Vikes sweep Stampede

Bartlett's Alyssa Schneider wanted to test herself entering the West Aurora Stampede race to see if she could run with Geneva standout Kelly Whitley. On Saturday the sophomore not only proved to the other 25 schools present that she's an elite runner, but she also proved to herself that she's a top runner in the state.

Schneider won the race in 17:25 and expressed how difficult the task was to stay with the state's No. 2-ranked runner.

"I knew that (Whitley) was ranked really high and she's a great runner," Schneider said. "I just thought that if I could run with her the whole race that I would really push myself as hard as I could. I tried so hard to stay with her. I knew that I had to give everything to beat her because I knew she wasn't going to give up."

Hawks coach Beth Emody saw her sophomore accomplish many goals on a warm afternoon at the Waubonsee College campus on Saturday.

"This was a breakthrough race for her," Emody said of Schneider. "She beat her (personal record) by 20 seconds. One of her goals was to stay with Kelly Whitley from Geneva, and she did that, and her other goal was to run faster, and she did that, so we're really proud of her."

Bartlett finished 4th overall with 142 points, getting solid performances from Sam Salinas and Kristen Schneider as well.

The Vikings won the race with 73 points, placing four runners in the top 15. Whitley finished second in 17:36 despite falling twice in the woods on the slippery course.

"I didn't run as smart as I wanted to, but no, I don't think that (falling) anything to do with it because I was able to catch up to her (Schneider," Whitley said. "I think I should have pushed the second mile more and then surged it out to a point where I felt good, and maybe the outcome would have been different."

Vikings coach Bob Thomson could sense that his runners felt they didn't run their best race, but he still found a silver lining with the victory.

"I think there was some concern on their part initially that maybe Hoffman or Sandburg beat them," Thomson said. "The times looked pretty good. I think some of the girls are disappointed with how we ran today, but if you're the best team here, it's real hard to say you had a bad day."

Sarah Heuer, Liza Tauscher, Tess Ehrhardt and Myra Yelle rounded out the top five for the Vikings.

St. Charles East finished eighth as a team without standout Lizzy Hynes, who was on a college visit, but freshman Mallory Abel showed that there might just be a new freshman taking over for the Saints.

Abel finished fourth in a time of 17:49 and said that Hynes, who also excelled as a freshman, has helped her remain calm before the big meets.

"I'm just really excited to be here and run with Lizzy Hynes," Abel said. "She's been really helpful and always tells me to stay calm. They've all helped me so much and I just try not to think about it (the race)."

Dayna White was 27th in 18:46 for the Saints.

Batavia's Alexis Sampson was 22nd in 18:37, and Burlington Central's Maggie Gannon was 26th in 18:43.

Boys race: It seemed all but forgotten that the boys varsity race of the West Aurora Blackhawk Stampede invitational was canceled a year ago due to excessive heat and humidity.

However, Geneva's Andrew Nelson was one person who didn't forget, and he took out his frustration by winning the race in a time of 14:49 to lead the Vikings to a first-place finish with 20 points.

Vikings coach Bob Thomson indicated that Nelson was looking forward to last year's race for an opportunity to show that Geneva's boys cross country team could run with the other elite programs in the area.

"The boys were pumped today and some of it goes back to a year ago when the meet got cancelled," Thomson said. "Some of the kids like Andrew Nelson were really frustrated because this is basically the final tune up before conference, so they were really pumped to run today. He came out here and won today and ran the best 3-mile time anyone at Geneva High School has ever run, so what else can you ask?"

Nelson indicated that he wasn't sure how he was going to approach the last race before conference until about halfway through the race itself.

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to race for time or place today," Nelson said. "But then about halfway through I saw that I had a chance to make a move and then I just took off in the last 400 (meters)."

Geneva's Kevin McDowell, Kevin Sparks, Greg Adelman and Chris Higgins weren't far behind Nelson, giving the Vikings a near-perfect score in their victory.

Nelson said the team's goal is to get downstate this year and watching the girls accomplish a title last year is great motivation.

"It's (getting to state) on our minds every practice and remains our one ultimate goal," Nelson said. "We got to see what it was like last year with the girls, so that kind of fires us up to try to do what they did."

Marmion placed third with 137 points despite losing top runner Andrew Larson just after the 2-mile mark. Larson was running with Nelson when he fell twice in the back woods on the damp course and slightly injured his right hip.

Oscar Aguinaga finished ninth in a time of 15:34 and T.J. Hefferman was 11th in 15:38 for the Cadets.

Marmion coach Bob Rebenstorf lamented the injury to Larson but also credited the Vikings with a strong race.

"(Larson) was right there with the elite runners at about the 2.1 or 2.2 mark when he went down," Rebenstorf said. "He was right there, so I think he would have finished well. Boy, was Geneva impressive today with their pack. I think they wanted to come in here and make a statement, but I think we were pretty much right there with them."

Zack Young, Ben Kanute and Bennett Marsh rounded out the Cadets top five runners.

Batavia placed eighth out of 25 teams. Al Lowe finished eighth in a time of 15:32 to lead the Bulldogs and Drew Schmitt was 26th in 16:05.

Host West Aurora was 9th with 268 points. Stephan Loran and Philip Lindgren paced the Blackhawks.