ST. CHARLES – St. Charles North boys cross country coach Kevin Harrington admitted he was a little surprised when it was announced that his runners had taken top team honors at the Jeff Leavey Invitational Saturday morning at LeRoy Oakes.
"To be honest, I thought we'd be about two or three after the way we ran and someone else would take [first]," Harrington said. "But when the boys run as a team, that's what happens. We keep telling them that running together, that's how you're going to do it. I was a bit surprised but I'm not surprised at how well we can do."
The North Stars placed two runners in the top ten – Billy Clink in fourth place and Ryan Senci in seventh. Declan Duggan, Zachary Heuer and Grant Markowicz of North also finished in the top 30. Ben Silver of Downers Grove North finished first in the three-mile run with a time of 15:05.
The Geneva boys team placed sixth with solid results from Bill Koskiewicz (18th), Connor Bartel (21st), Peter Archibald (31st) and Ryan Ahern (40th).
Batavia placed ninth with Matt Lash, Mike Redmond and Chris Spadafora finishing 22nd, 23rd and 28th, respectively.
The host Saints just missed the top 10 as a team, coming in 11th. They were led by Mike Rykoskey (25th).
The Geneva girls had a strong performance, placing third overall despite the absence of its top runner, Kelly Whitley, who is competing is preparing for a triathlon in Hungary. The Vikings placed three runners in the top ten with Tess Ehrhardt coming in second, Liza Tauscher in sixth and Rachel Hammond in ninth. Bartlett's Alyssa Schneider took first at 17:55.
"I was really happy with today," Ehrhardt said of her second-
place finish. "I couldn't have done it without my teammate Liza behind me."
Tauscher felt the same way about Ehrhardt, explaining that the two of them push each other to run faster.
"It's a really good start for our team," Tauscher said. "We can only go up from here so it's exciting."
"I'm proud of them today," added Geneva coach Bob Thomson. "The girls came out to compete, boys too. That's all you can ask for."
St. Charles North took fifth on the girls side. Sydney Stuenkel (11th), Erica Bauerbach (29th), Ania Gawlik (32nd) and Kaylee Wessel (47th) led the way for the North Stars.
The Batavia girls placed 13th, with Rachael Spalding finishing 24th and Bari Robinson 54th.
East came in 15th with Gina Bartindale (44th) and Kristin Sheehan (49th) each turning in top-50 performances.
"This is our home course so we always love competing on it," Bartindale after running her last Leavey Invitational as a senior.
York took the top girls team honors, ahead of Barrington and Geneva.
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