The La Porte High School Slicers may not have won the Duneland Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship on Saturday, Oct. 2, but they scored big with the two conference winners. Cole Raymond, a La Porte High School senior, and Brenna Sobecki, a La Porte High School junior, crossed the finish line first in their varsity divisions.
“This is just really cool to have two conference champions from the same school. It’s a huge deal,” said Slicers’ coach Corbin Slater. “Anytime that we have had a boys conference champion, the girls haven’t. I think this is the first year ever that we have dual conference champions.”
Slater said the champions are deserving of the wins.
“They are two completely hard-working kids,” Slater said. “Just seeing Breanna being able to break away was exciting. She took advantage of the situation, and I’m really proud of her. Cole, we know, had a great shot at winning.”
Raymond planned to run with his teammates, but the course was his kind of style with a rolling hill, plenty of grass, and a little mud.
“We wanted to win as a team, but we lost by just a tad,” Raymond said. “We wanted to finish one, two, and three, so I wasn’t all out. It was kind of a workout day to prepare for the end of the season.”
Raymond finished the race with 15:52.8. He estimated it to be his fifth-best time. Being in the winner’s circle is not new to Raymond, who has earned his second cross country conference win and six track conference wins.
La Porte High School finished with runners in the first, second, and fifth positions. Raymond noted that another runner, who could have placed in the top five, was injured.
“Once we come back, I think we will be the best team. If we were healthy, we would have won,” Raymond said.
Jay Pillai grabbed a second place for the Slicers with a time of 16:15.1. Other Slicers who earned a top 20 finish were fifth place Brayden Sobecki with a time of 16:34.7 and 19th place Stephen Klimczak with a time of 17:12.4.
Raymond applauded the Valparaiso High School team, who won the conference as a team, beating LaPorte by only five points.
“Valpo ran lights out. They have a kid that got fourth, who is a freshman. He ran lights out today,” Raymond said.
Valparaiso’s Mason Nobles finished fourth with a time of 16:27.1.
Crown Point High School earned third, while Lake Central High School and Chesterton High School earned fourth and fifth places. Portage, Merrillville, and Michigan City High schools rounded out the bottom with sixth, seventh and eighth places.
Brenna Sobecki said she ran this race with no regrets. She knew she had it in her to win, but she surprised herself.
“I have overcome so much this year,” Sobecki said. “I think I did exactly what I needed to do today.”
Last year, Sobecki finished 12th at the conference meet. She went into the race knowing she could achieve more, but she had to change her mindset. In her mind, she changed the outcome of the past race in hopes of achieving better.
“I came out here today being pretty nervous,” Sobecki. “I haven’t raced in a week, and I think that the anticipation was built up. I haven’t been racing well, but today I saw my chance, and I’m proud of myself for putting my neck out even though I could have been comfortable with where I was.”
Sobecki ran alone most of the race, finishing with a time of 18:45.5.
“This feels so surreal. I never imagined this until my senior year, and it’s crazy to think that it happened now,” she said.
The Lady Slicers earned two other spots in the top 20 as Lila Gillisse finished third with a time of 19:19.6 and Ella Dubbs finished 20th with a time of 20:32.6.
The Lady Slicers earned third place as a team. Chesterton High School won the conference while Valparaiso High School earned second place. Lake Central, Crown Point, and Portage high schools were fourth, fifth, and sixth.