Normal West’s Warren wins 2025 CSM Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year
- Clutch Sports Staff
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Before her senior season, Normal West’s Renee Warren set out with a goal to bring the Wildcats back to the IHSA State Finals as a team.
She helped accomplish just that, leading Normal West to finishing 13th in Class 2A and earning regional and Intercity titles, as well as all-state and Clutch Sports Media All-Area First Team honors. Warren can add one more accolade to her shelf as she earned CSM’s first-ever Girls Cross Runner of the Year.
The Wildcats’ senior finished 16th at the Class 2A state finals with a personal-best time of 17:32.0 and placed in the top eight of every other race she competed in in the midst of a high-level schedule.
Warren won four events, namely the Normal West Invitational (18:04.8), Dunlap Invitational (17:53.7), Bloomington/Normal Intercity Meet (18:12.1) and Class 2A Metamora Regional (17:21.0) while finishing second at the Peoria High Invitational, Big 12 Conference Meet and Class 2A Geneseo Sectional.
The Intercity title marked her second year in a row winning the event. Her seven top-five finishes were among the most by any girls runner in CSM’s 39-school coverage area and her four wins were tied for the most in the area. Each one of her nine races during the season featured her finishing comfortably under 19 minutes and Warren ran five sub 18-minute times during the fall.
She is a four-time state qualifier, having finished 28th in Class 2A as a freshman in 2022, 81st in Class 3A in 2023 and 31st in Class 3A in 2024.
Warren’s efforts, along with CSM All-Area Second Team selection Julie Bach and CSM All-Area Honorable Mention Amanda Warren, helped lead Normal West to a Class 2A regional title, the team’s first since 2010, and a state berth as a team for the first time since 2022.
Hear more from Warren’s past, present and future in our interview with her below. Some responses have been minimally edited for clarity.
What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended?
“It definitely puts a lot of pressure on to make a decision for colleges. I’m just really excited to move on to the collegiate level and see how far I can go there…I’ve done a couple overnight visits and been in touch with some coaches, but I still have a pretty tough decision ahead of me.”
What inspired your love for running?
“When I was little, my dad would always have us run around and stuff. I was in pretty much every sport there was and when you're that little, it doesn't really matter about your skills, but if you can run fast, you're pretty good at it. He would constantly have me and my twin sister — we were always on the same team — do laps. Then eventually I just kind of came to the sense that I was probably not the most coordinated person, so I was like, ‘You know what? I'll just put all my skills into running’ and I really love it.”
Where is your favorite place to run?
“My favorite course would probably be Granite City’s course. It’s super fast and it was really fun.”
What’s a motto or mindset you take when you’re competing?
“I feel like it changes from season to season. I feel like this season, I didn’t have one, I was just locked in. Even outside of running, just to make sure you're having fun so I feel like that's probably my most consistent [mindset].”
Aside from winning, what was your favorite memory of the season?
“Definitely warming up with the team. We started taking up karaoke on our warm up, it's been really fun to see the different voices on our team. It's been just kind of fun to be yourself and goof around even before really high-pressure races.”
What are your future plans or aspirations?
“I like science and math, and I'm obviously very passionate about running, so whatever I want to do, I want to make sure I have time to run.”
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