Almost perfect: Vikings dominate

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SUGAR GROVE-- Simply awesome.

The Geneva Vikings were nearly perfect Saturday during the Blackhawk Stampede Saturday at Waubonsee Community College.

The Vikings scored just 20 points en route to the team title and blowing away the competition.

A perfect score is 15 and it occasionally happens in smaller meets. But scoring a 20 in a stacked field of 24 teams is a rarity, if not almost impossible.

"That was just unbelievable," said a thrilled Geneva coach Bob Thomson.

Geneva ran its top seven runners as a team for the first time in several weeks and proved it is one of the best teams in northern Illinois.

"I told the kids, 'Let's show everybody what we have and have a positive outlook for ourselves going into conference, regionals, sectionals, and state,'" Thomson said.

"They were pumped today."

Vikings' senior Andrew Nelson won the meet in a time of 14 minutes, 49.2 seconds, more than five seconds faster than runner-up Benjamin Silver of Downers Grove North.

"During the race, at about two miles, I was hurting real bad," Nelson admitted. "I didn't think I could get it down below 15...I had a kick at about 200 (meters) to go and I just kind of took off. I thought he (Silver) was with me the entire way."

Just 21 seconds after Nelson crossed the finish line, a continuous sea of royal blue and white rolled through the chute as Kevin McDowell, Kevin Sparks and Greg Adelman finished third through fifth, followed by Chris Higgins in seventh, Drew Hickey in 15th and Justin Rodriguez in 31st.

"We wanted to stay as a nice cohesive bunch," said Rodriguez. "Sometimes scoring with different times, it can kind of be a little hectic...We are all one team and one family and we tried to focus on that."

Finishing second to Geneva was Wheaton-Warrenville South with 99 points, followed by Marmion with 137.

"Great performance today," said Marmion coach Bob Rebenstorf of Geneva's win. "They definitely were on a mission."

Rebenstorf's Cadets suffered a setback 2.1 miles into the race when lead runner, Andrew Larsen, slipped on soggy ground twice within seconds, injuring his hip and forced to withdraw.

"He was devastated," Rebenstorf said.

At the moment of his fall, Larsen was battling Nelson and Silver for the lead heading into the final mile. "He was right there and figured he had him (Nelson)."

Seniors Oscar Aguinaga and T.J. Heffernan took over where Larsen left off and led the team with ninth and 11th place finishes.

"I did the best I could," said Aguinaga.

"Every week we are getting better and we are looking forward to regionals and facing these guys (Geneva) again."

Many of these same teams will race here October 25th at the West Aurora 3A Regional.

One runner, who knows Geneva all to well, is Batavia senior Al Lowe. The Bulldog senior placed eighth to pace his squad to an eighth place finish.

Both teams, along with seventh-place Yorkville, compete in the Western Sun Conference.

"I was just shooting for top ten," Lowe said.

"They (Geneva) are going to run away with the conference title next week, but I just want to be in the mix and in the middle of their guys."

Lowe added his team has been down due to illness for the past few weeks and this was the first time they have had the opportunity to run together. "It was good to have everyone back," he said.

Yorkville, which finished eight points ahead of Batavia with 206 points, was led by the duo of Jake Austen and Max Sliwa, who finished 16th and 17th.

"My goal was to stay on their hip and motivate them," Sliwa said of his team. "We were trying to stay together."

Host West Aurora placed ninth in team standings, thanks in part to the finishing flurry of sophomore Stephan Loran and senior Lindgren. The twosome battled each other heading into the chute for 13th place, with Loran edging out Lindgren by three tenths of a second.

"We were trying to run together and push each other," Loran said.

"At one point, we were 11th and 12th, but with about 200 to go we were passed by two guys," Lindgren said. "But we did pretty well...we've got a pretty good team."

Also finishing in the top 20 was East Aurora junior Andy Parra, who finished the race in a time of 15:52.6 to place 18th. "I'm pretty happy," he said. "I am pretty proud of myself, I am trying to be like my brother (Tomcat graduate Yonathan)."

The Tomcats finished 21st as a team. Also competing were Sandwich, which finished 13th, Waubonsie Valley's JV in 17th and Oswego East in 18th.

Sandwich was paced by Steph Clark, who finished in 25th, while Anthony Kunkel led the Wolves with a 48th-place finish and Jack Foley was the lead runner for Waubonsie Valley by finishing 51st.

Boys Cross Country: Blackhawk Stampede