Cross country: St. Charles North's Galvan wins Elgin City Classic
While St. Charles North runner Natalie Galvan led the Elgin City Classic girls varsity race from start to finish Tuesday, Jesus Nava from East Aurora needed a strong finish to win the boys varsity contest.
Nava, competing in his first varsity race, broke free from a pack of runners in the last 400 yards to take top honors with a time of 16:11 on the 3-mile course, 11 seconds ahead of South Elgin's Jace Warrick. Only 7 seconds separated the next 3 runners: Bojan Ruttens, St. Charles North (16:24); Michael Larry, St. Charles East (16:25); and Angelo Peters, Bartlett (16:31).
"I started off with my teammate Miguel Gonzalez. We are the first and second people from our team so I decided to stay with him," Nava said. "In the straightaway, it was my time to start going, so I started kicking and kicking and got into first place."
Nava's first-place finish earned the Tomcats second in team standings with 63 points. Glenbard North, which placed 3 runners in top 10, scored 52 points and took home the first place boys trophy.
"We have been working really hard so we just wanted to get out a good effort today and take the temperature on where we are right now," said East Aurora coach Shane Gillespie. "I'm pleased with where we are. We are short on experience, so today was a great stepping stone for the rest of the season."
Bartlett captured third place in the boys race with 94 points, followed by St. Charles North (104) and South Elgin (108).
Galvan, a junior, finished the course with a time of 19:07. Her first-place finish coupled with teammates Ally Suyak (20:03), Grace Dorrance (20:17) and Maddie Wiltrout (20:29) finishing sixth, seventh and 10th earned North a score of 39 and its seventh-straight girls first place title.
"I went out pretty fast and I was just trying to hold it as much as I could," Galvan said "I was just focusing on myself and running my race."
"People don't tend to run their varsity (in this race) some people do and some don't," said North Star coach Shari Hayes on the team's 7-year streak. "I always tell the girls try to win."
Although the Elgin City Classic was the first race for the North Stars, Hayes said she had her starting runners set.
"We pretty much know who are top seven runners are but we are very inexperienced," Hayes said.
South Elgin's Hannah Anderson crossed the finish line with a time of 19:40 to take second place. The Storm took fifth place as a team with 137 points.
Camille Buchanan, a freshman from Bartlett, came in third place with a time 19:45. The Hawks also took third place scoring 72 points.
Paced by Elelta's Sisay's fourth place finish (19:49), Glenbard North came in second (63). Elgin's Kasey Moreno (1:58) rounded out the top 5 runners.
East Aurora finished fourth (103).