NEW CARLISLE - Call it a 365-day goal. In the fall of 2025, LaVille's Luis Garcia was two places shy of reaching his goal to qualify for the Indiana High School Athletic Association cross country regional round. Since the season ended too abruptly for Garcia, he has spent his off-season working toward that goal. Garcia, who is also a key cog on the LaVille boys soccer team as well as running cross country in the fall, has taken his work seriously. "It was a major goal of mine to move on to regional this year," said the Lancer fall two-sport star. "Last year, I barely missed the cut by two places. So it was a major goal of mine to make it there this season and to achieve a personal best." The IHSAA sectional was run at Ox Bow Park in Goshen, IN. According to Garcia, the sectional race was "a fast field. One of the fastest fields in the area. Knowing that this field (of runners) was out there, I knew that I had to put in the work to compete in this field and have a chance to move on." Because it is situated along the Elkhart River, Ox Bow Park features primarily low-lying, level terrain. For varsity high school boys, it is typically treated as a "speed course" rather than a grueling, tactical hill climb. The top seven runners at Saturday's sectional competition were under 16:30, while the top 14 clocked in under 17:00 overall. "The weather was very cold," said Garcia of the 44-degree temperature at Ox Bow Park for the start of the sectional run. "Came to run in layers. Knowing the cold was going to be a disadvantage, but I still had a good warm-up to run my race." By the time all 82 runners finished the race, which was near 23:30 minutes, the temperature was at 46 degrees. As Garcia toured the course and was ready to enter the final loop of the race, he overheard an official calling out 17-minutes and 30-seconds. That's when the Lancer sophomore knew he had enough fuel in the tank to kick it in gear. "Coming around the last loop before the finish, I heard them call out that it was around the 17:30 mark," explained Garcia. "So going around that last loop, I felt strong and wanted to finish strong to reach the under 18:00 mark." He finished with a personal best 18:06 to wrap up a spot in the top 15 individuals not on an advancing team. Now Garcia prepares for a more difficult course at the Oct. 24th IHSAA Regional. "I think it will be a good race between some good opponents," said the Lancer standout. "It is an advantage going into this race. You get to know your opponent going in and use those other experiences about the course and where to use different areas to your advantage. "To advance to state it will be a hard test, but knowing the course ahead and challenges of the course, I would like to achieve my goal and get to under 18:00. My mindset needs to be to focus on what is ahead, goal time of under 18:00 and push up on my opponents." We asked Garcia how many times we had run at New Prairie this season and if he would find himself pacing himself to run a quicker course time. "Twice," said the Lancer sophomore about running in the New Prairie Kick-off Classic and New Prairie Invitational back in September. "Yes, there are a couple of fellow runners from our conference that I'm comfortable running with and competed against a couple of times this season. I feel like keeping that pace will give me a chance to reach my goal." The 5,000-meter cross country course at New Prairie High School is widely considered one of the more challenging, gritty, and iconic courses in the Midwest. While it is not a mountain course, it features unique terrain and mental traps that make it a true test for high school boys. To describe how tough Garcia's run will be Saturday in New Carlisle, IN., will be, including five sectional feeders into the New Prairie Regional, a total of nearly 200 runners posted times of at least 18:06 for 5,000 meters. Including the Goshen Sectional, which Garcia was a part of, other sectional feeders are from Chesterton Sectional, Highland Sectional, New Prairie Sectional, and Rensselaer Central Sectional. Garcia is one of them vying to be included in the Top 15 runners not on an advancing team. Runners take your mark ...