Geneva surprises everyone, wins sectional
Bob Thomson certainly wasn't surprised one of his Geneva cross country teams won a Class 3A St. Charles East sectional championship Saturday at LeRoy Oakes.
It was the one that did that came as a stunner a very pleasant one at that.
Geneva's boys, third a week ago at the West Aurora regional, ran the race of its season Saturday, and that turned out to be just enough to finish on top of a tight pack of teams.
Geneva scored 116 points, two better than St. Charles North and four better than West Aurora, who would have won going away if not for losing lead runner Steve Loran a second straight week in the middle of a race he was winning.
Wheaton North (126) and Naperville North (140) also qualified for state.
Thomson's girls team was the one looking for a sectional title when the day started and the boys hoping to find a way to crack the top five. But when the girls came up just short of Wheaton Warrenville South to finish second, they quickly shook off that disappointment and celebrated the boys' breakthrough win.
“Today I don't think anyone expected us to win,” Thomson said. “We were like are we good enough to get fifth today? It's going to take everyone's best race. This (first) is totally by surprise.”
This is the Geneva's first boys sectional championship not even the 2001 state champs or the 2008 third-place state team won sectional.
Kevin McDowell returned from a groin and hip injury that kept him out of last week's regional to finish second overall in 15:09.
“Everyone ran really well,” McDowell said. “A lot of us didn't get out well in the beginning. I probably was 15 seconds back at the mile, I was not where I wanted to be but I kept working my way up and it might have turned out better that way because they went out really fast and I just used a steady pace to catch them.”
Billy Koskiewicz, a senior out for cross country for the first time, placed ninth overall, with his score counting as seven when the individual sectional qualifiers were removed.
“I was so nervous on the line,” Koskiewicz said. “We were pretty confident we would have a good race and we did.
“I got out fast but fell back a little and let things play out. But I almost got too far back so I had to start moving in the woods.”
As good as McDowell and Koskiewicz ran, the Vikings wouldn't have had their surprise title without Peter Archibald (27th), Connor Bartel (33rd) and Ryan Ahern (45th) fighting their way back. Thomson said Ahern in particular moved up at least 30 spots from where he was just after the mile mark.
“Quite honestly there are eight teams, today it is these five teams (that qualified), tomorrow it could be a totally different order,” Thomson said. “The girls were trying to win and were extremely disappointed but they are so happy for the boys now it's just unbelievable.”
Geneva's stunner left St. Charles North with mixed emotions. The North Stars reached their season-long goal of qualifying for state but just missed the big prize.
“We're a pretty competitive group so we want to hoist up the trophy but you can't take away from our neighbors to our south because they ran great, they are a great team to run against,” St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington said. “We're very happy with how we ran as a team. We didn't run a perfect race but we ran well as a team. We know we can even do better.”
Ryan Senci finished fourth overall, third among the sectional qualifying teams. He was followed by Declan Duggan (20th), Billy Clink (25th), Zach Heuer (28th) and Spencer Gray (40th).
“We need a good balance of confidence and I'm sure we will have a little bit of fire in our belly too,” Harrington said of stage. “Our guys have real high expectations. And every week we have run this year our expectations have increased. Geneva ran great. That's fine because our kids ran well and we'll be motivated next week too.”
Like St. Charles North, West Aurora had mixed emotions taking third. The concern over Loran certainly took away from the excitement over qualifying for state for the first time since 1976.
“It's exciting,” said senior Ryan Bartell, West Aurora's best finisher in sixth.
A week ago, Bartell like Loran came up lame in the middle of the regional race. He was glad to run such a strong sectional, showing the form he used to win the DuPage Valley Conference title two weeks ago.
“We had a really rough week coming off regionals,” Bartell said. “I went out a little too conservative today and thought I could go out in 52nd out of 56 and then win (like the DVC). But it is such a narrow start I found myself trying too hard in the back woods by the mile trying to catch up. I didn't position myself too well for the end.”
As they did at regional, West Aurora showed its depth to make up for Loran's loss with Robert Herrera (17th), Matt Muth (23rd), Omar Gomez (32nd) and Josh Robinson (42nd) rounding out the top five.
Senior Caleb Philbrick finished ninth to lead fourth-place Wheaton North.
The Falcons, coming off a regional championship, struggled early.
“We got way too buried at the beginning and having to fight through the crowd,” Wheaton North coach Nate Roe said. “We've never quite had that before. We haven't been in a 20-team invitational in awhile. On the course if you don't get out well enough because of the trail nature of it you end up get buried. We worked on it in practice but might not have stressed enough how they need to get in a good position through the first half mile or so.”
Roe credited No. 3 runner Sam Hoffman for stepping up with his 22nd-place finish. Senior Jason Dowell placed 19th, Aidan Askin 24th and Paul Steeno 52nd.
“Sam had been our fourth man, I challenged him not to relegate himself to that position,” Roe said. “Some of our front runners didn't have the race they wanted today and Sam did a great job of picking up the slack.”
Naperville North snared the final spot behind some strong pack running. Jimmy Qiao led in 15th followed by Nick Drendel in 26th, Griffin Haugen 29th, Sam Ceruti 34th and Dan Emrie 36th.
Waubonsie Valley's David Groeber followed his regional title at Waubonsee Community College last week by winning the sectional in 15:05, four seconds ahead of McDowell.
“It still hasn't sunk in yet,” Groeber said. “I did not expect this at all. I'm surprised and it's a great feeling.”
Groeber got out to a good start. McDowell made a charge to pull even but never took the lead, and Groeber pulled away in the closing stretch.
“We weren't trying to get out too fast, we were trying to set ourselves for a good race in the middle,” Groeber said. “And I just happened to get out a little fast and hang on and it worked out. It's one of the best days of my life.”
Other area individuals to qualify included West Chicago's Gunner Sterne (third place in 15:15), Glenbard West's Mike Lederhouse (fifth) and Metea Valley's Joe Stewart (10th).
Batavia's Mike Redmond missed by two spots of qualifying individually.
“I am very happy with my race even though I did not qualify,” Redmond said. “I am content with what I did. I stayed with McDowell for most of the race.”
At about the two-mile mark Redmond said McDowell “started flying away” and he couldn't stay with him. Still, his 15:30 time represented a PR by a wide margin and he's already looking forward to his senior year.
“I can't wait to do this race next year,” Redmond said. “All the seniors will be gone.”