Emotions run high for Geneva seniors

What started Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 is going to come to an end Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010.

Back on that Saturday a little over three years ago at LeRoy Oakes, Geneva's girls cross country team finished third at the annual season-opening Leavey Invitational.

What happened before the varsity race that day gave everyone a glimpse of what was to come. In the sophomore race, Geneva won with 15 points, claiming the 1-5 spots.

Geneva coach Bob Thomson said that day: “That was a nice way to start the day. That really set the tone today. When we start blending that group together, it's going to work really nice for us.”

Looking back, that's an understatement, unless you consider two state championships simply “really nice.” Thomson knew all about the talent coming in. Geneva won the 2007 and 2008 state championships and finished fifth last year.

Now seniors, Kelly Whitley, Tess Ehrhardt, Liza Tauscher, Rachel Hammond and Megan Brady will run their final race together at a fitting spot Detweiller Park in Peoria Saturday at the Class 3A state meet.

They all say emotions will be high however they finish.

“It's weird that it's our last race,” said Whitley, fresh off the Class 3A St. Charles East sectional title last week.

“It went by in the blink of eye. It feels like we were just freshmen. I think we have a lot to prove. We really want to go out knowing we gave it our all.”

The Vikings enter without the pressure of being two-time defending state champs they had last year. With Wheaton Warrenville South third in the state last year edging the Vikings last week at the sectional and defending state champ Palatine and Schaumburg in the mix, there's other schools who enter as favorites.

That's OK with the Vikings who say they have a better race in them than they showed at the sectional.

“We are all hoping to run better,” Whitley said. “I don't think we have run our best race yet. We just need to do the little things, the little things count, that's what we are going to focus on.”

Ehrhardt, who finished 11th at sectional last week, agreed with Whitley.

“I don't think we performed as well as we could have,” Ehrhardt said. “Our goal was to make it to state. We knew Wheaton Warrenville South was a great team to compete against and we got to push each other so that's good.”

Ehrhardt also knows the team will have to keep their emotions in check at the starting line Saturday.

“It's going to be really sad actually,” Ehrhardt said. “For the last week of training we've said ‘I can't believe this is finally here.' It's going to be sad.

“We know it's not going to be an easy race and it's our last high school race. It's going to be a hard one.”

Whitley said last year's fifth-place finish at state has served as a motivator.

“Last year we had a rough season and every practice we think we don't want to be like last year, we want to do better,” Whitley said. “It has really helped to push ourselves every practice, every meet this year.”

The Vikings got a lift down the stretch from a non-senior Mackenzie Williams who moved into the fifth spot at both conference and regionals before finishing 82nd at sectionals.

Thomson had to pick the team's spirits up after placing second at the sectional.

“The girls were upset with that but I keep trying to get them to understand that we still have one more week here,” Thomson said. “They have worked for that opportunity.”

Geneva knows it needs five great races Saturday to have a shot at a state trophy.

“We're excited especially since we are all seniors,” Hammond said. “We just want to make an impact. It's not so much about where we place but doing our best and knowing we did the best we could and putting everything out there on the course. We want to do it for each other.”

It's also going to be interesting to see how Whitley fares individually. The state runner-up as a freshman and sophomore who placed 18th last year, Whitley eased into the cross country season after competing in international triathlons early this fall.

She has run in three high school races and won them all: the Upstate Eight Conference River meet, regionals at Waubonsee Community College and last week's sectional at LeRoy Oakes. Whitley has been impressive in each, winning last week by 20 seconds.

New Trier's Courtney Ackerman, Prospect sophomore Brooke Wolfe and Rolling Meadows' Christina Gastfield second and eighth in Class 3A the past two seasons are among the top competition.

“We've been saying this is the last time we'll be together and it's weird since it's been all of us the last four years,” Whitley said. “It's definitely a sad thing but we are all moving on to do better things. It's definitely special that we have known everyone so long and get to do this together.”

St. Charles North is the other local team to qualify. The North Stars have an entirely different mindset entering the race, just happy to be there after finishing fourth at sectionals. Getting Erica Bauerbach the only North Star runner with state experience back in the lineup for the first time in six weeks keyed the team's sectional performance.

“Now it is just fun,” said North Stars coach Shari Hayes whose team also qualified in 2006. “There's no pressure now. This (sectional) was the pressure meet. Everything from here on out is just fun and good times. We're not in a place to medal.”

St. Charles East's Jessica Evans will run as an individual.