3 Athletes To Be Inducted In Geneva High School Hall Of Fame

GENEVA, IL — Three athletes, including an Olympic medalist, will be inducted into the Geneva High School's Athletic Hall of Fame during the 21st-annual ceremony Feb. 11, district officials announced Monday.

Olympic medalist Kevin McDowell, two-time state champion in cross country coach Bob Thomson, and cross country and track star Kelly Whitley Jordan will be inducted and celebrated in a ceremony during halftime of a boy's basketball game that Friday.

McDowell, a 2011 graduate who was on Geneva High's cross country team from 2007 to 2010, is the first from the school to win an Olympic medal. The athlete and his Olympic teammate Morgan Pearson are the first United States men to win a medal in an Olympic triathlon event. In an additional mark of commemoration, the silver medalist was recently honored with a street sign that says Geneva is his hometown.

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Thomson, who started working at Geneva high in 2001, is the coach who led the school's first and second cross country teams to win Illinois High School Association championships. The coach worked with both the boys' and girls' teams for more than 17 seasons and is considered one of the most successful coaches in Geneva history, district officials said.

Whitley Jordan, who ran track in the spring and cross country in the fall while in high school, is one of the athletes who won IHSA state alongside Thomson. In 2010, the athlete won the U.S. Junior National Championship and was honored as both rookie and junior of the year in 2011. Her sister, Taylor, was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2016.

The varsity game, where Geneva will face Wheaton North High School and during which the athletes will be honored, is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. in the school's main contest gymnasium.

After the game, guests are invited to meet the three Hall of Fame inductees during a reception where coffee and cake will be served. The celebration will take place on the gym's north balcony.

The athletes were chosen for the Hall of Fame by a committee of former Geneva sports journalists, Viking athletic alumni and coaches, officials said.