GENEVA – Batavia was already rolling while heading into its varsity race during Saturday’s Kane County Meet at Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course in Geneva.

After claiming seven of the top 11 places in the girls open race and two of the top four in the frosh/soph race, Batavia freshmen Avery Hacker (19:24.3) and Gwendolyn Krodel (19:40.1) took fourth and sixth respectively in their high school debuts while juniors Madison Wnek (19:56.0) and Chloe Kammes (20.08.2) were eighth and 10th to lead the Bulldogs (42) past Hampshire (45) and St. Charles North (51) for the team title.

“The whole open team dominated and that was a whole momentum thing,” Batavia coach Chad Hillman said. “It separates as the race starts, but they kept the momentum going from there. The freshmen/sophomore team won and that just kept the ball rolling and you just hope that energy carries, and it did.”

Batavia won all three girls divisions.

“Our attitude was really good,” Hillman said. “There’s always going to be nerves going into the first one and I like to see that transition into more excitement to race. I felt like we wanted to be here, and I like to think that happens all the time, but sometimes you just worry that they are so nervous that they don’t want to do it. They were wanting to do this and to get that first race out of the gate.”

As expected, St. Charles East’s Marley Andelman (18:47.9) was more than ready to get her senior season in motion, finishing in front of Hampshire junior Hudson Szymonik (18:57.5) and St. Charles North freshman Gwen Hobson (19:13.8) to be crowned champion.

“I’ve been training all summer for triathlon and finished my national race a couple of weeks ago so I was going heavy on the training the whole summer,” Andelman said. “I felt good coming into this race. I was just trying to get that first race in as a baseline and progress from there for the whole rest of the season. I was happy with my race today.”

The lack of sun, heat and humidity from earlier in the week was a welcome sight for Andelman and the rest of the field who still were challenged by the rolling hills throughout the course.

“It’s a tough course with a couple good sized hills that you have to work through,” she said. “The first mile is fast and the rest of it is a struggle. But it’s a fun course and it feels like a real cross country course.”

St. Charles North junior Norah Dorrance (19:34.7) finished fifth, joining Hobson to lead the North Stars. Junior Tia Kilroy (20:13.1) and senior Camille Sabau (20:21.6) also finished in 12th and 13th respectively to help the team to third place.

In addition to Syzmonik’s strong effort, Hampshire junior Hannah Jones (19:50.9), senior Ella Perrons (20:02.8) and sophomore Annabelle Haskins (20:12.6) allowed the Whip-Purs to challenge the Bulldogs for the team title.

Junior Abigail Burke (20:22.2) led Burlington Central, finishing in 14th place.

Other top finishers for area schools included South Elgin freshman Maya Vodenik (22:19.9), Larkin sophomore Brinlee Jimenez (22:24.1) and Dundee-Crown senior Yvonne Castro (22:26.8).