Cross country: Geneva boys, girls dominate Upstate Eight meet
Geneva left little doubt as to where 2016 Upstate Eight Conference cross country supremacy lies.
After the girls ran away with the conference championship Saturday morning at Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora, the Vikings boys took to the course and produced the exact same result.
Geneva's lead pack of Sophia McDonnell, Emma Ehrhardt and Andrine Larsen led the girls to the title finishing second, third and fourth, respectively. Only St. Charles North's Audrey Ernst beat them, running a 17:55 to McDonnell's 17:58 with Ehrhardt and Larsen right behind at 18:00.
All Upstate Eight River and Valley schools raced together, then the results were split to produce champions for both divisions. Race champion Josh Rodgers paced the Geneva boys to the River title 33-37 over St. Charles East, while the girls secured a 35-49 victory over Batavia with St. Charles East (76) and St. Charles North (77) third and fourth.
"That was a goal," McDonnell said of the conference title. "I think we did really well today."
The trio of McDonnell, Ehrhardt and Larsen continued their close pack they have displayed all fall. They were in the lead group with Ernst the entire way.
"They are training together, they are good friends, they talk to each other, they just work together all the time," Geneva coach Bob Thomson said.
"We push each other," McDonnell said. "That's our goal is to stick together and be within 10 seconds of each other. We did that today and worked really hard."
Ernst had not raced since the second week of the season at Lake Park. She missed one race for a triathlon and has been under the weather since then.
She returned and won the Upstate Eight championship Saturday, leading throughout the race and holding off the Geneva pack when they tried to push late while still not at 100 percent.
"That's why she felt sluggish," North Stars coach Shari Hayes said. "She'll be fine. She has three weeks until state. She wants to be top 10, top five, with the top-notch girls (at state)."
Other top 10 Upstate Eight finishers included Madison Kaufmann from St. Charles North in fifth and St. Charles East's Anna Arrick in sixth. Kaufmann, a state qualifier last year, has been working her way back from a knee injury.
"She ran great," Hayes said. "She's been running but not in the capacity we want. This is the best race we've run all year."
Batavia's Marygrace Golden and Audrey Pellico took seventh and eighth with teammates Alexa Andrews and Daphne Kolody not far back in 10th and 11th. Taryn Christy was ninth for Geneva.
Hannah Anderson from South Elgin had the best finish among the Valley schools in 19:00, which was the 19th fastest overall time, just behind Elgin's Kasey Moreno. Glenbard East totaled the best team score in the Valley; the Rams were led by Cailyn Biegalski and Lexi Weltin in 19:29 and 19:30, respectively.
West Aurora finished with 66 points to place second in the Valley behind Glenbard East's 47.
Boys race: St. Charles East's Jake Beno was trying to hold on for an Upstate Eight championship Saturday.
But with a little over 400 yards to go, that's just the distance Geneva's Rodgers likes the best.
Rodgers passed Beno and won the conference crown Saturday in 15:20 to Beno's 15:23.
"The 400 is usually my go-to distance," Rodgers said. "It hasn't let me down before."
Both runners said they were more focused on trying to help their team win the title over any individual glory.
"I go out to compete, I don't really focus on splits or anything," Beno said. "It felt good but I was thinking about the team scores the whole time.
"I felt good but there is definitely room for improvement. That last mile, once Rodgers goes, I have to go with him."
Rodgers had plenty of company near the front from teammates Ryan Kredell (third), Tyler Dau (sixth) and Brian Kuehl (seventh).
"It (winning the race) wasn't a goal for me," Rodgers said. "Our team was looking forward to getting a win today and I was more wrapped in that. I wanted to do what I could to get the team that win.
"I'm very proud of my teammates because they came in closer than they ever have before. It was a tight pack. I wasn't keeping time in my mind this race, I was more shooting for place to get my team some points."
Beno's St. Charles East teammates also ran well. Among River schools, Cole Adesso was fifth, Aidan King eighth and Daniel Werner ninth.
Sean Adams finished in 15:38, the top time for Batavia.
The best time from an Upstate Eight Valley school came from West Aurora's David Castillo, who ran a 15:40 to place fifth. East Aurora won the Valley title with 25 points ahead of West Aurora (58) and South Elgin (63).
West Chicago's Dan McComb ran a 15:51 to take eighth overall, and Jon Juarez paced a tight East Aurora pack in 15:56.