Historic Detweiller Park

Heading to Peoria to race at Detweiller is something nearly every XC runner in Illinois experiences, the hope is to experience it in November. The Wildcats took their first trip down on Saturday for the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. The conditions were perfect, and the team took advantage to come away with many lifetime bests.

The varsity girls got things started for the team. Brooke Rochacz led the way, as she has done all season. She got out under control and maintained a strong pace, with a strong last mile to come away with a new lifetime PR of 19:00, oh so close to a sub 19. That time will come in the next few weeks. Poppy Hohman took a huge step forward in the form of nearly a 1 minute PR, running a time of 20:17. Poppy will break that 20 minute barrier in the next few weeks. Nessa Rodriguez continued her steady racing for the year, with a 34 second season best time. Aalyiah Banda dropped a nearly 2 minute season best time, breaking 27:00 for the first time. In the frosh/soph race, Camila Trujillo overcame some adversity to run an over 5 minute PR! That race earned her recognition from her teammates as runner of the week.

The varsity boys had a pack that got out under control, but moved up in big ways the second half of the race to snag some PRs as well. Ty Vitanovec continues his strong return to racing, with a season best time. Aiden Churchill also just dipped under his lifetime best 3 mile performance. Hot in pursuit were Will Carter and Ezequiel Ocegueda who both ran lifetime PRs, Zeke by 30 seconds and Will by over a minute. Ameer Hamza dropped a massive PR in his second race of the season, taking over 90 seconds off his best time. Thomas Coleman has been super consistent with training all year, and that finally paid off with a big PR and the first time under 20! Danny Montalvo had a nice return to racing after a few weeks off dealing with an injury, to run a season best time.

The frosh/soph boys had some nice breakthrough races as well. Brayden Lane led on the course in the same way he has been leading off the course and improved nearly 1 minute from his previous best. Sebastian Fuglested was hot on his heels with a big PR, breaking 20 for the first time. Cole Novotny ran with guts and courage and came away with a nice PR as a result. Damon Miller ran with confidence and courage as he also ran a big lifetime PR. Charles Henderson rounded out the frosh/soph crew with a nice drop of 25 seconds on a PR run.

In the open race, Richard Rogers was the leader off the course, as well as on the course. Running nearly a 1 minute PR. Santi Zavala was super aggressive off the line and that paid off for him to run over a 1 minute PR. Luke Jensen continues to build confidence each race, and it paid off again as he dropped his PR 30 seconds faster. Chris Coria rounded off the day for the Wildcat PRs with a PR of over 2:20!

21 season best times. 19 lifetime PRs.

15 athletes raced 2024 PND and 2025 PND, those times were on average 2:43 fast this year than last!