two competing track stars to become enemies, it is rather the opposite for Chase and Andrew. Both agree that having a consistent friend during their sports season has been beneficial to their track careers. Competition, in their case has produced amity rather than animosity. Having someone familiar to compete against reflects well on their track performance, sometimes sharing advice and techniques on how to improve their races.  They agree that a sport like track that forces team mates to spend upwards of an hour with each other running every day has been a huge factor in their friendship. Andrew says that “sports like track really  either make or break great friendships.”

For the future, both Chase and Andrew plan on continuing their track career into college. Andrew plans on attending Purdue for engineering and running on both their track  and cross country team. Chase Lewark also plans on running both track and cross country during college while attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and even after college graduation, plans on running on a regular basis.