Every time he runs in Peoria, Carson Kaiser gets faster. This time, it also was historic.

The Kaneland sophomore took third in the Class 2A State Championship at Detweiller Park in Peoria, setting a personal and school record while picking up a couple of tricks as he hunts a state title for next year.

“I learned more about myself than how to race and stuff,” said Kaiser, the Daily Chronicle 2025 Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. “It was more about how to be stronger, tune out the pain when it gets hard. It’s not about tuning out the pain, but how to run with it. Embrace the suck is what my coach would say.”

Kaiser finished in 14:12.9, the fifth-fastest all-time 2A finish at Detweiller. At an early-season race in Peoria on the same course, he won the 2A boys race in 14:28.3, which was an improvement over his 14:41.3 at state last year, which put him sixth as a freshman.

In his first high school race at Detweiller, he finished in 15:23.6, taking 14th.

Civic Memorial senior Max Weber won the state title in 14:08.54 while Marion junior Gabriel Greer was second in 14:10.07. Of the top 10 runners, only two were seniors, and they were all within 25 seconds of each other.

Kaneland coach Chad Clarey said he believes if they ran the race 10 times, a different runner would win it each time.

Kaiser said he felt he was emotionally all over the place heading down to Peoria for the season finale this year. But he said it was a solid experience and he learned what he needed to learn.

“The one I kind of settled in on during race day was to go out and compete, give it my best shot to win,” Kaiser said. “Even though I didn’t come away with it, I’m glad I placed where I did because it gave me so many chances to learn from failure. From failure, there’s a lot of lessons. I definitely added those lessons to my arsenal.”

Kaiser also said his teammates and coaches were pivotal in helping him stay calm for the state race, as did his faith. He’s a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Clarey said Kaiser has a habit of seeing what his competitors are doing, although he’s started to get away from that.

“One of the downward emotions he’d have was immediately checking in on social media to see if someone had a faster time,” Clarey said. “We can’t control what that is, so why burden yourself with the concern of what other people are doing. We don’t play defense in cross country. That’s why we couldn’t defend against these other guys when we were racing against these guys in the state finals.”

Another lesson Kaiser said he’s learned is the importance of in-season training. After the Knights’ home meet Sept. 20, which he won in 14:55.1, he took a month off until the conference meet. He won that in 14:51.7.

Clarey said there are only so many distance races an athlete can compete in during a year.

“Last year I felt like I raced a lot and I learned it’s hard to progress unless you have a good training block in between,” Kaiser said. “It definitely helped me, and it was a good time because there weren’t any important meets that were going on. That definitely paid off in the end.”

Kaiser said his goal for next season is a state championship. Clarey said it’s definitely achievable.

“Could he be in the mix for it?” Clarey said. “If he’s healthy, there’s no reason he can’t be. He’s only two seconds behind the next guy who’s coming into compete for next year.”