advertisement

Batavia's Stephens, West Aurora's McCue win Stampede titles

Emma Stephens and Connor McCue will be returning to Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora in a couple weeks, and both cross country runners will have a little more confidence when they do.

Stephens, a sophomore at Batavia, and West Aurora's senior standout McCue, won their respective girls and boys races Saturday morning at the West Aurora Stampede.

Stephens finished her race in 17 minutes, 10 seconds with Yorkville's Nicole Greyer next in 17:23. McCue's time of 15:09 was 18 seconds better than Oswego East's Trevor Nold.

It's the same course that will host the Class 3A West Aurora sectional in three weeks.

"I'm glad I ran it so I know what to expect," Stephens said. "It was a longer finish so I know to think about that at the sectional race. I knew this was a fast course so I wanted to get a PR and I wanted to get out and run as fast as I could."

Stephens didn't quite get that PR - a 16:56 set earlier this year at Detweiller Park - in a race she led from start to finish.

Stephens did have company in the lead pack from a pair of teammates, Dakota Roman and Marygrace Golden.

Roman ended up in third in 17:35. Golden finished 11th in 17:53 followed by Daphne Kolody (14th, 17:59), Anna Malay (17th, 18:08) and Batavia's sixth runner Maia Haworth (26th, 18:30).

"I think our pack was a little closer," Stephens said. "Dakota and Marygrace came up with us and were trying to keep it tight this race. We've been focusing on keeping a tight pack these past couple races getting prepared for the state meet."

Yorkville swept both the girls and boys team championships, winning the girls meet with 33 points to Batavia's 46. Neuqua Valley (80), St. Charles East (173) and Glenbard East (213) rounded out the top five.

Caitlin Horn paced the Wildcats taking fifth in 17:41.

"It went by pretty fast, it was nice to have one loop," Horn said. "There were parts that were pretty quiet without too many spectators. You have to push yourself mentally."

Horn said her practice lately on getting off to strong starts paid off in this race.

"I've been working with getting out faster," Horn said. "In the earlier meets I had a tough time getting out fast and was running negative splits which is harder. We like to focus on getting out faster and staying with the girls at front."

Sofia Medina finished ninth for the Wildcats and Corina Pena was 16th.

"It went really well," Horn said. "Our team did really, really well. We're slowly cutting off a little time each race."

Rosary's Madison Ronzone stayed with the lead pack and ended up in fourth in 17:37.

"I knew there would be some fast runners," Ronzone said. "I wanted to go out right behind the top runners. About a mile and a half I tried to surge a little but I think that was everyone's strategy."

Like Horn, Ronzone said she was focused on a good start to the race, a strategy that worked well on a relatively flat course.

"It's really flat," Ronzone said. "It's definitely one of my favorite courses. It's nice to get out there and not turn for 800.

"(Where I was in) the first 800 was about where I finished. It was nice to go out and not die or go out too fast. I went out with a good pace."

Anastasia Honea paced St. Charles East, running a 17:54 to take 12th.

Boys race: Like Stephens, McCue took a quick lead and ran away from the field.

Often not having a challenger close by will lead to a slower winning time, but McCue stayed strong the entire race actually running faster splits in his final two miles. One of the reasons was getting a chance to run in his own school's invite.

"I wanted to get out here and have a good performance for the community," McCue said. "I'm not used to having to get out there and push myself. There's usually some people in front of me. Today it worked out well."

McCue's focus lately has been on the middle of the race and that paid off with the negative splits Saturday.

"It was just a mental switch I needed to turn on all season," McCue said. "At practice I've really been working on hammering the second mile. My coach has been working on staying mentally strong in that middle part of the race."

David Castillo was next for West Aurora in 15:51 for 15th. The Blackhawks will return to Stuart to host a sectional.

"It definitely gives me some positive momentum heading into the championship part of the season," McCue said of his victory Saturday.

Yorkville won the 14-team invite with 89 points, just one point ahead of Waubonsie Valley.

Justin Caton led the Warriors in fifth in 15:38. Just Colvin was next in 15:54, good for 18th and the start of a pack that featured Riley Blackmore (20th), Christian Freitag (22nd), Trevor Bon (25th) and Austin Rader (28th).

Wheaton North, Chatham Glenwood and Oswego East made up the top five with Batavia in sixth at 156 and St. Charles North eighth.

Shea Bastian finished sixth in 15:39 to lead Batavia.

"He did a nice job, got out real well," Batavia coach Bronco Meeks said. "That was his goal to get in the Top 10 today. They were struggling a little last week, they were a little beat up. It was nice to see them come back. We wanted to see the sectional course, get out a little quicker, pack it up well which they did a nice job of."

That pack includes four sophomores. One of those is Nolan Evans whose time of 16:30 shows the type of improvement the Bulldogs are making; he ran in the 17:20s last year.

"It's a growing year for these guys but they have jumped up tremendously," Meeks said. "We have four sophomores up so it's a huge growing year for those guys."

Brandon Copeland led Elgin in 15:42 in 10th, just five seconds out of fourth place. Robert Douglas paced Streamwood in 17th, and Michael Boone finished first for St. Charles North in 19th place overall.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.