Dynasties rarely happen in sports. It takes a collection of determined athletes, determined coaching staff and a little luck to lift a single state trophy. In a three-year period, the girls cross country team and the boys soccer team have created a dueling dominance that has never been seen before. The teams have garnered attention around the nation, accumulating awards and honors throughout their 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Here are their stories...
Beyond the Championships
Alex Morris, Claire Hill, Megan Driscoll, Campbell Petersen, Lucy Westlake, Audrey Mendrys and Maggie Gamboa went on to the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon for the race on December 1, while Colin Iverson and Tom Welch traveled to Florida to play in the High School All-American Game for soccer the same day. The coaching staff racked up multiple awards and honors, including coach of the year awards.
The Huskie girls cross country team won a total of seven races in the past three seasons, all of which led to successful trips to Nationals where the team placed in the top 10 each of the three years. The runners and coach Dan Iverson have found a string of successes that was previously unseen by Naperville North, with the last consecutive state titles won in 2004-2006.
The same can be said for the boys soccer team. This is the first time since the IHSA state series was split into classes in 1997 that the same school has won the soccer state series for three consecutive years.
So, looking ahead to future years for both teams, will the success continue?
Looking to next year, star goalie Tom Welch will pursue basketball at Loyola University and Colin Iverson will continue his soccer career at Bowling Green State University. Welch and Iverson will graduate at the end of the year alongside key players Jacob Vrankin and Cameron Ferus. The girls cross country team will say goodbye to three of their state runners, Megan Driscoll, Alex Morris and Claire Hill, the latter of which recently committed to Mizzou.
Returning for another season, however, is Ohio State commit Ty Konrad, along with juniors Patrick Koenig, Zach Smith, Christian Romano, Jason Barba and several others who are a part of the Galaxy SC travel team that won the Under-17 club national championship during the previous offseason. Cross country will bring back sophomore Maggie Gamboa, sophomore Audrey Mendrys and freshman Lucy Westlake. With so much success from the 2018 championship season returning, both teams are likely to have winning seasons again, and could potentially go on another run towards a state title.