Geneva freshman Kelly Whitley couldn’t catch Sandburg’s Kristin Sutherland down the stretch in the girls Class 3A cross-country final Saturday.
No matter. They both wound up winners at Detweiller Park.
Whitley’s runner-up finish led the Vikings’ all-freshman assault–every one of their seven runners were ninth-graders–to the school’s first team state championship in any sport.
Sutherland, a senior who has dominated girls distance running this season, became Sandburg’s first individual girls cross-country champ.
“It’s so exciting,” said Whitley, whose time of 16 minutes 56 seconds was six seconds off Sutherland’s pace. “I didn’t expect to stick with her that long. But I’m so proud of my team. We all did phenomenal.”
Whitley, Liza Tauscher (27th), Rachel Hammond (33rd), Tess Ehrhardt (43rd) and Kat Yelle (67th) ran well enough to give Geneva a 12-point victory over runnerup Lyons, which was paced by Keegan Kilrea.
“We never really expected to get this far,” Tauscher said. “Our original goal was just to make it to state. We not only made it, we actually won.”
Said Sutherland: “Winning state is something I wanted to do all season, since last season (when she finished second). So, I’m pretty happy.”
Still, she knew the girls 2A race had been won in record time–16:37 by Bartonville-Limestone’s Nicole Benson–and wasn’t pleased with her time of 16:50.
“I actually had a bad start,” Sutherland said. “From there, my mental just went way down. I should’ve had a faster time. I was kinda mad.”
Freshman Natalie D’Agostino of Immaculate Conception broke into the top 10 of Class 1A with a ninth-place finish after running a personal best of 18:23.
asutton@tribune.com
