Geneva finds perfect mix

A week ago the Geneva girls cross country team won the Royal-Cadet Invitational with seven freshmen girls while their main varsity squad ran at the Peoria Woodruff.

Geneva coach Bob Thomson combined both squads this week at Kaneland and the result was another victory for his young team Saturday at the Eddington Invitational.

"We have a very talented group of freshmen this year and they blended well this week with our varsity group," Thomson said.

Freshmen Kelly Whitley and Liza Tauscher placed 1-2 to lead the Vikings' first place finish with 29 points. Whitley finished the course in 18:44, while Tauscher came in at 18:50. Kat Yelle and Sarah Cable also finished in the top nine.

Benet was second with 76 points, and Dundee Crown (102) and Burlington Central (135) rounded out the top four teams.

After winning back-to-back meets with such a young group, Thomson feels that the confidence they gained will pay dividends as the season progresses.

"I hope that they've gained confidence from winning a varsity meet and that it continues to grow each week," Thomson said. "We want their confidence to be at its highest point when we get to the meets that really count like the conference meet, regionals and sectionals."

Kelly Shogren and Cable have been team leaders in the past for the Vikings and Thomson said their experience has helped bring the young team along much quicker.

"It's helped having our two leaders from last year (Cable and Shogren) running with them," Thomson said. "I think the fact that they have both run at the state meet will really help the younger girls as the season progresses."

Coaches always want their teams to be successful, but they also need to guard against them peaking too early.

Thomson feels this group is hungry for much more than just winning meets each week.

"At this point we don't want the kids to peak too early, but we also know from our experience where they are at right now and I don't see that happening," Thomson said.

"I know they were happy and thrilled with winning the meet, but at the same time these girls know how talented they are and they're looking at these races more as a ladder that we're climbing to get to our final destination."

Markelle Turk paced Burlington with a seventh place time of 19:31, while Maggie Gannon came in 12th.

Andi Strang led Kaneland, finishing in a time of 20:35 to place 31st.