Naperville North and Naperville Central continued the trend of exchanging championship positions for the third consecutive major cross country competition.
LeRoy Oakes provided the latest setting for the schools’ boys teams to reverse the top team results as Jon Klaiber and Kerry Gschwendtner powered Naperville North to its sixth sectional championship in the last eight years.
The seniors were third and sixth, respectively, in leading the Huskies to a 77-92 triumph over their city and conference rivals.
After never qualifying a team in program history until last season, Batavia placed third with 139 points to send its entire team back to the Class 3A state finals next Saturday in Peoria.
St. Charles East and Huntley also established new precedents for their programs.
“Since the split (into two high schools in 2000) we have never gone down,” St. Charles East coach Chris Bosworth said after Mark Sciurba led the Saints to a fourth-place result with 142 points.
But Huntley had an even more dramatic day as Keagan Smith became the first individual sectional champion in program history.
The Raiders, with Seth Conroy augmenting his junior classmate with fourth overall, edged Marmion by a single point, 167-168, for their first team berth ever.
Aurora individuals dominated the at-large berths as Marmion, West Aurora and Waubonsie Valley combined for four qualifiers.
Andrew LaDeur was the third Naperville North runner in the top 10 as the Huskies reversed the results of the West Chicago Regional.
Wheaton Warrenville South senior Kyle Cepeda edged Klaiber for runner-up by tenths of a second after Smith won the race in 15 minutes and 34 seconds.
“It means a lot,” Klaiber said of the Huskies first sectional title in two years. “Hopefully, this will build our confidence up for state.”
“I was very happy with how I ran,” Gschwendtner said. “When Klaiber and I came together, that’s when we started to push (the pace).”
Naperville Central juniors Scott Hicks and Geoffrey McCullough were practically shoulder to shoulder in placing in the top 12 to lead the Redhawks.
Jon Vollrath became the first state qualifier for Waubonsie Valley in four years when he snared the final top-10 slot ahead of Hicks and McCullough in 15 minutes flat.
Ryan Wieties’ seventh-place finish in 14:59 was the anchor performance for Batavia.
Marmion had two at-large qualifiers in West Chicago Regional champion Brady Bobbitt, fifth in 14:57, and Andrew Burroughs’ 15:18 proved to be the cut for individual advancers.
West Aurora junior Connor McCue is bound for state after eking past Vollrath for ninth place.
“It is pretty surreal,” McCue said. “It’s a big personal accomplishment.”
Smith had an all-encompassing approach in becoming the first Huntley sectional champion.
“I realized I had so much more energy (in trying to get the team out),” said Smith, who won by 20 seconds over Cepeda and Klaiber. “I didn’t notice any large groups from the same teams. Twenty points (the approximate total for Smith, Conroy and Mike Grocholski) for three guys is pretty good.”
“They are history-makers here [Saturday],” Huntley coach Matt Kaplan said.
