Geneva continues dominance
It's a Geneva three-peat - times two.
The Vikings girls cross country team put six runners among the top 10 finishers Saturday morning at the Western Sun meet in Malta, good for a convincing 22 points and their third straight conference championship.
Geneva's win followed the same result for the Vikings boys, giving both of coach Bob Thomson's teams a third straight conference title. Only Glenbard South's boys and Batavia's girls in the first year of the Western Sun in 2006 stood between Geneva and a clean four-year sweep.
"I'm happy boys and girls are conference champs," Thomson said. "We didn't start it but we closed it. It's been a fun conference and it seems to be more competitive now."
Kelly Whitley bounced back from an eighth place finish at last week's West Aurora Stampede, when she was having trouble with a hamstring, to win in 18:16, just ahead of teammate Kelly Shogren who took second in 18:20.
"I think she (Whitley) was a little upset last weekend," Thomson said. "I think we are going to see a different person (at sectional and state). She's not used to being back. She's used to being up front taking charge."
One of the bright spots for Geneva was Megan Brady's eighth place, which Thomson said was one of Brady's best runs of the year. Rachael Hammond placed 10th despite being under the weather this week.
Geneva, which also got a fourth from Tess Ehrhardt, seventh from Liza Tauscher and 27th by Taylor Wickware, starts defense of its two straight state titles at the West Aurora regional next week, then the St. Charles East sectional in two weeks.
"It's good to be conference champs and we'll see next week where this takes us," Thomson said. "Our regional is probably about the same strength (as the Western Sun). We were confident coming in we would be conference champs and we just wanted a solid race out of them. We've had a couple hard weeks of training, and we know that is going to take toll in results (last week's runner-up finish to Sandburg)."
Batavia also left Kishwaukee College in a good mood following the Bulldogs' third-place finish behind Yorkville, 71-76.
Alexis Sampson led Batavia in sixth, with freshmen Bari Robinson and Rachael Spalding earning all-conference by placing in the top 14 at 11th and 14th, respectively.
"I felt we ran great," Batavia coach Chad Hillman said. "That is as aggressive and competitive as I've seen us. We had a great start. We fought really hard to get places."
Dana Landem just missed all-conference in 17th, Hailey Clabough was 28th and freshman Gracie Bell made her debut in Batavia' top seven and took 33rd. Seventh runner Kelsey Lenkowski returned from an illness that Hillman thought might sideline her for the year and placed 37th.
"I can't pick a kid that stood out more than others because they all ran well," Hillman said. "They are starting to get more and more competitive each week and realize from this point on their season is over if they don't run well. They are improving a lot week by week."
Kaneland had one all-conference runner, Andie Strang in 13th, while Kim Gaspar led Glenbard South in 16th. The Knights and Raiders both scored 131, with Kaneland earning fourth as a team thanks to sixth runner Shaela Collins.