Lake Central Pride on Full Display: A Homecoming Week to Remember **Football Completes Comeback and Defeats Chesterton on Homecoming Chesterton 21 Lake Central 22 With a few minutes to go in the first half, the Indians trailed Chesterton 21-0. Jacob Turley found the endzone on a one-yard rush to get LC on the board and make it 21-7. The score remained that way through the half. In the third quarter, a bobbled snap by the Chesterton QB allowed Brody Ramirez to get into the backfield and tackle the Chesterton running back into the endzone for a safety (21-9). Lake Central found the endzone again on a 25 yard touchdown pass from Wes Lalich to Frankie Verta (21-16). Lalich threw for 181 yards and 2 TDs in this one. Verta had a TD and 131 yards receiving. The teams traded punts after this before LC took possession trailing by 5. The Indians' offense mustered a long, scoring drive which culminated with Lalich hitting Jonquil Sharpe for a 4th down TD to put LC ahead for good (22-21). The two-point conversion failed before the defense, which was tremendous all night, put the finishing touches on the game stalling out the Trojans. The Indians have reeled off 3 consecutive DAC wins. They are 4-3 overall and 4-1 in the DAC and sit in 2nd place. LC travels to take on Merrillville next Friday. **Tennis Wins 2026 IHSAA Sectional Championship In the quarterfinal opener, LC defeated Calumet handily to advance to the IHSAA Sectional semi-finals at Highland against rival Munster. The Munster Mustangs held a 45 year streak of winning Sectionals, until the Indians de-throned them on Friday. LC 3 Munster 2 #1S: Camryn Lavery (LC) def Yug Patel (M) 6-1, 6-1 #2s: Joe Devine (LC) def Graham Dempsey (M) 6-1, 6-3 #3S: Cinmai Subramani (M) def Louis Pallas (LC) 6-2, 6-2 #1D: James Georgon / Damian Beames (M) def Shrey Malik / Ryder Ridgley (LC) 6-2, 7-5 #2D: Joe Rieger / Joe Lin (LC) def Navin Rao / Reeyan Patel (M) 6-1, 6-1 The victory over Munster set-up a Sectional Championship against Illiana Christian. LC got 3-quick points. Camryn Lavery and Joe Devine got quick points and cruised to victory at #1 and 2 singles. Shrey Malik and Ryder Ridgley earned the 3rd and deciding point at #1 doubles. LC will play in the Crown Point Regional on Tuesday. This was the 9th overall Sectional Championship for the Indians and first since 2017. LC 3 Illiana Christian 2 #1S: Camryn Lavery (LC) def Bryce Vander Zee (IC) 6-2, 6-2 #2S: Joe Devine (LC) def Calvin Swets (IC) 6-0, 6-0 #3S: Zachery Vander Woulde (IC) def Gavin Churilla (LC) 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 #1D: Shrey Malik / Ryder Ridgley (LC) def Joshua Neibert / Maverick Porter (IC) 6-1, 6-1 #2D: Joshua Mast / Ryne Wiersema (IC) def Joe Rieger / Joe Lin (LC) 6-0, 6-3 **Girls' Golf Finishes 10th at the IHSAA State Finals--Katelyn Benda is 5th Place Medalist After winning the DAC Championship, the Sectional Championship, and the Regional Championship; LC's girls' golf team earned the opportunity to take part in the 2-day IHSAA State Finals at the Battle Ground Golf Club just outside of Lafayette. After day 1 of golf, LC was tied for 8th place as a team and both Katelyn Benda (3rd) and Piper Urbanski (20th) were in the top 20 overall. LC finished day 2 in tenth place as a team. Benda highlighted the individuals with her top 5 finish! Urbanski finished in 41st position, Maya Parks and Alex Schilling tied for 85th, and Cora McCall finished in 101st place. Congratulations on a great season! Katelyn Benda earned All-State honors with her 5th place finish. R1 R2 Total T5 Katelyn Benda(9), +5 73 76 149 T41 Piper Urbanski(12), +22 79 87 166 T85 Maya Parks(12), +41 95 90 185 T85 Alexandra Schilling(11), +41 91 94 185 T101Cora McCall(12), +51 94 101 195 Full Results: https://igf.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/igf26/event/igf26108/contest/1/leaderboard.htm **Girls' XC and Macey Thompson Each Complete 3-Peat Congratulations to the girls cross country team who won their 3rd DAC championship in a row. They won with a score of 18 which set a new record for the lowest score at a DAC championship meet. They were led by Macey Thompson, who was the overall champion and ran a time of 18:10. This was Macey‘s third consecutive individual DAC title. She became only the second girl in history to consecutively win three DAC titles. Lana Bruggeman was runner-up with a time of 18:34, Chloe Neal was 3rd with a time of 19:02, Willow Bruggeman was 4th with a time of 19:18, Sara Fillipo was 8th with a time of 19:49, and Aubrey Neal was 10th with a time of 20:01. The JV also won their race. They were led by Anna Domingo who was the individual champion, Kelsey Hurey was 3rd, Marina Negrete was 5th, Emma Freisma was 6th, Alexa Neal was 9th and Maddie Underwood was 10th. The Indians will use the bye week to recover and prepare for the IHSAA Sectional at Highland on October 17th. **Boys' XC Finishes 3rd at DACs--Lucca Neves is the Individual Champ The boys' cross country team finished in 3rd place on Saturday at the Michigan City hosted event at Purdue Northwest Westville's campus. Lucca Neves (11th) was the individual champion by more than 15 seconds with his time of 15:55. Sophomore Vincenzo Pomilia earned all-conference honors with his 8th place finish in 17:00. Roman Kaszowicz finished 16th and Trevor MacFarlane was 17th. James Baxter rounded out the scoring in 32nd. Patrick Grady and Kyler Richards finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the JV race. **Flag Football Dominates the Crown Point Sectional Quarter Finals: Lake Central 40 Illiana Christian 6 Semi Finals: Lake Central 38 Hanover Central 14 Finals: Lake Central 24 Crown Point 0 The Indiana Flag Football Coaches Association (IFFCA) sectionals were played at Crown Point. This was the inaugural season for Lake Central and they walked away Champions dominating the field. They won their 3 games by a combined score of 102-20. This culminated in a Sectional Championship with a victory over the host Bulldogs 24-0. Crown Point gave LC its only regular season loss. The Indians are 12-1 overall and will travel to Michigan City to take on Munster in the 1st-semi-final game. Valparaiso and defending State Champ Penn are on the other side of the bracket in the other semi-final. One other note: Parker Reddick snatched her 20th interception on the season and returned it for a TD. Parker is on the national leaderboard for interceptions in a season. Photo Gallery courtesy of Ms. Bickell: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nG7WuhwhJwaUmQzn8