We got to celebrate our seniors Aiden, Dani, Ethan, Lincoln, Molly, and Simon before the race. Thanks to Liam Newton, Ashley, Steven, Rose, Jen, and Charlie for speaking about their admiration for our six seniors.

The new course at the Mane Event was surprisingly fast. While our normal course was considered one of the top ten most difficult courses in the state, runners were crushing PRs at the new course. As we move on to our final meet of the regular season next weekend, I once again recommend runners check out their profiles on our Runners page to see the graph showing how their times have improved over the course of the season. Most runners at this point have surpassed their pace from the two-mile Sea Dragon Invite to start the season. For those who haven't and are healthy, it means you still have some more in the tank to give and get over that hump.

Full Meet Splits

Girls Varsity Race - Results

Senior Dani Erickson and junior Ashley Ritchey ran together for the entire race. This dynamic duo has been fantastic for our team and for their own individual performances. Their friendship led to an incredible performance at Mane Event. Ashley and Dani had a goal of finishing in the top ten. This was a reach for them, but it was in the realm of possibility. Together they made it possible. Ashley ended up pulling ahead of Dani at the end to finish in 9th place with a time of 18:35 while Dani was 10th in 18:37. Both times surpassed the previous three-mile girls record set by Colleen Detjens in 2002 at the State meet. What a special way to set a new team record on our home course. Junior Summer Klein continues to improve and broke the 20-minute barrier for the first time. Summer finished just under the mark with a time of 19:58 to finish in 28th place and moved into the top ten of our all-time leaderboard. Junior Jennifer Duban has found her groove and put together back-to-back great races. Coming off of her Lion of the Meet performance at Herscher, Jen ran a season PR of 20:38 to finish in 40th place. Jen is only 20 seconds off her lifetime PR and we have some fast courses to run on over the next month so she'll get there soon. With sophomore Madi Madsen unable to run, fellow sophomore Sofia Maldonado became our unexpected fifth runner. As usual, Sofia ran an incredible race and (discounting the two-mile race to start the team) she has run a faster time every single week. Her time of 22:40 was good enough for 79th place at Mane Event. Senior Molly Martin ran a season PR of 24:04 to finish in 101st place while freshman Lila Helderle was our team's seventh runner with a lifetime PR of 24:20 in 108th place. Junior Rose Helderle finished in 117th place with a season PR of 24:43 while freshman Hylie Woodhouse, running in her first varsity race, finished with a lifetime PR of 24:47 to finish in 120th place and meet her season goal of running under 25 minutes.

One of our goals in the team race was to finish in the top five with a stretch goal of making the top three. While St. Francis and Wheaton Academy ran away with the top two spots with scores of 46 and 80, the rest of the top five were up for grabs. Timothy Christian ended up grabbing the final awards slot with their 115 points while Riverside-Brookfield was fourth with 120. Our girls met their goal of finishing in the top five with 120 points while Glenbard South was well behind in sixth with 186 points. All of these teams, and the majority of the teams at Mane Event, are 2A teams while our Lions are in the lower 1A division. Beating a lot of bigger teams is a trend the girls have established this year. The closest 1A team to the girls was Herscher in 9th place with 261 points. This is the first time the girls have finished in the top five at Mane Event since 2005.

Boys Varsity Race - Results

The boys were once again without a full squad, but individually they ran great races. Luke Erickson was the fifth-fastest freshman in the varsity race, finishing in 25th place with a lifetime PR of 16:38. Luke is close to breaking into the top 25 on our all-time leaderboard, which he can do once he breaks 16:30. The most recent time in our top 25 is from Jeff Chan who ran a 16:02 in 2013. 20 of the top 25 times are from before the year 2000. Sophomore Cayden Denhart ran another great race and set a new lifetime PR with his 19:14 to finish in 115th place. Cayden had a faster final mile in 6:23 than anyone on the team other than Luke. Freshman Steven King continues to impress and ran a huge PR of 19:21 to finish in 120th. Steven not only joined the under-20 club, but he skipped right over 19:30. Steven has run a lifetime PR in every race this season other than last week at Herscher. Steven said after the race that he realized if your legs are starting to get tired you can just keep running through it. Such a simple concept in principle, but incredibly hard in practice. Junior Liam Newton was just behind Steven and ran a season PR of 19:34 to finish in 125th. Liam has improved his time in every single race this season and is approaching the 6:18 pace he ran at the two-mile Sea Dragon Invite to start the season. He will have a lifetime PR if he eclipses that pace. Sophomore Blake Madsen broke 20 minutes for the first time in his running career, which was his season goal. Blake's time of 19:53 was good enough for 131st place. Freshman Carson Thomas ran his first race of the year that wasn't a season PR so his placement on the team doesn't look as good even though he ran a solid race. Carson finished in 134th place with a time of 20:00. Senior Aiden Slehofer had another great race as our seventh runner and is approaching his pace from the two-mile Sea Dragon Invite. Aiden set a season PR with his 140th-place finish in 20:29. Senior Simon Klein returned to racing after nearly a month off and ran a 20:45 to finish just behind Aiden in 143rd place. Senior Lincoln Calfo was next and ran a season PR of 21:39 to finish in 149th. Senior Ethan George asked to run in the varsity race since it would be his only home meet. Ethan ended up just missing his lifetime PR with a time of 24:13 in 158th place, but he ran a gutsy race.

Girls Open Race - Results

Freshman Giuliana Rotelli finally broke out and ran her best race of the year with her 34th-place finish. G ran a time of 24:24, which not only eclipsed her season goal of running less than 25 minutes for 3 miles, but her pace of 8:08 was the fastest she has run a race in her four years of running cross country and junior high cross country is all two mile races. Sophomore Violet King has had a goal of breaking 30 minutes over three miles and Violet finally met that goal with her 87th-place finish in 29:37. Violet has been working hard these past two seasons and it's great to see her finally accomplish her goal.

Boys Open Race - Results

Sophomore Liam Marquez was the only runner in the open race for the boys and he had a HUGE race to run a nearly 1.5 minute lifetime PR. Liam finished in 115th place and his time of 26:22 eclipsed his previous PR from Herscher last week of 28:05. Liam has run faster every week this year and he is close to his season goal of breaking 26 minutes.

Lion of the Meet

With so many lifetime PRs, it was hard to narrow down the Lion of the Meet. Blake, Steven, and Summer joined the sub-20 club. Giuliana, Hylie, and Violet met their season goals while Liam Marquez and Jen were close to their own goals. Ashley set the all-time girls three-mile record while earning a top-10 finish. Sofia stepped in as our fifth runner and ran another lifetime PR. Our Lion of the Meet, though, is Dani Erickson. Dani runs consistently every week, setting season PRs and finishing as our #1 or barely our #2 runner. Dani's season goal was to break Lisle's three-mile record, and she did it, just a few seconds after Ashley. Dani was nothing but happy for her teammate and is a great leader and friend for her teammates. Keep up the great work, Dani!