2026 Naperville Twilight Preview

Naperville Twilight is one of the best meets of the year, and it's going down this Wednesday! We broke down all the action for you right here, enjoy the Naperville Twilight Preview:

Boys Teams: Addison (A. Trail), Arlington Heights (Hersey), Aurora (Metea Valley), Batavia, Chicago (Jones), Dixon, Downers Grove (North), Downers Grove (South), Geneva, Glen Ellyn (Glenbard West), LaGrange (Lyons), Minooka, Morris, Naperville (Central), Naperville (Neuqua Valley), Naperville (North), New Lenox (Lincoln-Way Central), Oak Park (O.P.-River Forest), Plainfield (North), Roselle (Lake Park), Wheaton (W. Warrenville South), Yorkville 

Boys Individuals: Cuyler Swanson (Sr., Morris), Everett Swanson (Sr., Morris), Jesse Gudauskas (Sr., Naperville Neuqua Valley]), Nathan Gunderson (Sr., Addison [A. Trail]), Averick Wiseman (Sr., Dixon), Gabriel Gronski (Jr., Arlington Heights [Hersey]), Isaac Stein (Sr., Downers Grove [North]), Steven Cox (Sr., Downers Grove [North]), Grayson Meek (Sr., Naperville [Neuqua Valley]), Ethan Carter (So., Dixon), Dean Geiger (Sr., Dixon), Aaron Kernler (Sr., Batavia), Edward Polaski (Sr., Batavia)

Girls Teams: Addison (A. Trail), Arlington Heights (Hersey), Aurora (Metea Valley), Batavia, Chicago (Jones), Dixon, Downers Grove (North), Downers Grove (South), Geneva, Glen Ellyn (Glenbard West), LaGrange (Lyons), Minooka, Morris, Naperville (Central), Naperville (Neuqua Valley), Naperville (North), New Lenox (Lincoln-Way Central), Oak Park (O.P.-River Forest), Plainfield (North), Roselle (Lake Park), Wheaton (W. Warrenville South), Yorkville 

Girls Individuals: Avery Hacker (Sr., Batavia), Macy Ermitage (Jr., Downers Grove [North]), Marlie Czarnewski (Sr., Plainfield [North]), Brynn Bartkus (Fr., Downers Grove [South]), Madeline Serur (Fr., Arlington Heights [Hersey]), Mia Forystek (Sr., New Lenox [Lincoln-Way Central]), Natalie Nahs (Sr., Minooka), Gianna Suvada (Fr., Arlington Heights [Hersey])

Outlook: The Naperville Twilight invitational is bringing several big names together for a night of great cross country racing. On the boys side, the individual race should be a great clash between 2A and 3A. 3A #4 Jesse Gudauskas of Neuqua Valley has been on an absolute tear lately, he should be hunting for a win here. Gudauskas has been remarkably consistent this year, with a second place performance at Richard Spring and another second place at Palatine. His only loss to any other runner in Illinois is to Sam Hill of St. Charles North, which shows how incredible he’s been. He’ll face heated competition from some of the best 2A runners with both Cuyler and Everett Swanson of Morris. Cuyler had a huge win in the 2A FTTF race where he ran his season best of 14:33. Everett ran that race in trainers and unfortunately was far off of his brother. Since then, they’ve been racing in smaller meets and they’ve finished 1-2 every single time. Both twins are elite runners and should be competing for a win here. 3A #11 Nathan Gunderson of Addison Trail has really shown out during the last 2 weeks, he should be looking to carry that momentum into this week. The #1 team in 2A will have three runners that will be  a part of this top pack, with Averick Wiseman, Ethan Carter, and Dean Geiger. All three runners have the capacity to race with the big schools and they should be shooting for a top 5 spot each. The Downers Grove North duo of Isaac Stein and Steven Cox have not run since FTTF, so it’ll be interesting to see how they mix up in this top group. On the team side, 3A #6 Downers Grove North will do their best to hold off 2A #1 Dixon, it’s going to be a super close matchup between these two squads. DGN hasn’t run a full squad since FTTF where they took second in impressive fashion behind Plainfield South. Dixon has been active for several weeks now, they took second to St. Charles North at Richard Spring and then came back a week later and crushed the Palatine invite, finishing first out of all Illinois schools. Both squads are good, but with Dixon’s recent success, it’ll be hard to say who is actually the better team until we see how it all goes down. On the girls side, it should be a great battle between a number of individuals. Avery Hacker of Batavia is the narrow favorite coming into this race, she had a great race last week that boosted her stock big-time. Hacker ran 17:07 at the Flyin’ Hawk invite to take second to Kara Glenn of St. Charles North, which is a huge season best and definitely her best race of the year so far. She’ll be facing off against Macy Ermitage of Downers Grove North, who is also on the come up coming into Naperville Twilight. Ermitage ran 17:15 at the Richard Spring invite, so she’s been steadily improving throughout the year. Brynn Bartkus of Downers Grove South has been having a great start to her high school career, she should also be competing with the top group for a win here. Bartkus was 17:23 at the Richard Spring invite and was just a few seconds off of Ermitage, so she should be right with the leaders here. On the team side, it’ll be a pretty close matchup between 3A #4 Glenbard West, 3A #6 Lincoln Way Central and 3A #7 Hersey. Glenbard West has an exceptional pack right around 18 minutes, their top 4 are all within 10 seconds of each other. Their pack running will be challenged by LWC’s elite group of 5, except LWC has them in the lowstick with Mia Forystek leading the way. Forystek has a good gap on the rest of LWC’s scorers, which gives them an advantage against a team like GBW who is missing that front running presence. Then you’ve got Hersey, who is clawing their way up after getting rocked with injuries for the first few weeks of the season. The freshmen, Madeline Serur and Gianna Suvada have been putting up great numbers and have been strong leaders for this team, and they should still be able to compete against GBW and LWC.