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Illinois Central Eight Conference Results
October 18, 2025
Our first foray into the post-season went pretty well. While it was hard to top the ideal conditions we had at Elmwood Park last week, running on a flat golf course in Streator and avoiding the predicted thunderstorms did lead to some pretty good results as we head into the State series this coming week.
Girls Race - Results
Manteno was predicted to win conference going into the race and they didn’t falter with a victory of 33 points. While our team has beaten Herscher twice already this year, they have some faster runners at the top that gives them an advantage in a smaller race so they beat us for second place with 42 points to our 49 points. Junior Dani Erickson has consistently improved this season and led the team in every meet. Dani was focused on earning All-Conference and did not disappoint while starting the race with a blazing 6:13 mile. Dani battled with DeLanie Monroe of Manteno for most of the race and DeLanie just barely overtook Dani as they entered the chute. Dani earned All-Conference honors, though, with her 6th place finish and set a season P.R. of 19:54 while breaking 20 minutes for the first time this season. Freshman Madi Madsen and. sophomore Jennifer Duban were neck-and-neck through the first mile and just behind the top eight runners who would make All-Conference. Madi pulled away from Jen during the second mile and finished with a solid time of 21:05, but ultimately it wasn’t enough for All-Conference as she finished in 9th place. Senior Anya Kutkoski ran a more conservative first mile than Madi and Jen and ended up running negative splits from the second mile to the final mile to eke out a season P.R. of 21:23 by one second! Anya finished in 10th place and was followed not too far behind by Jen in 12th place who also ran negative splits with a final time of 21:39. Junior Molly Martin ran a second great race in a row with her 19th-place finish in 24:30 and is setting the team up well as we head into Regionals and Sectionals. Sophomore Rose Helderle finished in 27th place with a time of 26:26 while freshman Violet King ran her final race of the season and finished with another P.R. of 31:05 in 28th place.
Boys Race - Results
No one was going to touch Herscher in the boys race and they nearly ran a perfect race with 16 points. Manteno was second with 62 points and we finished in third with 70. Junior Simon Klein gave everything he had today in a quest to repeat as an All-Conference runner. Simon had his fastest first mile of the season with a 5:32 and followed up with solid second and third miles of 6:03 and 6:12 to finish with a season P.R. of 17:47. He gave it his all and collapsed at the finish line in 9th place. Sophomore Liam Newton generally runs a more conservative first mile, but ended up running a 6:00 first mile with freshman Cayden Denhart just on his heels in 6:03 and junior Aiden Slehofer crossing the mile mark in 6:05. Liam kept the pace going for the most part through the final two miles and set not just a season P.R. but a lifetime P.R. of 40 seconds and breaking 19 minutes for the first time! Liam’s time of 18:51 was good enough for 17th place. Cayden and Aiden ran the final two miles at similar paces and Cayden ended up in 22nd place with a time of 19:49 while Aiden finished in 25th with a time of 19:53. This is the first time this season we have had three runners under 20 minutes on the team! Junior Lincoln Calfo started out with his fastest first mile of the season in 6:22 while freshman Blake Madsen wasn’t far behind running his own fastest first mile in 6:32. Blake ended up running with Lincoln after the first mile and they passed the two-mile mark close together. Blake ran a consistent final mile (7:14 compared to 7:12 for his second mile) and ran a huge P.R. of 20:58 in 32nd place. Blake even cheered when he heard his time going into the final stretch knowing he was going to hit a big P.R. Lincoln ended up finishing in 34th place with a time of 21:53. Finally, freshman Liam Marquez ran his final meet of the season with a time of 29:14.
Lion of the Meet
Dani could be our Lion of the Meet just about every week. After earning All-Conference she left for Bloomington/Normal to see her brother Luke Erickson earn All-State at the IESA State meet. Liam Newton was the only non-freshman to run a lifetime P.R. and did so in emphatic fashion with a 40-second P.R. Blake also had a huge P.R. in his first high school conference cross country meet. Anya’s final conference meet saw her run her second-fastest conference time as she ran higher than her seed. Our Lion of the Meet, though, has to be Simon. Simon is now running in the 17-minute range, which is where he needs to be to qualify for State and he did so giving his all at conference. He still needs to run that time or better in two weeks, but he had a great start to the post-season and is well deserving of our Lion of the Meet.
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