2025 IHSA XC State Previews: 2A Boys

We have spent weeks and weeks waiting for this moment, and the race we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. The 2A boys race will provide fireworks like no other and it will lead to an entertaining showdown for the win. The team race will showcase a dominant force against several contenders who will vie for the second spot. The individual race will show us one of the greatest showdowns in individual history, it’ll be the closest race of the day for sure. You couldn’t ask for more, so get ready for the most exciting classification the state has to offer.

2A State Preview Podcast

Team Projections -

Team Preview -

All season we’ve been talking about one name above all, and the state meet is the time for Dixon to show us how dominant they are. They had an excellent show of force at the sectional with a 50 point win over #2 Deerfield. Their top three silenced any doubts that they won’t show up in the postseason, and the addition of Ethan Carter has brought this team to the dominant plane they were expected at. Averick Wiseman and Dean Geiger will be all-state hopefuls, with Keegan Shirely floating around the all-state border. Shirely had an excellent race at the sectional, so his chances for claiming a high all-state spot are going up. Carter and Westin Conaster provide the support through five that the Dukes need, but after five is where they face the only uncertainty in their roster. Their sixth is Abram Garcia, who runs somewhere in the low 15:50s. In a normal year, that would be more than enough depth to solidify a win, but this is no normal year. The #2 and #3 teams, Deerfield and Morton, are historically deep teams that are on another level through seven runners. Deerfield has two solid lowsticks with Jamie Chandler and Andrew Calderon up front. Chandler will be in the running for a top 15 spot, Calderon will be aiming for a high all-state spot. After Calderon, the rest of their runners sit around 15:30, led by Sam Chaban and Becket Shifrin. Their sixth and seventh, Scott Harvey and Hugo Albrecht-Buehler both stomp on Dixon’s sixth, with PRs of 15:42 and 15:45 apiece. Morton has almost an identical roster, with Maxwell Carter and Keyston Beyer up front looking for an all-state spot for each of them. Abe Martin has been in the hunt for all-state throughout the season, if he’s on form, he could scoop up a spot by Beyer and Carter. Behind Martin, Owen Riesberg and Isaiah Hartter provide support through 5. Their sixth runner, Duke Hendrick runs 15:47 which creates support behind Hartter should one of the top 5 have a rough day. Both Deerfield and Morton have incredible depth, but their firepower up front doesn’t quite match up with Dixon’s. So let’s meet the one team that could potentially outright beat Dixon with their weapons up front. Mahomet Seymour had two weeks in a row where they legitimately looked like they would go toe to toe with Dixon. Adam Smigielski has been on a heater lately, dropping PRs on courses that are 15-20 seconds slower than Detweiller. His race at the sectional meet further solidifies his spot in the top 3 for the Bulldogs, after taking eighth in one of the strongest individual sectionals in 2A. Tate Bode was the third runner for MS for the majority of the season, and he could still be up with Smigielski on a good day. Tayten Gergen has also made a similar jump to Smigielski, with a new PR of 15:22 that he ran at the conference meet. The only uncertainty here is with their top two runners, Augustus Gaudio and Henry McMurry. Gaudio and McMurry tied for the final all-state spot last fall, but neither have looked like those two runners this season. McMurry had a glimpse of that character at the Richard Spring invite, with a solid mark of 14:49, but since then, neither one has looked as insane as they were expected to be. If these two can prove that they are still the elite athletes that they were last fall, and they are able to push up towards Dean Geiger and Averick Wiseman of Dixon, then Mahomet Seymour will be in title contention. There’s one more team that you can’t forget, and that’s Peoria Notre Dame. Led by a potential top five finisher in Maxwell Kirby, this team fits the bill for a trophy team in every aspect. They have a solid pack in the 15:20-15:30 range, with Luke Fady, Joshua Stedwill, Dax Duffy and John Baker. Their sixth, Freddie Couri, has been solid around the 15:50s, but has been a scoring force in a number of meets this year. They were only two points back from Morton at the sectional meet, but people forget that they won First to the Finish over Morton and Deerfield as well as taking down Mahomet Seymour at Richard Spring. This team has had success already, but they will need an A+ day in order to bring a trophy home. If one of these teams wants to take the title, they will need two things: everything to go right for them, and something to go wrong for Dixon. If one of Dixon’s top 5 falters, all four teams will be waiting like sharks in the water, ready to attack at the first sign of weakness. The only exception is Mahomet Seymour, who could just straight up out-muscle Dixon if they have an insane day. However, with that all said, the expectation is never that someone will not show up on the day. You always expect the best of every athlete at the state meet, and Dixon’s best clears whatever anyone else can put up. They have been the favorites all year, so don’t expect them to give in now. 

