The 2026 Hinsdale Central Red Devil Invitational at Katherine Legge Memorial Park in Hinsdale, Illinois was a scorcher!

Hinsdale Central moved the start time up half an hour due to the high temperatures and combined the JV 3 mile race into the Frosh/Soph 1.96 mile race.

In a very special touch, the Prospect girls warm-up shirts has a picture of our colleague, Mike Newman, on the back.

In the boy's varsity race, everyone was bunched up at the first quarter mile mark. When the runners came back around at the 1 1/4 mile mark the favorites were all at the front of the pack.  Eventual winner Jesse Gudauskas (Neuqua Valley) was out front with Henry Miller (Hinsdale Central), Sebastian Vining (New Trier), Nicholsa Rastattler (Latin), Anthong Garcia (Oswego East), Amilo Rajandram (Whitney Young), Johnny Krueger (Hinsdale Central) and Nicholas Hampton (New Trier).  Palatine's Evan Salgado and Hinsdale South's sophomore Mesfin Diedrich were close behind. 

When they came back around at the 2 1/4 mile mark, Gudauskas had about a 20-yard lead on Miller and Rajandram.  Another 10-yards back was Vining, with the rest of the leaders an addiotional 10-yards behind.  

Coming into the final 200 yard, uphill finish, Gudauskas extended his lead to about 80 yards ahead of Miller, and held that lead to the finish.

The big surprise of the race was Hinsdale South's Mesfin Diedrich. The sophomore took 6th place with a near 19 second PR, finishing in 15:32.2.

The girl's varsity race was a race of the underclass women.

At the 1 1/4 mile mark, New Trier sophomore, Mimi Eynon, lead her sophomore teammate, Jillian Crane, by a couple of yards. Batavia senior, Avery Hacker, Downers Grove South freshman, Brynn Bartkus, and Hinsdale Central senior, Alexandra Furey, were about 10 yards back. 

When the runners hit the 2 1/4 mile mark, Eynon had stretched the field out leaving her teammate, Crane, and the rest of the pack behind.  Crane maintained her position, while Bartkus separated herself from Hacker and Furey.   Madeline Serur, a freshman from Hersey, moved up and stuck with Hacker through the finish.

As Enyon made the turn into the final 200 yards, she finished ahead of her teammate, Crane, by about 100 yards.

When Prospect's Adelaide Galla finished in 10th place, that made the count of freshmen and sophomores five of the top 10!

Prospect took the team championship with 78 points over New Trier at 100 points.  Prospect is a team to keep an eye on this season and next, as four of their top five runners are sophomores and juniors.