2025 Nike XC Town Twilight Preview: Illinois Edition
- Carson Vittorio
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Nike XC Town Twilight showcases some of the nation’s best talent at the historic LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana. This year, we take a look at the top athletes from Illinois who will make their way to this prestigious event.
BOYS TEAMS
3A - #2 Plainfield North Team - Race of Champions
3A - #3 Plainfield South Team - Race of Champions
3A - #5 Prospect Team - Race of Champions
3A - #8 Palatine (Fremd) Team - Race of Champions
2A - #2 Peoria Notre Dame Team - Race of Champions
2A - #5 Morton Team - Race of Champions
Lyons Team - Race of Champions
Newton Team - Open Blue #2 Race
O’Fallon Team - Open Blue #2 Race
Olney (Richland County) Team - Open Blue #2 Race
Belleville (Althoff Catholic) Team - Open Blue #1 Race
Danville Team - Open Blue #1 Race
Dieterich Team - Open Blue #1 Race
Urbana University Team - Open Blue #1 Race
We have plenty of ranked teams that will be making their way to Terre Haute to clash with some of the best teams in the nation! 3A#2 Plainfield North, 3A#3 Plainfield South, and 3A#5 Prospect will be looking to go after top five team finishes here. Plainfield North narrowly beat Plainfield South at the Palatine “Meet of Champions” Invite this past weekend. The key will be keeping their packs together in a field this big. 2A ranked teams like Marion and Normal University will be looking for a high finish in the Open Blue #2 race here.
BOYS INDIVIDUALS
3A - #9 Brayden Kloeppel (Sr., O’Fallon) - Race of Champions
3A - #14 Aidan Connors (Sr., Plainfield North) - Race of Champions
3A - #16 Thomas Czerwinski (Sr., Plainfield North) - Race of Champions
3A - #19 Dylan Buturusis (Jr., Plainfield South) - Race of Champions
3A - #21 Jack Jennnings (Jr., Palatine [Fremd]) - Race of Champions
3A - #22 David Moore (Jr., Palatine [Fremd]) - Race of Champions
2A - #3 Jameson Tenopir (Sr., Cary-Grove) - Race of Champions
2A - #6 Liam Bettis (Sr., Taylorville) - Race of Champions
2A - #7 Maxwell Kirby (Jr., Peoria [Notre Dame]) - Race of Champions
Trevor Crutcher (Sr., Dieterich) - Open Blue #2 Race
A total of 12 ranked boys will toe the line here in this race. While we wont have anyone likely in the top 10 of this race, we could see runners like Brayden Kloeppel, Aidan Connors, Thomas Czerwinski, Dylan Buturusis, Jameson Tenopir, Gabriel Greer, Liam Bettis, Maxwell Kirby, and Raphael Greer all capable of potentially finishing in the top 30 finishers here. We will have to see how the 2A contingent fare in a race this big after a lot of hype to this point of the year.
GIRLS TEAMS
3A - #2 Prospect Team - Race of Champions
3A - #5 Chicago (St. Ignatius) Team - Race of Champions
2A - #22 Morton Team - Race of Champions
Olney (Richland County) Team - Race of Champions
Charleston Team - Open Blue #2 Race
Dieterich Team - Open Blue #2 Race
Danville Team - Open Blue #1 Race
Prospect girls come into this as the top ranked team from Illinois in the field and will try and battle for the win here. The Knights have claimed multiple victories at this meet in the past and will be looking for another one. This will mark the first time that we have seen Prospect at full strength with everyone in the varsity race. Their key will be keeping their 1-5 split here to under a minute. We also hope to see St. Ignatius finally at full strength for the first time this season. They will fare well with top runners Ally Shutler and Annika Swan. We will see how Peoria Notre Dame and Normal University do in the open race. They could potentially place high in that race.
GIRLS INDIVIDUALS
3A - #3 Ally Shutler (So., Chicago [St. Ignatius]) - Race of Champions
3A - #7 Annika Swan (Sr., Chicago [St. Ignatius]) - Race of Champions
3A - #10 Meg Peterson (Sr., Mt. Prospect [Prospect]) - Race of Champions
2A - #12 Elayna Harker (So., Taylorville) - Race of Champions
1A - #1 Isabella Keller (Jr., Effingham [St. Anthony]) - Race of Champions
1A - #4 Aubrey Denning (Jr., Effingham [St. Anthony]) - Race of Champions
1A - #5 Klaire Eighner (Sr., Maroa-Forsyth) - Race of Champions
1A - #11 Molly Farrell (Sr., Marshall) - Race of Champions
1A - #18 Madeleine Fox (Jr., Marshall) - Race of Champions
Lena Goebel (Jr., Dieterich) - Race of Champions
Grace Thompson (Fr., Marshall) - Race of Champions
We could see a few girls here be within the top 10 finishers in this race with Ally Shutler, Annika Swan, Isabella Keller, Aubrey Denning, and Klaire Eighner all having the potential to be within the top 15 in this race. Keller might be in contention to win the entire race after an excellent start to her season so far. Teammate Aubrey Denning will be a name to watch here after running 16:22 at the Spartan Classic last week. Ally Shutler has also ran great this year and is close to a lock to be in the top 10.