Hinsdale Central's girls cross country team placed third out of 35 teams Saturday, Sept. 12, at the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Ally Furey led the Red Devils with an 18:03 three-mile time, according to the school's athletic department. Co-captain Morgan Kohn followed at 18:35, with Lucy McCormick (19:03), Rory Sullivan (19:19) and Marin Backus (19:26) rounding out the scoring five.

The 1-minute, 23-second gap between Furey and Backus kept the pack tight across a field expected to draw nearly 5,000 runners statewide, according to the Peoria Journal Star. The 39th annual meet is one of the largest early-season tests in Illinois high school cross country.

Kohn, who missed last spring's track season with an injury, set her sights on the fall in an Aug. 20 profile in The Hinsdalean. "As a team we want to be the best we can be at the end of the season and continue moving forward," she said then. "For me, I was injured for last spring's track season, so I'm just excited to get out there again."

Head coach Mark McCabe called Kohn "a self-made athlete" in that same profile. Kohn entered high school with no running background, according to the profile, yet became the second runner on last year's seventh-place state team. She missed all-state honors by nine seconds.

The program won IHSA state titles in 2013 and 2014, finished as state runner-up in 2021 and 2022, and captured the NXN Midwest championship in 2022.

A third-place showing in a 35-team field at Detweiller Park gives the Red Devils an early-season benchmark as the fall schedule continues.