The purpose of driving two hours to get to Paxton-Buckley-Loda was to see some 1A teams that we might see in the State series. Teams such as Hoopeston, McNamara, Paxton-Buckley-Loda, and Peotone were all in our Sectional last season and many of them will likely be in our Sectional this year. It is good to see how we stack up against potential postseason opponents and we stacked up incredibly well.

Full Meet Splits

Girls Varsity Race - Results

Senior Dani Erickson and junior Ashley Ritchey were twinning once again this week. They had splits of 6:31, 7:07, and 6:33 and were stride-for-stride with each other the entire time. The difference in this race, though, is who finished in front. Ashley started to take off just a little before the 800 mark and ended up just barely ahead of Dani at the finish. Both finished with official times of 20:11 with Ashley in 4th and Dani in 5th. Junior Summer Klein stuck close to Ashley and Dani for the first mile, but fell off their pace for the final two miles. She still had a solid race and ran a great time of 21:19. Sophomore Madi Madsen and junior Jennifer Duban were close together for the first mile, passing the mark in 7:07 and 7:10. They both fell off pace a bit during mile two with Madi pulling ahead of Jen. They both ran similar paces for the final mile and earned medals with finishes of 22:44 and 23:06 to finish in 15th and 19th place. Sophomore Sofia Maldonado, running her first race on varsity, ran on her own for most of the race with splits of 7:56, 8:42, and 8:04. That was a solid race for a new runner and Sofia ended up finishing in 28th place. Senior Molly Martin rounded out the team's top seven with a time of 26:43 in 46th place.

The team race wasn't close as the Lions raced their way to 39 points to top Oakwood's 62 points. The girls did so well that our sixth and seventh runners (Sofia and Molly) beat the critical fifth runner of five out of the other seven teams in the field. The sixth and seventh runners don't score points for the team, but they can hurt other teams' scores by beating their top five runners. Sofia and Molly did a great job of that on Saturday.

Boys Varsity Race - Results

We were missing a runner today, but the boys team is starting to show signs of running in sync. We aren't there yet, but the day is coming where this team clicks. Freshman Luke Erickson once again led the way for the team with a 5:51 mile, 6:12 second mile, and 5:36 final mile. Luke is also running out there playing 3D chess. After the 800 mark, Luke caught a runner from McNamara who appeared to be struggling. Instead of passing the runner, Luke told the runner to relax his shoulders and the two of them ran together until the finish when Luke outkicked him. Definitely an out-of-the-box strategy from Luke, but it worked: he finished ahead of the McNamara runner with a time of 17:39 in 5th place. Junior Liam Newton after struggling at Veteran Acres last week had a fantastic race. He ran close behind fellow junior Charlie Wang for the first mile and remained close to Charlie after the second mile. While Charlie didn't have a bad third mile and ended up running a negative split, Liam had an incredible final mile dropping from 7:33 in mile two to 6:34 in mile three. Liam finished in 32nd place with a time of 20:47 while Charlie finished with a time of 21:05 in 36th place. Sophomore Blake Madsen and freshman Carson Thomas ran together for much of the race, but Blake passed Carson in the final mile to finish in 37th place with a time of 21:16 while Carson finished in 39th place with a time of 21:26. Sophomore Cayden Denhart rounded out the team's sixth runner not far behind the pack with a time of 21:44 in 44th place.

The team race was incredibly close. Dwight took the win with 80 points, McNamara (who we will likely see in the State series) was second with 81, we were third with 85, and Bismark was fourth with 89. Our sixth runner, Cayden, beat the fifth runner of every other team in the field and even beat Dwight's fourth runner.

Open Race - Boys Results / Girls Results

The boys and girls ran in the open race together and freshman Steven King took off with senior Aiden Slehofer to take a commanding lead after the first mile. It was clear one of them would be winning their first cross country race. The two were neck-and-neck after two miles and had built a nearly thirty-second lead on third place. Aiden failed to find another gear in the last mile, though, while Steven ended up running a negative split of 7:32 compared to the 7:52 he ran for the second mile. Steven took the victory with a PR of 22:12 and also met his season goal of running a sub-23-minute race. Aiden finished in 22:40 and was still well ahead of the runner in third place who finished in 24:05. Senior Ethan George earned his first cross country medal with his 7th-place finish in 26:04 and sophomore Liam Marquez finished in 13th with a time of 29:48.

On the girls side, freshman Lila Helderle led the way for the team and finished her first three-mile cross country race with solid splits of 8:24, 9:39, and 9:18. Lila finished with a medal in 4th with a time of 27:21. Freshmen Hylie Woodhouse, Giuliana Rotelli, and Sadie Shields ran close for the first mile along with junior Rose Helderle. They all ran sub-9-minute miles for the first mile, but dropped off significantly in mile two. Hylie came back strong in the final mile to run a 9:43 and finish with a time of 28:41. Giuliana had a solid final mile and finished one place behind Hylie with a time of 29:31. Rose was the team's next finisher and also earned a medal by finishing in 9th place with a time of 29:55. Sadie fell down after the first mile but picked herself up and kept going to finish in 12th place with a time of 31:47. Sophomore Violet King finished in 15th place with a time of 37:56 and a great negative split in her last mile. Freshman Zoe Gutierrez ran her first cross country race and was with the freshman pack for the first mile, but she ended up dropping out before finishing.

Lion of the Meet

Dani and Ashley, who led our girls team, were prime candidates for Lion of the Meet. Blake had another solid race for the boys team, and Liam Newton had his best race of the season. Steven pulled off his first cross country victory and Ethan earned his first cross country medal. Lila, Hylie, and Giuliana had solid races for the girls in the open. Violet had a great negative split for her final mile. Our Lion of the Meet, though, is Luke Erickson. Luke ran a masterful race passing probably a dozen runners over the course of the last 2.5 miles of the race. He already has a great feel for cross country and is only going to get better. Congrats, Luke!