Cross Country: Emily Eberhart, Yorkville girls win conference meet

Led by race winner Emily Eberhart, Yorkville had four of the top five girls and six of the top eight runners to win the final Northern Illinois Big 12 East cross country meet on Saturday at Geneseo.

Yorkville's boys took second to Kaneland.

Eberhart was clocked in 17 minutes, 44.60 seconds over the 3-mile run to take first place, followed by teammates Helena Kleronomos (17:49.20) and Kailey Fox (18:03.80).

Sara Klemm was fifth in 18:23.50, Hailey Simmons seventh in 18:55.90 and Sam Moreno eighth in 19:19.0.

Yorkville had 18 points, well ahead of DeKalb's 75.

"It's always important to head into the championship season with a good start, and we were able to establish that," Yorkville coach Chris Muth said. "We were able to win all three levels – varsity, fresh-soph and open – and that was one of our big goals. It's a great feeling to see some of these younger runners accomplish great races. On the girls side, we performed pretty much the way we thought we would."

On the boys side Yorkville was edged by Kaneland 46-50.

Ivan Westcott was fourth for the Foxes in 16:01.80, Ben Tholen sixth in 16:13.80 and Jackson Edwards 10th in 16:26.80. Alex Loos was 14th in 16:48.70 and Austin Hunter 16th in 16:54.70.

"The real big story was the guys side and how great those races were," Muth said. "The fresh-soph boys really finished strong. The races on the guys side was so intense and to see them step up the way they did was the biggest highlight."

The Foxes next head to a Class 3A regional at Normal Community this Saturday. On the girls side, Muth looks forward to competition from Minooka, in particular.

"It will be a really nice course – most of our kids have run it as this is where middle school state is held," Muth said. "We do have Minooka in this regional, ranked fourth in the state, up and coming with three freshman runners that have rejuvenated their program and made them dangerous going into the state series. We'll be interested to see the progression from them."

The bottom line this weekend is staying healthy and moving forward in the right direction.

"We're looking to start peaking midway through sectional week," Muth said. "We put in some great work [Tuesday] heading into the weekend."