West Aurora nabs regional

With a format that sends five of eight teams and five more individuals to sectionals, there's usually not much drama at regional cross country races.

The boys race at the Class 3A West Aurora regional proved that notion wrong Saturday morning.

The host Blackhawks continued their best season in over 30 years by winning the regional championship, but not before they lost front-runner Steve Loran halfway through the race and their No. 3 runner Ryan Bartell also pulled up lame.

And Geneva did advance to sectionals with a third-place finish, but not before such a sluggish start that had coach Bob Thomson imploring his runners at the mile mark to “pick it up, we've got to go!”

“I've not been sweating that much at the beginning of a race,” Thomson said. “I was real concerned at that point. I said ‘You are in trouble, you've got to go.'”

While Geneva survived its anxious early moments, West Aurora's trainers were busy helping coach Matt Sinnott after a bizarre race that started out promising and ended with the Blackhawks' first regional championship since the school's lone state berth in 1976.

Loran, whose blazing senior season included the West Aurora Stampede title two weeks ago on the same Waubonsee Community College course, took off fast separating himself from the pack with Waubonsie Valley's David Groeber.

But between the mile and half and two-mlie mark, Loran suddenly dropped out of the race and had to be helped off the course. A few minutes later Bartel faltered, though he gutted out the final mile to finish the race.

“We had digestion issues, nutrition issues, all kinds of stuff happen in one race,” Sinnott said. “The roller coaster of emotions is unbelievable.”

Sinnott didn't see that coming when Loran got off to a fast start. But the coach thought Loran might not have eaten enough before the race that caught up to him midway through.

“Dehydration or not enough food enough this morning,” Sinnott said of the problem. “I think he's going to be OK.”

Sinnott said Bartel had something wrong with his diaphragm, a “a severe cramp that was not like a regular cramp.” Bartel managed to finish but his 18:24 time in 51st place was well off his normal race.

That gave West Aurora's sixth and seventh runners a chance to step up. Josh Robinson and Graham Issaacson finished 16th and 20th for counting scores, joining top-10 runners Omar Gomez (fourth), Matthew Muth (eighth) and Robert Herrera (10th) to give West Aurora 51 points and the regional crown.

“There was a lot of adversity we faced in that race,” Sinnott said. “Individually we didn't have the performances we were looking for or expecting. But the rest of the team stepped up and did their job.”

Groeber's championship led Waubonsie Valley to second, 21 points back. He ran a 15:29 to win by 24 seconds over Geneva's Bill Koskiewicz.

Joe Brant and Alex Foote placed 12th and 13th for the Warriors.

“Everyone ran great today,” Groeber said. “A lot of hard work the past couple weeks, couple months and it's finally starting to come together. We're pretty confident with where we are and we'll see where that puts us next week.”

Third at regional last year, Groeber was excited to move up two spots while feeling bad for Loran who he knows from off-season training. The two were locked in a tight duel before Loran went down.

“It (winning) sure feels like a great accomplishment,” Groeber said. “Lot of great runners, lot of great teams here. It really hasn't sunk in yet but it feels great.

“He's (Loran) a great runner so it feels really good to run with him and take him down at the end. The guy has been training his butt off the last couple months. He's a good guy and it feels bad to win like that.”

Koskiewicz continued his banner fall in his first year out for cross country with a furious finish Saturday. After a slow start had him in 16th through a mile, Koskiewicz worked up to eighth through two miles and then kept on going, passing six more runners late to finish second.

Geneva's other runners made a similar push through the last half of the race to ease Thomson's early concerns the team was in trouble to place in the top five. They ran without 2008 all-stater and last week's Upstate Eight River champion Kevin McDowell (muscle pull in right leg).

“My No. 5 kid only had six kids behind him, we weren't looking good early on,” Thomson said. “When there is eight teams you think you are in top five with not a lot of problems. Billy said he got a bad start, but they rebounded and that is the most important thing.”

Geneva's Peter Archibald (15th), Connor Bartel (23rd), Ryan Ahern (24th) and Nate Wendt (28th) joined Koskiewicz in running strong in the second half of the race.

Batavia followed Geneva in fourth with 98 points and Oswego was the fifth team to advance, beating sixth-place Bartlett by 16 points. The Hawks did qualify two individuals, led by ninth-place finisher Dan Guimon and Adrian Perez in 19th.

The sectional qualifiers all advance to the St. Charles East sectional next Saturday at LeRoy Oakes.

“We knew going in it was going to be close,” Bartlett coach Eric Bechtel said. “Our top three did what they need to do. The guys ran tough.”

Mike Redmond ran an even 16:00 to finish sixth and lead Batavia. Chris Spadafora and Matt Lash weren't far behind in 11th in 16:11, and 14th in 16:17, respectively. Brandon Phillips took 32nd, Sean Sommer 35th and Kevin Millen 37th.

Metea Valley's Joe Stewart (third) and Matt Stewart (seventh) both qualified as individuals.