Cross country: St. Charles East sweeps Kane County meets

Mitch Garcia was as eloquent as his teammate Micah Wilson was unstoppable Saturday morning in Geneva.

Wilson, only two-plus months from adding an individual Class 3A track and field state championship in the 3,200-meter to his state gold medal as an indispensable member of the 2019 St. Charles East cross country team, conquered any and all to win the inaugural boys varsity race at the Kane County Meet at the newly christened Northwestern Medicine course.

Garcia, a junior, was fifth overall as the Saints turned back Batavia 47-80 for the team title.

"This early in the season, we have a relatively new varsity team," Garcia said. "(The state-championship unit) gave us big shoes to fill. They taught us great morals, they taught us great practices. They are the forefathers for what we are going to do this year and next."

Wilson toured the 2.97 mile course in 15 minutes, 40.2 seconds to deny Burlington Central senior Yusif Baig - a Class 2A track stalwart in his own right - by 12-plus seconds.

"I was just focused on testing out the course," Wilson said. "I feel like I accomplished that. We are back here for (our own) regional. I can't complain about my race."

The maturation process for Baig continues unabated.

"When he joined the program he was the second-slowest guy," Central girls coach Vince Neil said. "But he just works so hard."

Quinlin Lowe was the pace-setter for Batavia; the junior was third in 16:06.4.

The Bulldogs edged archrival Geneva by 2 points for runner-up status.

Nathan Lehman was equally short of Lowe for third with his 16:07.4 time.

"The first half mile or so was really downhill, so our goal was to go out conservative and push the back hill," Lehman said. "We tried to pass as many people as we could in the last mile."

Hampshire (91) and defending Class 2A state champion Kaneland (102) were fourth and fifth in the field.

St. Charles North, Burlington Central, South Elgin, Dundee-Crown and Elgin rounded out the limited field as none of Aurora schools were in attendance due to a conflict with their city meet.

The absence of any participants from Illinois' second-largest city as well as other traditionally well-stocked programs being short-handed left an even bigger void in the girls team race.

But St. Charles East filled the vacuum to secure an even more one-sided victory than their male counterparts.

Morgan Sandlund and Brooklyn Walker were second and third overall, respectively, but the Saints' duo technically finished 1-2 in the team race when St. Charles North fell shy of the minimum five runners.

As a result, the Saints breezed to a 22-63 triumph over Batavia.

South Elgin, which features national-champion race-walker Angelica Harris, was third with 73 points.

Kaneland (110), Dundee-Crown (134), Geneva (138) and Hampshire (169) were the only other schools to meet the five-athlete threshold.

"I would say we just wanted to go out and try our best, especially with it being the first meet of the season," said Sundland, runner-up in 19.23. "We wanted to see what our summer training led to."

"We knew it's definitely possible to be up there because the (SCE) guys are up there," Decker said.

St. Charles North senior Bella Dicrosta endured the debilitating humidity to claim the individual title in 18:24.3.

"It was unexpected," Dicrosta said. "I am shocked by my performance. It's an exhilarating feeling."

Liliana Bednarek and Ava Thomas led Batavia, which was without the services of former state runner-up Katrina Schlenker (recruiting trip).