Balance keys Batavia's victory
The Bulldogs proved that cross country is indeed a team sport at Kaneland, winning the Eddington Invitational with 78 points without the benefit of a top-10 finish from an individual runner.
Junior Drew Schmitt led the Bulldogs, placing 11th in a time of 16:30.75, while Jared Klein (14th) and Robbie Blotter (15th) weren't far behind.
Cary-Grove finished second with 91 points, while Sycamore came in third with 97 and Geneva placed fourth with 98.
Blotter, who was the Bulldogs' top runner for most of the 2006 season, believes that the emphasis coach Mike DiDomenico places on running together has been a key to their early success this season.
"He (DiDomenico) really preaches running in a pack and we're really emphasizing that this year," Blotter said. "We have a very strong team this year; maybe even the strongest team in the three years I've been running cross country, and we're still improving."
Blotter, Schmitt and Klein are becoming interchangeable at the top spot for the Bulldogs, which Blotter believes comes from friendly competition and teamwork.
"We compete against each other and feed off of that in the meets and the workouts," Blotter said. "Right now Drew is our top runner, and I think he ran the most out of all of us during the summer."
Success can often change perspectives, but Blotter said the Bulldogs are keeping their eyes on the same goals that they set at the beginning of the season.
"Our goal right now is the same as it's been since the beginning of the season," Blotter said. "We're going to keep working hard to get to the sectional and hopefully keep improving to eventually get to the state meet."
Geneva's Greg Adelman came in third, finishing in a time of 16:00.56. Kevin Sparks was fifth and freshman Kevin McDowell was seventh.
Vikings coach Bob Thomson wasn't able to run all of his top runners because of the ACT.
"Five of our top seven runners didn't run today due to the ACT exam and we rested Andrew Nelson," Thomson said. "But we still had the best total team time (top five runners) of 82.47."
Thomson was pleased with the performance despite lacking his top runners, and was especially happy with the way Adelman ran.
"I believe they were pretty happy with how they performed," Thomson said. "They have a chance to fill the shoes of some of our varsity runners, and it is just a comfort to the team to know that we have some depth.
"I would say that he's (Adelman) in the ballpark of where he was running last year," Thomson said. "He seems to really thrive off of competition, so it was good for him to be the team leader today."
Burlington Central's Ryan Phebus came in 20th and Kaneland was led by Kevin Huml's 22nd-place finish.