2024 Kane County Chronicle boys cross country Athlete of the Year: Batavia’s Francesco Benelli

Batavia senior Francesco Benelli knew he needed to do whatever it took to try and reach the goals that he set for himself.

Coming off of a junior track season where he finished just a few places away from earning All-State honors in the two mile, Benelli set his sights directly on achieving a top-25 finish in the Class 3A state race in Detweiller Park in Peoria to make sure he secured those honors.

It would be a tall task, though, especially after finishing 72nd in the race in 2023.

So when it came time to put in miles over the summer, he knew he had to do everything he could in order to see his vision come to fruition.

Even if it meant sacrificing a family trip to do so.

“Usually at the beginning of every summer, his family would typically head over to Italy to visit he dad’s side of the family,” Batavia boys cross country coach Bronco Meeks said. “But he just wanted to stay back, just to commit to making the team better and to make sure he was able to get consistent training with them.”

Safe to say, the sacrifice paid off for Benelli.

In his senior season, Benelli finished out his high school career with a 13th-place finish at state in a personal-best time of 14:26.6. On top of that, he also ended up finishing in the top 15 of seven of his eight races, while also winning the DuKane Conference individual title.

Considering the accolades of the season, Benelli has been named as the Kane County Chronicle boys cross country Athlete of the Year.

“He’s had a crazy progression as a runner, and I don’t think that I’ve had too many athletes that have shown the improvements that he has over the course of his career,” Meeks said. “I attribute all that to his work ethic and just who he is as a person.”

Benelli’s All-State performance also put his name in Batavia’s history books. The senior broke the school record in the 3-mile with his time, breaking a 51-year-old record set by Tom Burridge back in 1973.

“Often when you’re at a high level, you can put a lot of pressure on yourself. So at the beginning of the season, I didn’t put the pressure on myself to hit that record,” Benelli said. “Going to the state meet, I hadn’t hit that time yet, so I made sure to not be too focused on it. But I knew it was going to be fast with the field that there was and it just turned out in my favor that it was that fast that day.”

Benelli’s ability to not crumble under pressure proved to be a strong point for him not just at state, but throughout the entire season. Meeks said that he’s seen plenty of racers who’ve been strong runners on the course, but none as mentally strong as Benelli.

“He has been just talking himself through races for the past few years, and I think that’s a big thing,” Meeks said. “If you’re doing that on a regular basis, when you’re falling back or hurting or whatever it might be, you’re gonna just continue to do that even when you get to the big competition. Where some guys may fall apart or back off or start thinking about the negatives, he just remains very positive and fights through.”

That mindset was more than present during the DuKane Conference meet. With a mile left in the race, Benelli surged ahead of three competitors to win the individual title by 10 seconds, securing his first, and only, victory of his high school cross country career.

“I just knew that if I kind of tried to hang on and then push for the last mile that I could make it happen if the opportunity was there,” Benelli recalled. “And fortunately that day, it just turned out well for me.”

While the accomplishments were definitely big for Benelli, both he and Meeks emphasized the importance of how it affected Batavia’s program for the future, especially after their program-best 14th-place finish at the state meet.

With eyes now being focused on the Bulldogs and some of the younger stars, like sophomores Eddie and Will Polaski, who have emerged as threats to take down Benelli’s record in the near future, Benelli feels like the team of the future got a glimpse of what’s possible for the future.

“We’re definitely trending in the right direction,” Benelli said. “We haven’t had these huge expectations as a team, or for many individuals. But having them this year, I kind of tagged everybody else along and they all follow me.

“And I don’t really know if the guys knew the potential that we had. But our coaches knew, and I kind of knew as well.”

While Benelli will have another shot at claiming another school record or two when he toes the track in the spring, Meeks knows that he’ll have a special place in Batavia cross country.

Atop the record board. For now at least.

“He’s just been a fantastic leader for us,” Meeks said. “You couldn’t ask for a better guy to be the face of the program not just this year, but moving forward as well. He’ll be a guy that we definitely talk about for years to come.”