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Ashley Bruner of Waubonsie Valley races home to a first place finish in the girls varsity race at the Aurora city cross country meet at Marmion Academy on Saturday. | Jon Cunningham~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: August 26, 2012 4:54PM

As the sun rose higher in the sky and the mercury happily followed in earnest Saturday at the Aurora City Meet, survival came to be the goal of the day.

Led by Ashley Bruner’s second consecutive city title, and with a total of four runners in the top 10, the Warriors’ 40 points were just enough to squeeze past West Aurora (43 points), with Aurora Central (76), Rosary (94), IMSA (101) and East Aurora (155) rounding out the scoring.

Prior to Saturday, the Warriors had finished second three straight years.

“Each of the girls have worked hard all summer, and that work is paying off,” said Warriors coach Liz Kolkay. “They are already running better than we did last year.”

The race was a bit of déjà vu from last year as Bruner was locked in a nice battle with West Aurora sophomore Miranda Gollwitzer. The pair ran together the entire race and just like a year ago Bruner used a late-race surge and won in a time of 19 minutes, 55 seconds.

“We both knew what we were in for, and during the race we were switching off and drafting off each other,” Bruner said. “We both knew a mile in it was just for first and second and not by time.”

Gollwitzer agreed.

“Neither of us really wanted to take the lead, and at times she slowed it down and I thought ‘nope, I’m going to sit behind you,’” Gollwitzer said. “(It was a race) you want to get through and get done.”

West Aurora senior Omar Gomez also repeated as city champion, running out to an early lead and though he slowed near the end, had enough to beat fast-approaching Marmion junior John Graft by five seconds in a time of 16:21. Matt Meyers (16:48) from Aurora Central, Julian Morrison (16:52) of West Aurora and Felipe Nino (17:02) from East Aurora were third through fifth, respectively.

“I felt better last year,” said Gomez, who won the race in 16:26 in 2011. “The last mile was really tough. I wasn’t able to really kick or go at the pace I was going over the first two miles. I went out too fast in my second mile and the heat kind of drained me.”

Marmion had finished behind West a year ago, but this time switched places with the Blackhawks behind the strength of five runners in the top 10, which was good for 35 points. West had 68 points to squeak past Waubonsie Valley (69 points), while East Aurora was fourth with 85 points and Aurora Central (108), Aurora Christian (191) and IMSA (194) filled out the field.

“Is this a surprise?” said Marmion coach Dan Billish. “Yeah, based on what the kids have been doing in practice, but they are in a good spot. I’m happy with how they raced today, it’s a good confidence booster for us.”