2025 NewsTribune Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year: St. Bede’s Lily Bosnich

When Lily Bosnich went to a St. Bede girls basketball game this winter it was hard for her to sit in the stands.

“I would go to the games and I would be like, ‘I want to get out there on the court,’” the St. Bede junior said.

Although it was hard not to play, Bosnich kept in mind the reason why she wasn’t on the court.

After helping St. Bede place fourth at the Class 1A state tournament as a sophomore, Bosnich gave up basketball to spend the winter working on track and field.

With the extra training, Bosnich qualified for the Class 1A state track and field meet in four events, placed second in state in the 100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles and set the area record multiple times in both hurdle events.

For all she accomplished this season, Bosnich is the 2025 NewsTribune Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

“I’m really happy with the season I had,” Bosnich said. “It was very hard for me to give up basketball since I’ve been playing it my whole life, but I realized that it was necessary and the work I put in during the offseason really paid off.”

After placing second in the 300 hurdles and seventh in the 100 hurdles as a sophomore, Bosnich went to work last summer training with Dr. Dave Safranski and Mickey Venegas, working on her block starts and keeping her arms straight.

Bosnich’s work continued into the winter as she lifted weights, focusing on her leg strength, and found places to get in hurdle work, including the hitting shed at St. Bede, the La Salle-Peru track, the YMCA and the Westwood Complex in Sterling.

“Anywhere I could, I found a place to work out,” Bosnich said.

St. Bede coach Marty Makransky said Bosnich “worked tirelessly” on staying lower to the hurdle, snapping the lead leg down and pulling through with the off arm and leg.

“I’d say it was a great move,” Makransky said about Bosnich giving up basketball. “I love watching her play basketball. She’s talented in that, but she got a lot of time in at the gym. She was doing weight training and some conditioning.

“I think it worked out really well for her. She was much stronger, especially at the end of the season.”

Bosnich said she noticed the offseason work paying off right away. She ran a 9.3 seconds and placed second in the 60 hurdles at Illinois Prep Top Times and started the outdoor season with a 15.31 in the 100 hurdles, which wasn’t far off the 15.19 she ran at the 2024 state preliminaries.

“Almost every single race, I would run a PR and that just gave me so much confidence,” Bosnich said.

Bosnich’s times really started to come down toward the end of the season as the meets held more importance.

She jumped into the 14s for the first time with a 14.84 at the Tri-County Conference Meet to break the area record of 14.89 set by Marquette’s Lindsey Homfeldt in 2005. Bosnich lowered her record three more times with a 14.67 at the Illinois Valley Meet, a 14.63 at the Rockridge Sectional and a 14.43 in the state finals.

Bosnich cut more than three seconds off her 300 hurdles time with a 44.27 at the Rockridge Sectional to break Homfeldt’s record of 44.34 set in 2005. She ran a 43.4 in the state finals.

Bosnich, who also qualified for state in the 100 and 200, did all that while doubling as an all-state shortstop and leadoff hitter for the St. Bede softball team, helping the Bruins to a regional championship and sectional final appearance.

“She was splitting a lot of our practice time and meet time with softball,” Makransky said. “But she’s such a great athlete. She is so organized. She would do double duty without even having to be told. I knew as soon as she started to get into races when the weather warmed up, she would start to make progress on her times. Then the meets became really important and she started to really show her talent.”

Bosnich didn’t always have strong competition to push her - she won her sectional races by 1.36 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 5.08 seconds in the 300s - but she knew how to push herself.

“I would use tunnel vision and just focus on my own self and try to envision someone ahead of me,” Bosnich said. “I always envisioned (state champion) Lia (Patterson) in front of me. That always helped me.”

At state, Bosnich finished just four hundreths behind Patterson in the 100 hurdles and .24 behind the Tuscola senior in the 300s. Patterson won the 300 hurdles state title three times and the 100 hurdles title twice.

“I can’t be upset because I did PR,” Bosnich said. “I did my best, but .04 seconds, that’s all I can think about.”

And it’s what motivating her to put in another offseason of hard work as she looks to stand atop the podium next season.

“I’m really hoping,” Bosnich said about winning state. “I’m going to put in even more work. I’m going to do more cardio because toward the end of the season my 300s got a lot better because I was doing more cardio and getting in better shape throughout the season. So I want to start at that point this year and just keep improving.”