This past Sunday a handful of York’s cross country runners ran the “extra mile” in the Nike Cross Regionals 5K in Terre Haute, Indiana. Runners from the boys and the girls cross country  team couldn’t say goodbye to the Prarie Path just yet, they voluntarily ran an extra week to prepare for this exciting race after the big state meet last Saturday.

The NXR meet is annually held at Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course. York’s runners competed against other runners from not only Illinois, but Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri as well.

“This race is always very competitive and it was cool running with kids I’ve run against all year, as well as with kids from other states,” said sophomore varsity runner, Ethan Kern.

The runners were coached by volunteers who spent 4 weeks training the athletes in preparation for the meet. For the past 10 years, Mary Frye has been in charge of the girls team, Lady KROY, until this year when “Lady” was eliminated from the name and the girls ran under the same name as the boys, KROY, who are coached by George Bode. This is the first year the boys and girls team ran under the same name.

“This meet was different not only because of all the different schools coming out to run, but the whole atmosphere is different.” said sophomore Ayesha Siddiqi. “It is of course hosted by Nike, which makes the experience super cool, it really is like running in a pro meet. The course is so unique and there are a ton of amazing athletes who bring a whole new competition than the usual teams that we run against for invites.”

The dynamic is different from the runner’s experiences running on high school courses, since the Lavern Gibson course is a  championship cross country course.

“This meet was different because I didn’t run alone this year. I ran with Kali Wilson and Emma Fahey; it was nice to have them with me so that we could push each other along,” said senior, Jayne Jurasek. “It made running in the 30 degree rain much more enjoyable.”

Since the athletes are out of season, legally they cannot run under the name York, so they run as KROY. KROY, just like the York team, has a very long standing reputation of continuing the tradition of running fast and being fierce competition to some of the best teams in the Midwest. The boys team had a great finish of 7th place championship race and proved that the York Dukes can still run fast out of season.

“I was very happy to receive a 7th place trophy knowing all that our team has been through,” said Kern. “Everyone put in their best effort on the day and I’m glad we were able to bring home some hardware.”

The team has been running at this meet for many years now, and has been a great race that has given the runners a lot more racing experience.

“We really just focused on staying together as a team because that was what the seniors wanted us to do for our last race,” said sophomore varsity-runner Lydia Hickey. “It made the race easier and much more fun being with your teammates every step of the way.”