Another Vikings victory
The Geneva tsunami in the Western Sun Conference has still not crested.
After sweeping the entire league slate last fall and adding two basketball crowns in the winter, Geneva continued its impressive run through the conference.
Friday night at home, the expected showdown against Batavia never materialized in the girls track and field conference championship. Exploiting the absence of Batavia superstar Natalie Tarter due to illness while also showcasing its powerhouse lineup, the Vikings rolled to the title with 164.5 points.
Batavia, which captured eight conference titles in a nine-year period in three different league alignments, was a distant second with 75.5 points. Kaneland, Yorkville and Sycamore finished in a three-way tie for third, followed by Glenbard South, Rochelle and DeKalb.
"It was disappointing not to see a full-strength Batavia team," Geneva coach Peter Raak said, still savoring the first league championship in program history. "Obviously, we have a very deep team."
Erica Miller, Allie Pace and Sammi Hill anchor the Vikings' talent-laden junior class, and the trio had its collective fingerprints all over the latest conference plaque. Miller was runner-up to state veterans Lindsay Gierke and Libby O'Brien in the 200 and 400 meters, respectively, and also placed third in a blazing 100-meter dash final that saw prized Sycamore freshman Kwaza Lake nip Gierke, the decorated Kaneland senior, at the wire.
"We have had a great season," said Miller. "We all work hard together and we're getting ready for next week (at the Class 3A Streamwood sectional)."
Pace established a new career best in the pole vault with an 11-foot, 6-inch clearing to jump-start the Vikings in the field.
"It's so nice to see it come together at the conference," Pace said. "I was getting to work on some new sticks (poles) tonight. Hopefully, I can improve (11-6) in the next two weeks."
Hill, meanwhile, is another versatile athlete for Geneva who can score in both the field and add depth to the sprint relays. The Vikings' standouts in middle distance and distance then ended all discussion of an alternate champion. Sarah Heuer and Liza Tauscher swept the 3,200-meter run with the former posting a season-best of 11 minutes, 11.57 seconds. In the mile, Kelly Shogren and Kelly Whitley, members of the Vikings' victorious 3,200 relay, were second and third. Meghan Heuer fell short against Yorkville senior Krysten Sebby in a near-photo finish in the 800 meters. Finally, Alissa Dappas had two impressive runs in the two hurdles events for Geneva.
But those two races, historically dominated by Tarter, instead remained within the Batavia sphere of influence due to Melissa Norville. The Bulldogs' senior swept the 100 and 300 titles over Gierke and Dappas and was runner-up to Rochelle senior Jen Jenkins, the state Class 2A leader, in the long jump and triple jump.
"(Tarter's absence) put a little more pressure on me," Norville said. "I knew it was going to be a struggle against Jen Jenkins."
Gierke earned her elusive first conference individual title in her final league attempt: the 200-meter dash. The Northern Iowa-bound senior scored 32 of the Knights' 70 points.
"(Gierke) is definitely the best sprinter-hurdler (in school history)," Kaneland coach Pat Sheetz said. "I would put her right up there with (three-time 800- meter state champion) Kerry Rink (as the finest female track athlete)."
Two years removed from its last conference championship, Glenbard South was realistic about its chances to sway its outcome.
"We're not going to be a factor (for the team title)," coach Mark Tacchi said last week at Wheaton Warrenville South.
But that is not to say the Raiders are without any ammunition in the upcoming state series. Libby O'Brien capped as perfect a career as humanely possible, and the senior is dragging some talented underclass sprinters along for the next two weeks. O'Brien anchored two of the Raiders' three sprint-relay quartets to victory while also becoming a four-time champion in the open 400 meters.
"I think it was a clean four-year sweep of my three events (in conference)," O'Brien said. "I am so excited about my times. We've got a lot of talent in all of our relays."
In the Raiders' school-record-setting victory at 400 meters, sophomore Ashley Ellis led off, and Kim Iacobazzi gave third-leg Val Wass a commanding lead. O'Brien broke the tape in 49.20 seconds and took a break in the 800 relay. But senior Emily Sniatczyk ably filled her shoes on the anchor leg for the Raiders' second title. In the event-closing 1,600 relay, O'Brien, who held off a late charge by Miller to win the open 400 in 57.46, denied another rush by Yorkville senior Krysten Sebby in the final meters for a third title.
"We have about six girls who we rotate in (the relays)," O'Brien said of the Raiders' indoor state champions in Class 2A event. Iacobazzi, Wass and Sniatczyk were the other members of the Raiders' team that barely missed a school record in 4:01.1.
"We were just trying to go for state-qualifying times," said Iacobazzi. "We've never run (relay) times this fast with two weeks to go before the state meet," said Tacchi.