Dixon boys XC ‘bittersweet’ after placing 4th by 1 point: Saturday’s Sauk Valley roundup

Boys cross country

Dixon 4th at state: Dixon took fourth as a team at the Class 2A state meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Saturday as senior Aaron Conderman (14:52.50) was 20th with a personal record and Dean Geiger (15:03.00) also had a PR to take 28th. Dixon (196 points) was just a point behind Chicago Latin’s 195 to take third and earn a state trophy. Chicago Payton (113) took first and Morton (191) was runner-up.

Dixon cross country coach Simon Thorpe said the finish was bittersweet.

“The boys executed greatly from start to finish and improved upon our weaknesses from last week,” he said. “Going in, we said that if we execute, race hard and leave it all out there we will be proud of it whether we get a trophy or not. It was tough to swallow missing it by one point, but we had seven PRs for seven runners and left it on the course.”

Also posting PRs for the Dukes were Keegan Shirley (15:21.70) in 51st, Averick Wiseman (15:31.8) in 67th, Westin Conatser (15:41) in 82nd, Hayden Fulton (16:24.10) in 173rd and Brody Hopper (17:13.1) in 226th.

Rock Falls also had two PRs for its two runners as Gabe Moyer (15:43.5) took 92nd and Gunnar Damhoff (15:44.1) was 94th.

In the Class 1A race, Oregon junior Daniel Gonzalez posted a PR and cracked 16 minutes, clocking a 15:57.3 to place 77th.

Girls cross country

Rock Falls’ Hernandez 42nd, Dixon’s Rogers 64th: In the Class 2A state meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria, Rock Falls senior Ariel Hernandez closed out her prep career with a PR of 18:10.67 to take 42nd.

Dixon junior Kamryn Rogers ran a season best of 18:38.91 to take 64th.

Girls swimming

Sterling’s Austin, relay qualify for state: Sterling senior Madison Austin qualified for state for the third straight year as she won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.49 seconds at the Byron Sectional. It was her first time qualifying for state in the 50 after punching her ticket to state in the 100 freestyle the past two years. Austin also finished off a win in the 400-yard free relay, joining Kate Austin, Hazel Pham and Sammie Knox to clock a 3:43.95 and qualify for state.

It is Sterling’s first relay to qualify for state since 2011.

Byron won the meet with 285 points and Sterling (174) took fourth. Byron’s Garry Cacciapaglia won diving coach of the year and Adam Gura won swimming coach of the year.

College volleyball

Sauk Valley advances to regional final: The top-seeded Skyhawks needed a comeback to beat Kankakee 25-10, 15-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-8 at Madison College in Saturday’s semifinal. SVCC (31-7) will play Milwaukee Area at noon in Sunday’s NJCAA Region 4 final with a shot to advance back to the national tournament. Jess Johns led the team with 22 kills, Kenna Wubbena had 17 kills, Denali Stonitsch had 30 assists and 19 digs, Tori Balma had 25 assists and Ava Wight had 26 digs.