Manfrin, D-C happy with 2nd

There's nothing like running side-by-side with a good friend from an opposing team.

That was the scene at Elburn Woods Saturday, when Geneva's Andrew Nelson and Dundee-Crown's Anthony Manfrin finished mere tenths of a second apart from one another.

In the end, it was Nelson who edged out Manfrin, which helped the Vikings win the Larry Eddington Invite, which was hosted by Kaneland.

Nelson clocked in at 15:36.03 in the 3-mile course. Manfrin was right behind with 15:36.57.

"We established a nice friendship over the summer at a camp, so it was nice to have someone to run with side-by-side almost the entire race," Nelson said of Manfrin. "The finish says it all."

"Anthony has been really consistent up front," Chargers coach Tom Smith added. "He and Nelson battle every time they go out, and that's really exciting. Anthony beat him last week, and coming in, we knew Nelson was going to put up a great race."

Geneva won the invite by a score of 46, as the Chargers finished with 56. Batavia was in third with 84, Benet fourth (118) and Kaneland 140 to round out the top 5.

Jacobs was sixth with a 156, followed by Rochelle (169), Westmont (191), Sycamore (252), DeKalb (287), IMSA (294), Burlington Central (363), Rockford Lutheran (371) and Timothy Christian (397).

Geneva had 5 in the top 18, including Nelson, Chris Higgins (fifth place), Kevin McDowell (seventh) and Connor Bartel (15th).

"Those guys came to run today," Geneva coach Bob Thomson said.

In addition to Manfrin, the Chargers were paced by Paul Smith (sixth), Nathan Prom (11th) and Mike Wiechmann (16th).

"Solid, very solid, real good showing," Tom Smith said. "We worked hard this week. That's another thing I liked."

Al Lowe and Stephan Jurgens went third and fourth for Batavia, which also had Drew Schmitt place 13th.

"I'm very excited about that," Batavia coach Mike DiDomenico said of placing 4 in the top 23. "I think our kids are doing a great job this year, and that's evident by their performances...hopefully, this will be our year. We ran against a lot of great programs today."

Ninth-place Jerry Olp led Benet, along with J.P. Sullivan (17th) and Tyler Hicks (22nd). Two of the top Redwings did not run today.

"Everyone has excuses...but that would have changed the dynamic of the race," Benet coach Kevin Renicker said of the two runners missing. "I'm really impressed with Batavia and Geneva and how they run, and Dundee-Crown ran an excellent race, so I knew it was going to be tough with the tight packs. I'm happy with what we did today, but I know we are a better team."

Kaneland was led by Paul Davies (12th), Dominic Furco (27th) and Logan Markuson (28th).

"I know our kids get up for this meet because it's a home meet," Kaneland coach Chad Clarey said. "Most of all, we are just trying to get through the day healthy...team-wise, we are just trying to get our pieces in place. We didn't run with a full lineup today, and I know other schools did the same thing, so it's kind of hit-or-miss when you look at a team and how well they are doing...We are a slow-starting team, and this was a nice start for us. This was a good building block for us."

Jacobs' top two runners were Kyle Kopinski (20th) and Andrew Jorgenson (31st). Nic Laggett (61st) was tops for Burlington Central and Jeff Vanderkamp (51st) led Timothy Christian.