St. Charles North hadn’t had the best success when it came to the DuKane Conference cross country meet.

Since the conference’s inception in 2018, the North Stars were one of two teams to never win a conference title as an individual or as a team. Their best finish in either category was third place.

That quickly changed Saturday.

Junior Sam Hill went wire-to-wire in the boys 3-mile race at Lake Park’s East Campus, taking home the individual title in 14:57.6, while leading North to its first-ever DuKane Conference title as a team.

“I just took it out fast and didn’t really look back from there,” Hill said. “It was the first time that anybody at school has won this title individually, and the first time we’ve won as a team. So it feels good, and I’m really proud of the team.”

The North Stars didn’t just make school history with the win, but conference history as well. Behind Hill, Logan Hitchings (4th - 15:32.0), Christian Enger (6th - 15:35.3), John Tanig (7th - 15:35.4) and Miles Dill (8th - 15:38.0) helped the team to 26 points, the lowest point total by any team - guys or girls - in the conference meet.

A feat that’s even more impressive considering one of their top runners didn’t even finish as one of the top five runners.

“Our normal number two, Matthew Russell, struggled a little and popped in at 16th,” North Stars coach Kevin Harrington said. “But the fact that each of those guys packed together and then stepped right in, that was fun to see. That’s what you want to see out of a team.”

Batavia junior Eddie Polaski followed behind Hill, taking the silver in 15:15.8 to lead the Bulldogs to a second-place finish with 63 points. Behind him, Gavin Warpinski (11th - 15:40.9), Aaron Kernler (13th - 15:42.5) and Will Polaski (15th - 15:45.8) also aided their team performance.

“I felt good in that first mile, but then my second mile I just felt terrible,” Eddie Polaski said. “I didn’t feel great, but I just wanted to close as well as I could there. But I’m super proud of the team’s performance out there.”

Wheaton North rounded out the podium both on the individual and team sides, with juniors Jack Sanders (3rd - 15:20.1) and Judah Clark (9th - 15:39.3) leading the Falcons to 71 points. Joey Mowrer (10th - 15:40.3) led Wheaton Warrenville South to fourth (94 points), while Nick Zegger (5th - 15:34.3) paced Lake Park to a fifth-place finish (113 points).

On the girls side, it was a bit of a similar story, with sophomore Kara Glenn taking the race from the gun and never looked back to win the 3-mile race in 16:54.9. It was one of three top-10 finishes from the North Stars, who finished fourth in the team standings.

But it wasn’t all straightforward for the sophomore, who’s in her first year of running cross country.

“I’m getting around a little bit of a plantar fasciitis injury currently,” Glenn said. “But I liked my strategy for the race. My goal was to just stay strong throughout the race and take home a win without putting too much pressure on myself to steer myself across to the championship series.”

Coming in right behind Glenn was Batavia’s Avery Hacker, who entered as the reigning conference champion. The junior crossed the line in 16:59.3 for the silver medal.

“She did a good job working on some stuff to manage the gap between her and Glenn earlier in the race,” Bulldogs coach Chad Hillman said. “She just did a really good job executing in the back half.”

While Hacker couldn’t keep a hold of the individual title, she did lead the way for the Bulldogs to retain their DuKane crown with 61 points behind four top-20 finishes. Gwendolyn Krodel (5th - 18:03.7), Madeline Cassidy (13th - 18:40.8) and Chloe Kammes (17th, 19:00.2) all aided Batavia to a 10-point victory over second-place WW South, who had two top-10 finishers in Addy Lindsay (6th - 18:05.2) and Emma Yaun (8th - 18:23.8).

“We did what we needed to do out there,” Hillman said. “A couple of them are not too thrilled with how they did out there, but that’s why it’s a team sport. Some of our girls picked up the slack.”

Geneva’s Sofia Borter took a distant third-place in the race, crossing the line in 17:30.0 to lead the Vikings to a third-place finish with 79 points. Gwen Hobson (4th - 17:58.0) and Alyssa Oblak (10th - 18:28.3) helped the North Stars to 81 points and a one-point advantage over St. Charles East, who took fifth on the backs of top 10 finishes from Adley Wilson (7th - 18:07.3) and Nicole Mayer (9th - 18:26.8).