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Herscher Invite 2025 Results
September 27, 2025
The Lisle Lions started attending the Herscher Invite in 2021 and it is a great opportunity to see all of our conference opponents before we get to the final phase of our season that starts this next week. Our focus this week was on the second mile and nearly everyone had a solid second mile. Our task now is to put all three miles together for a complete race. While the girls’ success was obvious with a second-place tie, the boys matched their second-best finish ever at the Herscher Invite with a 10th-place finish. It’s great to see the team continue to improve as we get closer to the post-season.
Freshman/Sophomore Combined Race - Boys Results / Girls Results
Everyone in the freshman/sophomore race (if you count Violet who ran a three mile race for the first time) ran a personal record at Herscher, which is not an easy feat. The temperature increased quite a bit after this race, which hindered the varsity runners running P.R.’s, but after running in nearly ideal conditions last week in Peoria on a fast course seeing everyone come back this week and P.R. again was incredible. The boys were once again led by freshman Cayden Denhart, who had one of his best races of the season finishing in 14th place with a time of 20:13. Cayden ran his fastest first-mile of the season in 6:32, settled in to a 7-minute pace for the second mile, and then another solid final mile of 6:41. Cayden’s 6:41 as fast or faster than all of his first miles of the season leading up to today. Fellow freshman Blake Madsen finally had his breakout race and ran fantastic splits of 7:04, 7:36, and then 7:04 again. Blake’s time of 21:44 was a 20-second P.R., which was the second-biggest P.R. on the team. The biggest P.R. on the team went to Liam Marquez. Liam finished only his second three-mile race and finished under 30 minutes for the first time with a time of 29:41, which represents a huge P.R. of one minute and 36 seconds!
On the girls’ side, sophomore Rose Helderle ran a P.R. of 25:42 to earn a medal in fifth place. Rose would have been our fifth runner if she ran varsity and may find herself running varsity races in the future. Freshman Violet King was the only other girl in the freshman/sophomore race and for the first time finished a three-mile race. Her place of 13th place earned her a ribbon and she set her first mark of 37:22, which she will be sure to beat in future meets this season.
Girls Varsity Race - Results (Team)
Before this season, the girls’ best finish at the Herscher Invite was seventh. The girls knew going into the race that they had a chance of securing a trophy by finishing in second (no one was going to touch Manteno in first), but everyone had to have a great race. Luckily, everyone did have a great race. Junior Dani Erickson led the team once again. Dani earned a medal for her 14th-place finish with a time of 21:29. Dani has been the team’s top runner all season even though freshman Madi Madsen has been nipping at her heels. Madi had perhaps the best second mile on the team. After a first mile of 7:02, her second mile was almost the same at 7:03. Madi ended up earning the final varsity medal with her 15th-place finish in 21:31. Senior Anya Kutkoski (18th, 22:13) and sophomore Jennifer Duban (19th, 22:21) were the next two finishers for the team. Anya ran a controlled first mile in 7:14 and then ran the only negative-split second mile on the team in 7:11. Jen started out in great position between Dani and Madi and then held on through the final mile to finish just behind Anya. Junior Molly Martin secured the team’s tie for second place with her 56th-place finish in 26:17. Even if we didn’t come home with a trophy because of the tie-breaker, the team results were encouraging as our girls beat six out of the seven teams who will be in our Sectional. Manteno was the only team we didn’t beat. This is another encouraging sign of the progress our team is making.
Boys Varsity Race - Results (Team)
Our typical #1 runner, junior Simon Klein, had an uncharastic off race and finished in 62nd place with a time of 20:33. However, sophomore Liam Newton and junior Aiden Slehofer stepped up to finish as our top two runners. Liam in particular had a fantastic race with his 50th-place finish and was the only boy on the team to run negative splits for the first two miles (6:54 to 6:15) and also was the only varsity runner to run a season P.R. of 19:41. Liam was only ten seconds away from a lifetime P.R. and I imagine he will get there soon. Aiden ran ahead of Liam for the first mile, but even though Aiden fell behind while Liam ran his scorching middle mile Aiden still ran a solid 6:56 after his 6:34 first mile. Aiden finished with a 7:01 for his final mile and completed the race just ahead of Simon in 61st place with a time of 20:31. Junior Jimmy Mullen came back this week after missing last week’s meet in Peoria. While Jimmy tweaked his ankle during the race, he still ended with a solid time of 22:15 in 81st place. Junior Lincoln Calfo had his best first-half of a race this season. Lincoln started the race in 6:47, but started to fade towards the end of the second mile. Lincoln wasn’t passed by Jimmy until the third mile and ended up in 85th place with a time of 22:41. The boys team looks solid to potentially move out of our Regional, but moving on to State will be a challenge unless we make some big gains over the next few weeks.
Lion of the Meet
Once again, nearly the entire team could have been named our Lion of the Meet this week. Violet running her first three-mile race is certainly an accomplishment to celebrate. Anya ran the only first-to-second mile negative split for the girls on her way to a great race. Cayden ran a second great race in a row and is well on his way to break 20 minutes. Aiden ran a solid race with fairly even splits. Liam Marquez ran a huge P.R. while Liam Newton was the only first-to-second mile negative split for the boys. Rose ran a time that would have placed her fifth on our varsity team while finishing fifth in her own race. Our Lion of the Meet, though, is Blake Madsen. Blake took a few weeks to finally put together a great race, but he did it with style. Running splits of 7:04, 7:36, and 7:04 again is great for a freshman and it gives Blake the fifth-fastest time for the boys team this season. Congratulations, Blake!
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