While the girls and Luke had higher goals than what they ultimately achieved on Saturday in the crisp fall air at Detweiller Park in Peoria, they ultimately had successful races. The girls finished with the best State finish in team history, and Luke finished as the 8th-fastest freshman in the 1A State race. Having high goals is what will lead us to be better, and this year we were better than any team in school history after qualifying for State in back-to-back years, winning Conference, Regional, and Sectional championships, and running faster than any previous Lisle girls cross country team.

Meet Results - Meet Splits

Junior Ashley Ritchey and senior Dani Erickson have led our girls team all season and typically run together. Dani finished ahead of Ashley in 7 of our 12 meets this year, but that was Dani's experience showing. Ashley has figured out how to be a great cross country runner and beat Dani in all three of our State-series meets. At State, Ashley ran with guts in the first mile and was solidly in the top 25 after running a 5:42 first split. This was ten seconds faster than her split from the McNamara Sectional last week, which had previously been Ashley's fastest first-mile split. Ashley lost some ground in the second and third miles running splits of 6:13 and 6:15. While Ashley's final mile split was similar to her second mile split, she ran out of gas in that last mile which is where she was passed by a number of runners. Ashley lost 6 points in the final mile, but her finish in 34th place with a time of 18:10 is worthy of celebrating. Ashley improved her PR by one second, so Lisle's fastest-ever time for a girl will be 18:10 until next season. Ashley's finish in 34th place is the best finish at State for Lisle since Colleen Detjens' All-State finish in 21st place in 2002. Colleen finished with a time of 18:43 that year, which was Lisle's best 3-mile time until Ashley and Dani eclipsed it at Mane Event.

Dani and Ashley were separated early in the race, but Dani held her own without her good friend and teammate. Dani ran the first mile in 5:53, which was the same time she ran for the first mile at the McNamara Sectional last week. Dani followed that up by running a FASTER second mile than she did at McNamara clocking a 6:23 compared to last week's 6:27. However, while Dani came back with a 6:00 final mile at McNamara last week, she slipped to 6:16 at Detweiller to finish in 48th place with a time of 18:32. Dani was one of only two Lisle athlete to pass runners in the final mile. While she didn't run a PR, she ran the second-fastest time of her high school career and joined Ashley as only the second Lisle runner to finish in the top 50 since 2002. Dani finishes her high school career with the second-fastest PR in school history and 12 Lisle course records.

Junior Jennifer Duban had a fantastic comeback season. After struggling at the start of the season, Jen established herself as a solid #3 or #4 runner behind Ashley and Dani. Jen went out at State with a 6:14 first mile, which was slightly slower than her first mile at McNamara. Her middle mile was one of her best second miles of the season, though. At 6:55, it was her second-fastest mile of the season. The only faster second mile Jen ran was at Conference when she broke 20 minutes for the first time and ran a 6:52 second mile. Jen decided to repeat that second-mile performance and ran 6:55 for the final mile as well. She finished with a time of 20:04 in 142nd place, which represents the fifth-fastest time in Detweiller in the history of Lisle girls cross country. Jen's season/lifetime PR of moved her into the top 10 times in Lisle history. Jen currently sits in 9th place and has three former Lisle runners having PRs less than 10 seconds faster than hers. She is going to have a fantastic senior season!

Sophomore Madi Madsen had perhaps the best race on the girls team. Although Ashley was the only runner with a PR, Madi ran fairly steady splits of 6:27, 6:56, and 6:52. Halfway through the race, Madi was scoring 116 points for the team, but she ended up passing four runners in the last mile and a half. Madi's time of 20:15 is the second-fastest time of her career and her 158th-place finish is 20 places higher than her finish at State last season. It also gives her the sixth-fastest time at Detweiller ever for the girls team. With her lifetime PR of 20:09, which she set at the McNamara Sectional last week, Madi currently has the 12th-fastest time in team history and will be gunning for the top ten next season.

Junior Summer Klein had a fantastic debut season of cross country. Having never even run a distance race in track, Summer worked hard during the off-season to build her base mileage and ended up running a PR of 19:31 at Conference, which currently stands as the 5th-fastest time in school history. While an illness slowed Summer a bit over the past few weeks, no one can question her effort. Summer ended up running 20:30 at State giving her the eight-fastest time ever run at Detweiller by a Lisle girl. Let's see what another year of experience does for Summer. She's going to come back stronger than ever next season!

Sophomore Sofia Maldonado was one of our three rookie cross country runners in the top seven, and she had an incredibly successful season. Sofia ran a PR in almost every race this season and although she didn't PR at State, she clearly gave an all-out effort. Sofia ran her first sub-seven-minute split of the season with her first mile in 6:54. That seemingly drained her for the rest of the race, but she still ran fairly even splits of 7:30 and 7:38 to finish in 22:02 and take 225th place. This was Sofia's second-fastest time of the season and she did it without attending our summer camp. Imagine what a summer of training is going to do for Sofia next year!

Senior Molly Martin has been on the team for four years and as a freshman, was part of a girls team that didn't even have five runners to make an official team. Molly had a breakthrough race at Detweiller earlier in the season and since then she has been a steady presence as our seventh runner. There were times this year, including at Conference, when Molly was beating the fifth runner on some other teams. Molly has been a steady presence on the team and her time of 23:01, good for 242nd place at State, represents the third-fastest time of her career. The culture on the team is due in large part to Molly's contributions and she finishes her high school cross country career with the 35th-fastest PR in school history. Congratulations to Molly!

On the boys' side, freshman Luke Erickson is the first boy to qualify for State since Colin Ruthe in 2023 and the first freshman boy at State since Chris Jones in 1992. Luke originally had a goal of breaking 17 minutes by the end of the season, but he met this goal in September. He next set his sights on breaking the 16-minute barrier, something no Lisle runner has accomplished since junior Steve DeSitter ran 15:48 in 2004. Luke capped off his freshman season by setting Lisle course record after course record. Luke was on pace to hit 16 minutes exactly as he crossed the halfway point of the State course in 8:00. He ran a negative split over his final two miles, going from 5:34 to 5:28, but he didn't have enough to cross the line in under 16 minutes. Luke's time of 16:15 is still his second-fastest 3-mile time ever and he finished as the eight-fastest freshman in the race in 117th overall. Luke is going to have a great cross country career at Lisle and it's just getting started.