After crossing the finish line Wednesday evening, Madison King didn’t need to take long to catch her breath. Nearing the end of her senior season, running a three mile race has become old hat for her by now.

“I’m feeling great,” King said with a surprising amount of energy. “I really wanted to win this race because it’s my last year.”

“This race” was the Will County Invite. “Great” was a telling description given that she had just run three miles.

Well, ran three miles and won,

King, a senior at Joliet Central, finished in first place at the Will County Invite in Channahon Community Park. She completed the course in 18:21.23.

Here’s the jaw dropper, though: She probably could’ve been even faster.

“I didn’t want to go too hard this week because I have a meet in Peoria Saturday,” she said. “Still, I did pretty good.”

“Pretty good” in that she finished a full 23.18 seconds ahead of second place. Pretty good indeed.

The Steelmen finished seventh as a team with 142 points at the eight team invite. For a team carrying six runners while some team had close to a dozen, that ain’t too shabby.

Speaking of team results, the Bolingbrook Raiders wound up being the winners of the event with a score 64. Their top four runners all finished in the top 20 with two in the top 10. Emily Marks was their top runner as she finished sixth with a time of 19:19.66, though Adrianna Johnson was close behind in 10th at 20:11.02.

Lincoln-Way West was a close second as a team with a final score of 68, four behind the Raiders. They had five runners in the top 20 with freshman Neve McSherry leading the way. She finished in eighth place with a time of 19:55.91.

“We’ve got a good mix of seniors with four years of experience like Ellie Trench and Celeste Riley but we’re moving the freshmen up to run with them now,” coach Matt Bowden said. “This is one of the first races where we had a nice pack of our top six in the top 26.”

The Will County Invite was hosted by Joliet West and they wound up finishing third place as a team with 90 points. Paola Gonzalez was their top runner, who finished in seventh with a time of 19:36.46.

Lockport was the fourth place team with 118 points, though the finished with a silver medalist on the squad. Junior Katie Peetz set a PR with a time of 18:44.51 to lead an effort that coach Juliana Schultz was proud of.

“Our motto this year has been ‘show up and show out’ and we really did that today,” Schultz said. “This is the best weather some of our athletes have run in all season. Post school day races can be tough, but they fueled their bodies well today, we PR’d a lot of girls and we feel really confident with where we’re at.”

Joliet Catholic finished in fifth place with 120 points as Mary Kate Moran took fifth place with a time of 19:18.71. Lincoln-Way East was just behind that with a score of 138, led by Olivia Mancini, who finished 16th at 20:49.48.

Plainfield Central was the final team to post a score from the day and they ended in seventh. However, sophomore Brooke Rochacz ran a 19:12.73 and finished in fourth.

Finally, Romeoville and Providence Catholic weren’t considered for team scores as the Spartans had just three runners and the Celtics had one. Romeoville was led by Jasmin Alcantar, who finished 42nd with a time of 22:41.37.

The lone Providence runner, senior Maggie Wolniakowski, took home the bronze with a time of 19:03.71.