Illinois High School XC Mid-Week Highlights – September 4, 2025
Photo: Marlie Czarniewski of Plainfield North rolled to a 67 second win Tuesday at the Plainfield City Championships (Dominick Gramarosso Photo Credit)
By Michael Newman
The first two weeks of the schedule for the IHSA Illinois High School Cross-Country season has a smattering of good meets to get their teams ready for the season. While many teams will show their cards this Saturday, there have been some eye-opening performances throughout the state, Here are highlights of some of those meets.
Plainfield City Championships @ Plainfield North High School – The Boys race was more like a dual meet. The Girls meet was one team ahead of three others. The Boys race came down to crosstown rivals #1 Plainfield North and #5 Plainfield South. Plainfield raced at Neuqua Valley last Saturday. Plainfield South was at Normal West but did not run their top seven last Saturday. It would not matter. It came down to a great race to open the season. Plainfield South held off Plainfield North 27-28 to win the city championship. Plainfield Central (94 points) and Plainfield East (103 points).
It was pack running that helped the Cougars win this meet. Plainfield North took the first two places with Thomas Czerwinski (14:39) and Aidan Connors (14:40) captured the first two places. Plainfield South captured the next four positions with Dylan Buturusis (14:50), Alex Batsala (14:56), Austin Cory (14:59), and Kellen Hernandez (15:03) coming across the line within 13 seconds of each other. The Tigers brought their third and fourth runners across the line with Dominic Frigo (15:04) and James Maso (15:06) within two seconds of each other. Ethan Ensign sealed the win for Plainfield South placing ninth (15:15). Gavin Hall ran 15:25 to finish tenth for Plainfield North. Plainfield South ended up with a 25 second spread on their top five on this day. Plainfield North had a 46 second spread among their top five runners.
It was all #6 Plainfield North in the Girls race with the tigers winning the first six places with 15 points. Plainfield South (56 points) and Plainfield Central (66 points) finished second and third with Plainfield East not scoring. Marlie Czarniewski dominated this race for the Tigers running 18:02 to win the race. Tessa Russo crossed the line behind her teammate 68 seconds later to run 19:10 to finished second with teammates Ayla Czarniewski (19:16), Emaan Hussain (19:25), Zeta…
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