In any sport, winning four championships in a row is rare. The New York Yankees, John Wooden's ULCA basketball teams, Lance Armstrong and a few others have done it.

Sports trivial aside, winning four years in a row is very difficult - and therefore rare. For that reason, Freeport runner Lacey Cochran deserves special recognition.

Winning any event at the regional or state level deserves recognition, but recording a "4-peat" moves the accomplishment to a different level.

The Freeport senior recently captured the 400-meter run in the WPIAL Class AA Track and Field Championship held at South Side Beaver High School. Cochran won the same event as a junior, sophomore and freshman.

Looking back after four straight WPIAL championships, Cochran seems to understand the magnitude of what she has accomplished. As a freshman, however, she was unaware she was unaware that her victory was just the beginning of something larger. Four years ago, when she recorded her first win she says, "I was just running that day." And run she has from that day and through three successive seasons.

Cochran's coach, Bill Dillen, has the experience to really put her accomplishment in perspective. Noting that he has been coming to the WPIAL track championship since 1978, Dillon has seen only one other athlete do what Cochran has done in all those years.

It's an accomplishment that will probably take on even more meaning for Cochran and Dillen as the years go by.