Illinois High School Cross Country Weekend Highlights – August 31, 2025
The 2025 season starts with a boatload of meets this past weekend
By Michael Newman
This week has been one of the busiest weeks to start the season in recent memory. There were several teams that played it safe holding out top runners. There is a long way to go in this sprint of a cross-country season and we already in this first week see good performances. It did help that temperatures seasonably cooler than in the past.
The EIU Showdown Meet held at Neuqua Valley was the top meet of the weekend, We saw the emergence of Lenox Szymonik of Jacobs, who in her first high school race who ran 17:29 to win over a good field that included all state runners Marlie Czariewski and Macy Ermitage, The Boys rave came down to Grayson Meek outkicking Aidan Connors winning by hundredths of a second.
EIU Showdown Recap/Videos/Photos
The Trial on the Trail race was a two-mile rustbuster race but put out some great performances. 2A top retuning runner from last year’s state meet Thomas Jochum of Glenbard South ran 9:36.8 to win the race by 44 seconds. In the Girls Frosh/Soph race, Francesca Mora of Latin School ran 11:06 to claim the win with a margin of victory at 40 seconds.
York’s sophomore Patrick Hill followed up a good track season with a better start for the fall. Hill ran 14:51.7 on the three-mile course at Berens Park in a small dual meet against Oak Park-River Forest.
Here is a look at highlights that took place on Saturday throughout Illinois. You can view the 8/30 Saturday results HERE,
Normal West Invitational @ Maxwell Park, Normal – Bryce Counihan of Lincoln-Way Central won his second race of this week Saturday in perfect conditions at Maxwell Park. Counihan was in control throughout running 15:19 to claim the win by 26 seconds ahead of Ben Gorsage of Washington (15:45) Zach Born of Metamora (15:59), and Lincoln-Way Central’s Mekhai Wright (15:59) and Cian Scanlon (16:02). #19 Lincoln-Way Central scored 35 points for the team win. #5 Plainfield South did not run their top seven in this meet but still scored 73 points to finish second. #18 Minooka scored 81 points to finish third.
It was a great race for Normal West’s Renee Warren to open her senior season. Warren ran 18:04 to win the Girls race by 46 seconds ahead of Natalie Nahs of Minooka (18:50). Morgan Coker of Pekin (19:00), Lorelei Hulsing of Bloomington (19:02) and Sophia Ramirez of…
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