Boys cross country: Lowe, Batavia take Kane County crowns
Quintin Lowe kept his goals simple for Saturday morning.
The Batavia senior entered the Kane County Meet with high expectations.
He wanted to make a statement in the final big meet of August.
The warm weather led to an earlier start for the power-packed meet, but Lowe was prepared for the high temperatures.
"I thought I had a good game plan going in, and tried to stay with the pack," Lowe said. "I was looking at the forecast a couple of days ago, so I knew it was going to be in the 80s. We had a couple of days of practice last week that helped me."
After finishing in third place last season, Lowe put together a dominating performance on the 2.97-mile course. He cruised to a first-place medal, finishing in a winning time of 15 minutes, 35.3 seconds. A year ago, Lowe clocked a time of 16:06 on the hilly course.
"I did a lot of 10K work and that helped me with my endurance, which showed in the last mile today," Lowe said. "My main goal is for our team to win conference this year. I'm just focused on that. I want to get Top 25 in the state."
Dripping with sweat, Lowe admitted he was mainly focused on running a quality race rather than a certain placing.
"I wasn't really expecting anything, just tried to go out there and give it a good effort," Lowe said. "I'm pretty happy with this time. I've had a lot of great workouts this summer, definitely feel a lot stronger and that definitely showed today."
Batavia earned the team championship at the Kane County meet, finishing with 50 points to nudge out St. Charles East (64 points). Hampshire (93), Marmion Academy (118) and Burlington Central (127) completed the top five team placings.
Kaneland sophomore Evan Nosek admitted he has some mixed feelings running on the majestic course. For the second year in a row, Nosek entered the meet with an injury that affected his performance, but this time, he nearly earned the ultimate prize. He placed third in a time of 15:55. Nosek added he draws his inspiration from following in the footsteps of all-stater Micah Wilson.
"This is a fun course, for I kind of like it and I kind of don't," Nosek said. "I'm kind of slightly getting over an injury now, but I'm super happy for this time. My coaches really helped me get over my injury."
St. Charles East senior Mitch Garcia has plenty of experience running on the course, but he didn't hold back his frustrations over his performance. He clocked a second-place time of 15:50. Burlington Central's Ryan Kries, who took fourth in a time of 16:04, and Marmion's Connor Carlson (fifth, 16:16) were among the top five.
"This is not what I wanted," Garcia said. "I didn't have it today, had some prerace jitters. I just need more to get back into it. Quintin was stronger today, the best of luck to him and he ran an amazing race. I have to reconsider my choices to help the team."
Garcia said he was happy for his team's solid performance, but he's pushing for better individual performances in the coming weeks to aid the Saints.
"It's definitely motivation that I need to rekindle," Garcia said. "I ended my track season on a sour note, just missing state and was on pace to qualify. This will reignite that dormant keg of oil. It's definitely a starting point and a lot of motivation to build on this race and try to beat Quinton.
"Our team has built so much, and trying to represent what our alumni has done, three kids varsity debut, a good launching off point for our team."