Individual Projections -

Individual Preview -

Every single day, I have gone back and forth on who I think will win this race. It’s genuinely impossible to pick, because everyone towards the front runs a similar race style to each other. You have to nitpick every single aspect of a runners game to see who will win this race. From the perspective of an analyst, it looks to be a four man race, but you could see as many as 7 to 8 guys competing for the title. The four horsemen of 2A’s doom consist of Max Weber of Civic Memorial, Thomas Jochum of Glenbard South, Quaid Berger of Olney Richland County, and Carson Kaiser of Kaneland. Between these four, you couldn’t pick a favorite if you tried. Jochum is coming off of an all time performance at his sectional, when he broke a Donald Sage record at the Fenton course for a time of 14:49. For those of you who don’t know, Donald Sage is the 3200 state record holder, with a time of 8:40 which he ran at the state meet in the early 2000s. His 3 mile PR is a 14:00, and Jochum beat one of his records. That is an unreal level of confidence to have going into the state meet, he will be riding the high of that performance throughout this race. Berger has been running times that have genuinely blown me away, with a PR of 14:33 at FTTF in the 90 degree heat. He has repeated that result on courses that are roughly 15-20 seconds slower than Detweiller, which shows just how fit he is. The only stain on his resume going into the state meet is his loss to Weber at sectionals and his loss to Kaiser at FTTF. Weber and Kaiser are the only two who are toting undefeated records coming into the state meet, one of them will have to lose that streak. Weber spends his time in the southern half of the state, he actually races Missouri competition more than he races Illinois competition. The most relevant competition he’s had was during the postseason, where he won the Mattoon sectional over Berger, Gabriel Greer of Marion, and Liam Bettis of Taylorville. Kaiser has also spent his season undefeated, but he has dropped the fastest mark of the field with a 14:16 at the sectional meet. He demolished the field at sectionals, taking his win by over 25 seconds. All four of these runners will be right next to each other, it’s going to be tantalizingly close. Behind them, there is an avalanche of talent that will fill the next few spots. Cuyler Swanson of Morris will lead the chasers, he should be able to hang with the top guys for most of this race. He had an excellent race at the sectional meet, running 15:01 on a pretty slow Geneseo course. Maxwell Kirby of Peoria Notre Dame was right after Swanson at Geneseo, with a time of 15:04. Kirby ran 14:29 at Richard spring earlier in the year, and he has maintained that all the way through to the postseason. You also can’t forget about Gabriel Greer, who still boasts one of the fastest times in 2A with a 14:22. He was a pack ahead of Kirby at Richard Spring when he set that time, but he hasn’t looked quite as strong since that 14:22 performance. Liam Bettis of Taylorville was right with Greer at 14:23, but he has also been on a downward trend since that mark. His sectional race was a little concerning, as he was over 30 seconds back from Greer and over 40 seconds back from Weber. We’ll see what he can pull together at the state meet, he still has a shot at all-state. Judah Binger of Belvidere North is having a sensational season as well, with times in the low 14:40s. He will be looking to join the others in the top ten. Other guys like Ellery Shutt of Woodstock and Zach Born of Metamora love to show up on state meet day and crush expectations, so watch out for them to be x-factors in this race. There are simply too many names that could drop huge times in this race to mention them all, so you’re just gonna have to watch the race yourself to see who’s got what it takes.