By Mike Clark | Photos By Jim Vincent
Lane senior Samuel Assefa made history on Oct. 17 and is looking to do it again.
Assefa ran the fastest time ever at the Public League championship, taking advantage of perfect fall conditions to run 14 minutes, 41.0 seconds at Washington Park to lead the Champions to a narrow win over Mather in the team race.
He now owns two of the three fastest times in city meet history after winning a year ago in 14:47.5 for 3.0 miles. This year, Assefa broke the meet record of 14:42 set by Young’s Clayton Mendez in 2015.
Assefa’s next big goal is to become the second Public Leaguer ever to win state and the first since Calumet’s Steve Murphy in 1950, when the race was 2 miles.
“I think I want to go under 14 minutes,” Assefa said. “But obviously weather and all so many other factors (are involved). So really, I’m focusing on getting that No.1 (medal) because that’s something that’s just always gonna be there. Might not be a (good) time that day.”
If Assefa does break 14 minutes, history suggests he’s got a good chance to win. No runner has been in the 13s at state since Hersey’s Josh Methner ran 13:49.86 to win Class 3A in 2019.
Assefa ran on the Detweiller Park course used for the state meet on Sept. 19, running 14:36.2 to finish fifth in the Peoria Notre Dame Richard Spring Invitational.
“It’s been really good,” he said of the season. “I’ve been doing everything I wanted, and I’m very lucky and happy to be where I am right now. And I’m just taking it all in.”
Assefa hasn’t picked a college yet, though he does plan to major in engineering.
“I just want to make sure wherever I choose, I can just be a great athlete, a great student,” he said.
Lane wasn’t at full strength, missing usual No. 3 runner Cole Magac, but managed to edge Mather 41-43 for the title. Rounding out the Champions’ top five were Miles Trost (fourth, 15:21.3, PR), Dimitar Bratovanov (sixth, 15:26.8, PR), Quinn Anderson (13th, 15:33.1) and Xavier Reu (17th, 15:42.5).
“Quinn hasn’t done a workout all season,” Lane coach Kris Roof said. “He saved us today. This was his first hard effort since he went out with a stress fracture.”
Junior Naod Abreha was second in 14:52.0 to lead Mather. Also scoring for the Rangers were Natnai Tekle (seventh, 15:27.4), Saimon Kahsay (eighth, 15:27.6), Abdirahman Mahad (11th, 15:29.1) and Abdisamad Mohamed (15th, 15:39.4, PR).
“We ran really well,” Mather coach Joe Sullivan said. “We were a little disappointed to come second. … But we’ve got to leave with our heads held high. The boys ran really hard. It was our best race of the season.”
Also cracking the top 10 were Young’s Amilo Rajandram (third, 14:56.2), Lake View’s Luis Coss (fifth, 15:25.6), Payton’s Steven Jiang (ninth, 15:28.2, PR) and Young’s Jonathan Ophus (10th, 15:28.4, PR).