It was the Aurora Central Catholic boys and Winnebago girls dominating the 30-team Oregon Cross Country Open.

For Winnebago, who has more state titles than any other girls program in Illinois, it’s early evidence in the quest for a 14th IHSA championship.

“We have a good culture, good kids and I like where we’re at right now,” Winnebago coach Joe Erb said.

Celicia Hilby of Aurora Central Catholic, a returning all-stater and younger sister of running star Patrick Hilby, took first at 19:01 on the 3-mile Park West course.

“Without being pushed, I felt smooth,” said Hilby, who won by 24 seconds. “I’ve got to be mentally tough. It’s going to be different running against 2A after being in 1A last year.”

Molly Webb, Morgan Capriola and Ella Carlson went 2-3-4 for Winnebago and Avery Dimke and Svea Glidden were ninth and 11th.

Team scores weren’t kept, but had they been, Winnebago would have had 29 points. Far behind in second would have been ACC with 123.

Top finish among local runners was Oregon freshman Anya Anaya, who was 14th with a 21:18 clocking. Backing her up were state hurdling medalist Jillian Hammer (22:25) in 29th and Madeline Rogers (22:32) in 33rd. The Hawks would have finished fifth in team standings.

Rock Falls got a 15th from Ashley Rodriguez (21:20). Kat Scott (21:56) and Brenna Burlack (22:26) added a 22nd and 31st for the Rockets.

“We’re thin, but have a core unit,” RF coach Mark Truesdell said.

Erie-Prophetstown junior Sarah Link was 19th in 21:44.

Newman is in a transition period this season, with Comet grad Tegan McKenna eventually taking over as coach from Pat Warkins.

“We have three girls and two boys out,” Warkins said. “Hopefully, we can have a full team next year with kids coming up from middle school.”

On the boys side, it was Ben Bohr, Jack Swiatek and John Reinbold of Aurora Central Catholic finishing 1-2-3. Giving chase was fourth-place finisher, Tim Starwalt of Byron.

“Tim really pushed us, but the last 200 meters, we broke off,” Reinbold said.

The trio from ACC came in at 16:02, with the returning all-stater Starwalt at 16:06.

“I thought Tim had a strong race, finishing the way he did,” Byron coach Mike McHale said. “He got up with ACC, which it what we wanted to do.”

Daniel Gonzalez of Oregon, known more being a middle distance runner in track, was eighth with a time of 16:34.

“I’ve been doing a lot of track meets this summer,” Gonzalez said. “Running cross country gives me endurance for doing the 800 in track. I’d like to get down to 1:50 or 1:51.”

Rochelle got a 13th from sophomore Tyler Johnson (16:55) and 26th from senior Declan McGee (17:40).

“I like the way Tyler passed people on the final mile,” Oregon coach Dale Bergeson said.

The top runner for Rock Falls was senior Ian Finney, who ran 17:24 to place 23rd.

“He’s our team leader to a very young team, “Truesdell said. “We have numbers, though. Some of the kids I kept down to the jayvee meet to give them experience.”

Roscoe Davies of West Carroll was 13th at 16:55 and Nathan Punke of Erie-Prophetstown 29th at 17:40.

“Our 1-5 spread among the boys is close,” E-P coach Liz Green said. “It’s good to have Gus Schultz back from football after being on our state-qualifying team from 2023.”

In hypothetical scoring, ACC would have had 43 points, with Rockford Christian (100) and Winnebago (119) second and third.

“Those are two exceptional programs,” ACC coach Troy Kerber, in his 39th year of coaching cross country.

Counting the jayvee and junior high meet, approximately 750 runners competed at Oregon on Saturday.

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Aurora Central Catholic's Ben Bohr, Jack Swiatek, and John Reinbold race to the finish line at the Oregon Cross Country Open on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. Bohr finished first, Swiatek second and Reinbold third in the event, held at Oregon Park West. (Earleen Hinton)