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The Fastest Team in Lisle Cross Country History!
While the girls were eating breakfast at Morningside Cafe in Lisle before the drive down to Peoria for State on Friday, a man and his wife came up to the table after finishing their meal. They asked if the girls were the cross country team that had made S...
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The Fastest Team in Lisle Cross Country History!
November 9, 2025
While the girls were eating breakfast at Morningside Cafe in Lisle before the drive down to Peoria for State on Friday, a man and his wife came up to the table after finishing their meal. They asked if the girls were the cross country team that had made State for only the second time in school history. When the girls responded that they were, the man spent the next few minutes praising them for how hard they worked and talking about how difficult a sport cross country is. This is the type of thing that can happen in a small community like Lisle, and the girls deserve that praise, having become the fastest girls cross country team in Lisle history. The 2006 team that went to State, which was previously the fastest team, had an average time of 21:11 and total time of 1:45:56 when they ran at State. This year’s girls had an average time of 20:52 and a total time of 1:44:19. Individually, they all ended up running personal records at Detweiller Park in Peoria for the State championship meet.
Meet Splits - State Results - State Team Results
Junior Dani Erickson, as usual, led our team with a masterful race. Dani started out the first mile with a 6:01, which is nearly as fast as her mile P.R. Dani settled in for the middle mile, running a 6:34 and sitting in 54th place with a mile to go. Dani then kicked it into gear for the final mile. Her 6:21 third mile was not only her fastest of the season but faster than most of her first miles all year. Dani gained four points in the final mile for the team and finished 83rd with her first sub-19-minute race at 18:57. Dani crushed her lifetime P.R. of 19:27 as well as her season P.R. of 19:54. Dani was 13 seconds away from running the fastest girls time in Lisle history and she is really starting to see how good she can be. Dani is going to have a fantastic track season and will come into her senior year of cross country more determined than ever.
Sophomore Jennifer Duban spent most of the season running with freshman Madi Madsen and the two of them did finish the first mile together. However, Jen began to pull away in the second mile and ran her best final mile of the season, ending with a season P.R. Jen’s final mile of 6:56 was, outside of Dani, only the third sub-7-minute mile run by anyone on the team. Madi and Jen were both sub-7 minutes at Elmwood Park so Jen ended her season with an exclamation point with her fantastic finish. Jen, who also qualified for State individually in 8th grade, hopefully has a taste for success and will help build our team into a powerhouse over her final two years of cross country.
Freshman Madi Madsen also had herself a great season. She came into the season unsure of her place on the team but eager to prove herself. She certainly did that at her first meet at HCA when she was well ahead of Dani at the first mile before fading and trying to hang on in the final two miles. Though she learned a lot about pacing, she established herself as our #2 or #3 runner for the entire season. She ran a 23:54 5K at her first meet at HCA, a 22:26 in her first 3-mile race at Joliet Central, and finished her season with a massive P.R. of 20:39 at State to break 21 minutes for only the second time (she also broke 21 minutes at Elmwood Park). Madi is a force and while she didn’t have as good of a second mile as Jen, she did finish with a strong 7:03, which was her second-fastest final mile of the season. Madi is still learning the sport of cross country and can grow into one of our best runners of all time. She has already firmly established herself in that realm since only a handful of girls have broken 21 minutes in the team’s history, but she still has more greatness to come.
Our lone senior, Anya Kutkoski, had one of the best races of her career at State. Anya broke 21 minutes for only the fifth time in her high school career and while she didn’t best her time from State as a sophomore, she did run a season P.R. by nearly 30 seconds with her time of 20:58. This also represented the first time in Lisle cross country history that four girls were under 21 minutes in the same race. Anya has always been a more conservative first miler, but she went out fast with only her second sub-6:45 mile of the season. Anya runs some of the most consistent splits on the team, though, and finished with near identical splits of 7:06 and 7:09. Anya had a fantastic high school career in which she qualified for State twice, earned All-Conference honors, and ended up as one of the top 30 runners of all-time in Lisle history.
Junior Molly Martin had high hopes for this season and while it didn’t go the way she wanted individually, she ended the season on a high note with a nearly 30-second season P.R. of 23:17. This was also her first race of the year where she ran all three miles under 8 minutes. Ultimately, Molly’s season goal was to make State as a team and the team wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. Molly also contributed to this team being the fastest team in Lisle history. One of Anya’s words of advice for her teammates was not to be discouraged when you have an off meet or an off season. Put in the work and you will come back. I can’t wait to see what Molly is capable of during the track season and next year for cross country.
Sophomore Rose Helderle joined cross country to be with some of her friends on the team, but ended up as an integral part of our State team. Rose, who ran 7:45 pace for two miles in junior high at her peak, started the season running 8 and 9-minute miles for three miles. Rose had a personal goal of breaking 25 minutes for three miles. Rose’s goal of breaking 25 minutes seemed out of reach as she struggled to balance dance and cross country. She had an incredible breakthrough at State, though, and improved her three-mile lifetime P.R. by over a minute with a 24:33 to meet her personal goal for the season. Rose is a hard worker and helps keep the team grounded. We can only hope she decides to stick with cross country over the next two years to complement her busy schedule.
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