Geneva sweep at cross country invitational

Apparently, wearing a bull's-eye target on its back suits Geneva's girls cross country team just fine.

Led by sophomore Kelly Whitley's individual triumph, the Vikings showed that they are ready to try and defend their state title during Saturday's St. Charles East/Leavey Invitational at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

With 5 runners cracking the top 12, the Vikings cruised to the invite title, outdistancing the host Saints by a 41-89 margin.

"We're wearing a big target," admitted Geneva coach Bob Thomson.

Whitley (17:48), who finished second in last year's Class 3A state meet, overtook St. Charles East's Lizzy Hynes (17:55) over the final stages of the race to help boost her team to its first Leavey Invite crown.

"She (Hynes) had a pretty decent lead on me at the hill and then I was just trying to pick it up as much as I could the last mile," said Whitley, who competed in the frosh-soph race at last year's season-opening invite.

"The whole crowd was going crazy and it was just a big adrenaline rush at the end. And I felt pretty good at the end of the race.

"I was hoping to stick with Lizzy as much as I could. I know she likes to get faster each mile. It just surprised me in general the way everything played out."

"Kelly was just unbelievable," said Thomson. "At the mile and a quarter mark, they were side by side. I'm waiting at the finish line and everyone is saying that Lizzy had a 15-second lead and when Kelly was coming in (with the lead)-here, I was expecting her to get second."

Minnesota transfer students Sarah Heuer and Meghan Heuer placed eighth and 12th, respectively, while Tess Ehrhardt (ninth) and senior Sarah Cable (11th) rounded out the Vikings' scoring quintet.

"Meghan and Sarah ran tough for us today," said Thomson. "Running at state (in Minnesota) a couple years themselves, they've got more state experience than anybody on our team."

Liza Tauscher (17th) and Myra Yelle (25th) also competed for the Vikings' varsity.

"We had three girls who ran state last year running at the frosh-soph level today," said Thomson. "It's nice to have that kind of depth."

Hynes, who ran 18 seconds faster than she did a year ago in the same race, was admittedly disappointed in suffering her first career defeat on her home course.

"But it's the first race and the first is probably the least important of the season," said Hynes. "I obviously wanted to do well and set a high standard but I'm still focusing on November 8 (the day of the state meet).

"It was definitely the toughest this race has ever been."

Holly Robertson (15th), Dayna White (21st), Grace Gordon (23rd) and Arielle Parker (28th) added to the Saints' second-place showing.

Third-place Bartlett (98 points) received top-10 finishes from Alyssa Schneider (third), Sam Salinas (sixth) and Kristen Schneider (seventh).

Defending Leavey Invite champion York placed fourth (102), paced by fifth-place Megan Frigo and 13th-place Shreya Singh.

Erica Bauerbach (18th) was the top finisher for eighth-place St. Charles North (242), while Alexis Sampson cracked the top 10 for 10th-place Batavia (299).

Boys race

Daily double - Geneva style.

Moments after watching the Vikings' girls cross country team capture its first St. Charles East/Leavey Invite title, the boys squad staged a celebration of its own Saturday at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

Paced by top-10 individual finishes from Andrew Nelson (second), Kevin Sparks (sixth) and Greg Adelman (seventh), Geneva completed the school's Leavey Invite sweep in impressive fashion, rolling to a 38-103 team triumph over runner-up Lake Forest.

Despite his strong showing, Nelson was even more pleased with the performance of his teammates.

"I'd rather talk about the team," said the senior who entered the chute with a time of 15:14 over the 3-mile course. "The team ran awesome today. We had Chris Higgins out from soccer and he stepped up huge - it was wonderful."

Higgins and sophomore Kevin McDowell added to the Vikings' point totals with their respective 11th- and 12th-place finishes.

"(With the girls) winning the state title last year, I got to witness that and get a taste of what that's like," said Nelson, whose team placed sixth at the rugged Schaumburg sectional last season, narrowly missing a state team berth.

"Last year was tough but it was a good learning experience. It was tough but at the same time you've got to learn from it. We came out today ready to avenge that."

Vikings coach Bob Thomson wasn't surprised by team's explosive season-debut performance.

"I think they're just extremely hungry," said the coach. "Last year, we were ranked 7-8 all year and then to get sixth in sectionals. We were a top-10 state team that didn't get to perform down there (in Peoria).

"These guys, several of them being seniors now - Nelson and Adelman - some of them went downstate two years ago with the team. Last year we should have - we had a better team and didn't go. This year, we're hungry.

"There's a long ways to go but we wanted to come out and send a message that these guys are really, really hungry. They've been chomping at the bit for weeks now."

Third-place St. Charles North (119) was paced by Todd Vankerkhoff's eighth-place time of 15:31. Steven Miller (14th), Kyle Zankowski (22nd), Will Novorolsky (28th) and Kyle Kuczynski (47th) rounded out the North Stars' scoring quintet.

"Things are different," admitted Vankerkhoff, whose team graduated its top three seniors from a year ago. "But I think we're going to be more of a pack team this year."

Other top-10 individual finishers included Wheaton Academy's Mark Phillips (4th).

Fifth-place Batavia (136) was led by Al Lowe (13th), Drew Schmitt (15th) and Steve Jurgens (19th), while Mike Faith (39th) was the top finisher for the 10th-place host Saints (279).