Cross country: Huntley boys, Cary-Grove girls win FVC titles
The individual medalist at the Fox Valley Conference boys cross country meet Saturday at Hampshire High School wasn't from Huntley. But 3 of the next 5 finishers were wearing Huntley red and black, leading the Red Raiders to repeat as conference champions ahead of Jacobs and Cary-Grove.
The individual title went to Dundee-Crown's Adam Swanson.
The situation was similar in the girls race but the teams involved were different. Mackenzie Aldridge of Crystal Lake South crossed the line first in 18:12.2, but Cary-Grove runners finished second, fourth and fifth. That was enough to give the Trojans the team title, with Prairie Ridge second and the Gators in third.
Swanson ran in the lead pack with the 3 Red Raiders, then used his finishing kick to sprint clear at the end.
"I was coming in ranked third (in seed times)," said Swanson, who ran the 3 miles in 15:41.9. "I think (Jadon) Conroy and (Ian) Geisler were 1 and 2 from Huntley, so I'm like, all right, I can run with these guys.
"I tweaked my knee a little bit playing basketball, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I won that last 800. I relied on my 4 and 800 speed from track. I'm so happy with that. I always wanted to be a conference champion."
Huntley's Ian Geisler was the runner-up a year after leading the Red Raiders to FVC and regional titles and qualifying for state.
"I know I definitely should have done better but, all in all, it wasn't a bad race," he said. "This will help us going into regionals and sectionals. (Conroy) and Jeremy (Roe), they ran all right."
Roe finished fourth behind Cary-Grove's Maxum Caesar, and Conroy finished sixth for the Red Raiders.
Huntley finished with 42 points to 74 for Jacobs and 96 for the Trojans. Mark Lemke was the Golden Eagles' top finisher, taking fifth place. Zach Albrecht and Andrew Doetsch also finished in the top 10 for Jacobs.
D-C tied with the host Whip-Purs for fifth place. The Chargers were missing 1 runner and had several others banged up. Hampshire was led by Isai Morales in 13th place.
In the girls' race, Aldridge sprinted clear of Cary-Grove's Maggie Mason and Prairie Ridge's Chelsea Gale at the end. The Trojans' Allison Drage and Morgan Dieschbourg rounded out the top 5.
"It feels awesome," said Aldridge of her win. "There's a lot of great athletes here."
The 3 top 5 finishers helped the Trojans repeat as conference champs. Their 35 points bested Prairie Ridge's 54 and the Gators' 73.
"We knew that this was probably the best conference meet that we would ever see, with 4 ranked teams," said Cary-Grove co-head coach Mark Anderson. "Every week we've been getting better."
Anderson vowed to continue to pump co-head coach Tom Smith for information.
"This guy has kept this ship straight," Anderson said. "And I think he's been doing more than he would expect to be doing this year."
Jacobs took fourth overall while placing 2 runners in the top 10: juniors Alyson Doherty and Alyssa Demma.