Perfect end to perfect day for Geneva
After watching the boys team win a Western Sun Conference title earlier in the morning, the Geneva girls cross country team had their sights on duplicating the feat.
The Vikings nearly pulled it off, taking the first four places, as well as the ninth and tenth places, en route to their second straight conference title with 19 points.
The conclusion of the race also had its share of excitement, as race officials determined that six runners who appeared to earn All-Conference honors ran off the course and were disqualified.
Geneva's Kelly Whitley won the race in a time of 18:22, bouncing back from a second-place finish a week ago that left the sophomore more determined to come out and run her best at the conference meet.
"I got a ton of motivation from last week and I really came into this week positive," Whitley said. "We're just trying to take it meet by meet and just focus on the meet in front of us. I think we're really having a great year so far."
Viking coach Bob Thomson indicated that while second place is an accomplishment, Whitley was determined to come back and prove herself at the conference meet.
"She's (Kelly) a returning conference champ," Thomson said. "She had a bad race last week in that she fell a couple times. It was important for her to come out and finish the way she did today. I'm very proud of her today."
Because of the disqualifications, Thomson indicated that several of the runners had to even work harder to earn their places.
"There were six girls who apparently ran the wrong way on the hill going up the second time," Thomson said. "Kelly (Whitley), who was leading at the time, indicated that she was in first and then all of the sudden she was in sixth or seventh. Kelly then worked hard to get back ahead of them."
Fellow Viking Sarah Heuer finished second in 18:34. Heuer and her sister, Meghan transferred to Geneva from Minnesota and ran at the state meet there last year; however, she's enjoying being part of the Vikings quest to repeat as state champions in Illinois.
"We really ran together today," Heuer said. "We were all pretty close for the first mile, but then it started breaking up a bit after the second mile. This is so amazing and it's really nice being with all of these girls. They're all really nice people."
Tess Ehrhardt (3rd), Meghan Heuer (4th), Liza Tauscher (9th), and Kat Yelle (10th) all earned All-Conference honors for the Vikings.
Batavia's Alexis Sampson placed fifth to earn All-Conference, using the reigning state champions to help set her pace.
"My plan was to come out and try to hang with the Geneva group," Sampson said. "I felt good just to be able to stay with them and I gave it all I had to run my best."
Bulldogs coach Chad Hillman believes that Sampson can run with the top runners and feels Sampson is beginning to realize her potential.
"She's (Sampson) starting to learn how to compete a little harder upfront, and that's a good thing for her," Hillman said. "She's a great kid and she works hard and trains hard."
Fellow Bulldog Dana Landem (14th) earned All-Conference honors, along with Kaneland's Andie Strang (13th).
Boys race: Even though they scored 20 points and had a near perfect score last week to win the West Aurora Stampede invite, the Geneva boys cross country team still felt like they had something else to prove.
Five Viking runners crossed the finish line before any other team to vault them to won a Western Sun Conference title with a perfect score of 15.
Andrew Nelson won the meet in convincing fashion in a time of 15:36, which was 11 seconds faster than the second place runner, Greg Adelman.
"Last week we finished with 20 points at the Stampede, so we figured why not come out today and make it our goal today," Nelson said.
Batavia's Al Lowe was determined to keep the Vikings from earning a perfect score and led halfway through the race, but Nelson and his teammates were able to catch him after the second mile.
"We wanted to go out hard, and then the second mile we were going to regroup," Nelson said. "We caught up to him (Lowe) on the hill and overtook him there."
Only nine seconds separated Adelman from the Vikings fifth runner, and the senior indicated that being able to run in a pack has helped them be successful.
"We've been wanting to do this (perfect score) for a while," Adelman said. "The one guy who could stop us was Al Lowe, but we were able to get him at the end. We try to practice staying with each other as much as possible."
Kevin Sparks, Kevin McDowell, and Chris Higgins finished third through fifth, respectively, separated only by seven seconds.
Sparks admitted that the score was on their minds heading into the conference meet, but that it took an entire team effort to make it reality.
"A perfect score - I can't really say any more than that," Sparks said. "We all knew that we had an opportunity to do that coming into this meet, so we all just worked so hard together to get it. It was just a great effort and a great day."
Vikings coach Bob Thomson was able to accomplish one of the team's goals by winning the conference meet, but their final goal is to win a state title.
"It was their goal all season to win conference, so it's one goal down and one to go," Thomson said. "It can be tied, but it can never be beaten. We have a lot of respect for these teams here, so it's a great accomplishment for us today."
Justin Rodriquez (11th) and Drew Hickey (14th) also earned All-Conference honors for the Vikings.
Batavia's Al Lowe finished seventh in a time of 16:02. Lowe, the Bulldogs seventh runner a year ago, indicated that it was his off-season work that helped him blossom into the Bulldogs top runner this year.
"I didn't start running until my sophomore and didn't really get serious about it until half way through track," Lowe said. "This past summer was the first summer I got in a lot of miles, and it's really helped me out this year."
Bulldogs coach Mike DiDomenico credited Lowe's work ethic as a good leadership example for the rest of the team.
"Al Lowe has been an outstanding runner and leader for us all year," DiDomenico said. "He's really stepped it up. I just can't say enough good things about him. Last year he wasn't even on varsity, and he committed himself this summer and it's really been great for our program."
Drew Schmitt (8th) also earned All-Conference honors for the second place Bulldogs.
Kaneland finished fifth with 132 points and was led by Matt Reusche (15th), who missed making All-Conference by three seconds.