Sunny Weber has spent the last calendar year stacking together state championships in distance races.

She checked off another this fall.

The Sandwich senior repeated as a state cross country champion, this time in a loaded Class 1A field. Weber – the 2025 Times Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year – became the 1A state champion in another school-record 15:54.42 for three miles that just missed breaking the girls Detweiller Park course record of 15:53.4.

“I knew that I was going to get a personal record during my race, but I was not aware of how close I was to the state record, because there was no clock at the end, so I’m proud of myself for almost getting it,” Weber said in an end-of-season Q&A with Shaw Local sports group leader Joshua Welge.

“I am very happy and thankful for all the support I’ve had during this season to help me reclaim my title. For me, cross country is definitely a lot harder than track, so being able to achieve my goals I’ve had since the beginning of the season is such a rewarding feeling.

“During practice, I always used this race as a motivator to help push myself when I felt defeated or tired, because I knew it was not going to be easy. Knowing how hard I worked for this title and knowing how hard I pushed myself throughout the race definitely ranks this title very high.”

Weber has now won four distance championships in the last year, with the Class 2A cross country title last fall and 1,600 and 3,200-meter championships at the state track and field meet last spring. Weber also took second in 1A cross country as a freshman and third as a sophomore.

Already cementing herself as one of the best athletes to ever come out of Sandwich, Weber recently secured her future, verbally committing to Duke the week leading up to state.

“I have been communicating with the Duke coaches since last November, so I had a really good feel and idea what life is like for the athletes at Duke before the actual visit,” she said. “When I was on my visit, I knew it was the right place for me because of the great team culture they have, excellent coaching and it will help set me up for my future goals.

“I am very thankful and super excited for what’s to come, [and] I definitely want to pursue a career involving radiology.”

It was – fittingly enough – a dominant season from start to finish for the Indians distance ace, who won the early-season First 2 the Finish Invitational, also held at Detweiller Park in Peoria, the site of the season-ending IHSA State Finals. Weber won the First 2 the Finish by nearly 10 full seconds, finishing first in 16 minutes, 18.7 seconds.

“I was definitely worried about the competition leading up to that race as well as during the race,” Weber said. “There were points during the race where I wanted to give up and wanted to settle, but I continued to believe and push myself.

“Being able to overcome that and achieve my best time during the season showed me that I was capable of so much more if I fixed my mindset and truly trusted myself and my training.”