Lisle Cross Country :: The First State Qualifying Team in Almost 20 Years

Mane Event 2025 Results

October 4, 2025

What fun it was to see our athletes run so well on our home course. With the conditions and a slower course, times weren’t going to be very fast today. Regardless, almost everyone who ran the 5K at HCA at the beginning of the season ran a 5K P.R. today. In addition, the girls finished in 9th place in the varsity race, which is the top finish for the girls team in nearly two decades.

Full Meet Splits (Don’t trust freshman boys with splits)

Girls Varsity Race - Results (Team Results)

I already buried the lead by noted that the girls had their best finish at Mane Event in decades. In addition, the team beat one of our Conference and Sectional opponents in Herscher. We finished behind Sectional opponents Timothy Christian (who will be competing to win our Sectional) and Harvest Christian Academy. Junior Dani Erickson once again had a solid race. Dani set a 5K P.R. for the season with 22:14 and finished in 39th place. Senior Anya Kutkoski had perhaps her best race of the season with her 51st place finish in 22:59. Anya was nearly caught by freshman Madi Madsen, but Madi ended up finishing a few spots behind Anya in 54th with a time of 23:01. Sophomore Jennifer Duban ran a gutsy race while recovering from an illness and finished in 70th with a time of 23:32. Junior Molly Martin (131st, 27:22) and sophomore Rose Helderle (158th, 30:25) rounded out the great finish for the varsity girls.

Boys Varsity Race - Results

Junior Simon Klein was back in form this week after having an off week last week at Herscher. Simon ran 19:29 to lead the team in 68th place. Sophomore Liam Newton ended up catching junior Aiden Slehofer after Aiden led Liam for most of the race. Liam finished in 125th place with a time of 21:12 while Aiden set a personal course record of 21:21 finishing in 127th. Junior Jimmy Mullen rounded out our small team with a time of 22:51 in 153rd place.

Girls Open Race - Results

For the first time, freshman Violet King was in a race without any of her teammates. Luckily, she had teammates helping her at the line (including Dani who warmed up with her) and cheering her throughout the race. Violet was the only Lion to run a lifetime P.R. today (pretty tough given this was a 5K course in brutal conditions). She beat her time from Herscher by over two minutes! What a fantastic race from Violet!

Boys Open Race - Results

Freshman Cayden Denhart continued a streak of great races with his 35th place finish in 22:35. His fellow freshman, Blake Madsen, also had another great race and passed probably half a dozen runners with his finishing kick. Blake ended up in 55th place with a time of 23:23. Freshman Liam Marquez finished the day for our lions with his 116th place finish in 33:45.

Lion of the Meet

Our team showed guts this week and a few runners were emblematic of the effort shown by the entire team. Jennifer Duban had a great race while not racing at full health. Anya ran probably her best race of the season as did Simon. Cayden and Blake had great races and will find themselves running varsity for most of the rest of the season. Violet had a HUGE P.R. of over two minutes. However, junior Dani Erickson has steadily been our top runner all season. She never falters and even when she has an “off” race she still finds a way to grind her way to a solid finish. Dani so far has been our lion of the season, but giving her the award for Lion of the Meet seems just as good.