Batavia sweeps individual, team titles at DuKane Conference meet

ROSELLE — Heading into Saturday’s DuKane Conference meet, Batavia had only managed to grab three team titles, all on the girls side, since the league’s formation in 2018.

They nearly doubled that number.

The Bulldogs completed the clean sweep at conference, taking both the individual and team titles in both the boys and girls races at Lake Park’s East Campus.

On the girls race, Batavia’s Avery Hacker went wire-to-wire, pulling off a 14-second victory after crossing the line in 17:24.7. The sophomore standout, who entered the race with the fastest time in the field on the season, said that she wanted to keep with the front pack for the first half-mile of the race before striding out in the second half.

“There was a lot of girls here who have aggressive starts, so I knew I wanted to keep it calm early,” Hacker said. “After that, I was able to get to where I needed to be after the first mile and took it from there.”

Behind Hacker was Wheaton North senior Maddie Romaine, who took 14 seconds off her personal best to come in at 17:38 for second place, and St. Charles North sophomore Julia Rodney followed closely behind for third in 17:41.

While Romaine knew she wanted to be near the front of the pack, she didn’t expect to be one place away from the gold by the end.

“I’ve known that I have the capability of keeping up with some of those girls, but I haven’t had a race against them to have the chance to prove that,” Romaine said. “It was good to show off what I’ve been working on this season and stay up there with them.”

The Bulldogs finished with four of their racers in the top 10 to finish with 39 points for their second title in three seasons. It’s the second lowest that a girls team has recorded for the conference title, with the Bulldogs finishing with 38 points back in 2019.

“Our team has really been doing good this season,” Hacker said. “And this performance sets us up really well for sectionals and state, and I’m excited to see how we can perform over the next couple weeks.”

Wheaton Warrenville South took second place in the standings and was led by a fourth-place finish from senior Nicole Poglitsch. Romaine and the Falcons finished third with 78, while Rodney and the North Stars finished fourth with 94.

Boys race

While the girls race was decided early in the race, it took a little bit longer for the boys race to pan out.

After five boys came into the two-mile mark neck-and-neck, senior Francesco Benelli dropped the hammer on the lead pack to come away with the conference title in 14:42.7.

The victory was his first ever race win at the high school level. Benelli said that he wanted to start out the race conservatively and wait for the right time to make the move. And after making the turn into the front stretch for the final time, he just went for it.

“I just knew that was the time to make the move,” Benelli said. “I wanted to make sure I had a big enough gap to know it wouldn’t come down to a sprint at the end. But I’m super grateful for my coaching and the team.”

Wheaton North’s Aidan Murphy held on to second place after finishing in 14:52.9. After seeing Benelli surge ahead in the second mile, the senior said that he hit a wall and knew that he wanted to finish in front of the WW South duo of Aiden Noel and Josiah Narayanan.

“I was hurting when he did that, so I decided that my race was with the pack,” Murphy said. “I knew that we were all hurting, but I decided that I could hold on for a little bit longer to beat them.”

Behind them, Batavia sophomore Eddie Polaski made a surge in the final stretch to out-kick Noel for third, finishing in 15:00.4, while Noel finished in 15:02.5.

The 1-3 finish from Benelli and Polaski helped the Bulldogs finish the day with 60 points for the win. It was the team’s first conference win since 2017 in their last year in the Upstate 8.

“Getting the conference championship is big, but we’ve just got to make sure that we don’t get too big-headed,” Polaski said. “We’ve got to keep working towards regionals next week and see what happens.”

Wheaton Warrenville South finished as the runner-ups once again with 78 points. They were led by Noel’s fourth-place finish, as well as an eighth-place finish from Narayanan. St. Charles North rode a fifth-place finish from sophomore Samuel Hill for third with 88 points, while Wheaton North took fourth with 93.