For Helena Kleronomos and her Yorkville teammates, it’s a tradition like few others.
When it comes to meets like the state series or large invitationals, the Foxes love to run with the big dogs. And they do it well.
During coach Chris Muth’s 12-year tenure, the Yorkville girls have qualified for state each year and haven’t finished lower than second in the past 11 seasons.
The trophy case is getting crowded.
The Foxes won five straight Class 2A titles from 2011 to ’15. The school’s growth bumped them up to Class 3A, where they’ve finished second to Naperville North each of the past four years.
In the same span, Muth’s Yorkville boys have qualified for state each year, winning the 2A title in 2013 and 2014.
“There’s definitely a little bit of pressure at state,” Kleronomos said. “But we just go in wanting to meet our expectations and to run for each other.”
In this year of the coronavirus pandemic, things could change dramatically for cross country, one of four fall sports the Illinois High School Association has green-lighted. Practices are set to begin Monday.
IHSA officials hope to be able to stage some type of postseason, but what shape it takes remains to be seen. It could be limited to regional competitions.
A senior with several NCAA Division I scholarship offers she’s considering, Kleronomos has been up to the challenge of big races. She’s been an all-state performer three straight seasons, finishing 17th overall in 17:05 as a freshman, fifth in 16:35 as a sophomore and 17th in 17:10 last season.
“She had some growing pains last year,” Muth said. “Helena was used to training with a bunch of top athletes, and it didn’t happen for her.”
An injury to the team’s No. 2 runner affected her training.
“I wasn’t super-happy with my race at state, but I had some good races with wins at conference and sectional,” Kleronomos said. “I didn’t have my best race at state, but team-wise, we did well. We didn’t expect to get second. We weren’t ranked that high last year.”
Yorkville graduated just one of its top seven runners.
“I probably have had two or three runners step up into that top group this summer,” Muth said. “So we’re eight or nine deep in my estimation, a real good spot.”
The coaches gave their distance crew a break in March, when the pandemic ended the track season early. Many of the Yorkville runners are two to three months ahead of schedule heading into the fall season.
“We have a couple girls who are reaching Helena’s level,” Muth said. “She’s helping them tremendously. And vice versa, she’s getting the help she consistently wanted last year.”
Muth was disappointed last week when Southwest Prairie Conference athletic directors decided to limit cross country teams’ conference competition to weekly dual meets, even though the IHSA has allowed triangular meets as long as there are fewer than 50 competitors.
In a very close vote, the group wanted to play it safe and be as conservative as possible, one athletic director said.
Teams also can schedule dual meets within their region as defined by the state of Illinois during the pandemic.
For Muth, that doesn’t include Naperville North.
“I can’t drive 20-25 miles to Naperville to run, but I can take my team to a school near the state line of Iowa,” Muth said. “IHSA-wise, I get that we’ve been on pause, and they have an unbelievable task in front of them, and there’s no plan for this. But it’s frustrating.”
His only hope is that a state meet, in some form, will be held.
“It’s not going to be a normal state meet, but there are unique options and a lot of good ideas out there,” Muth said. “We need to do it for the kids. I think they deserve it.
“I don’t care how small or how big, if there’s a state series and a state trophy, we’re gonna go for it. It’s still going to be something we’re completely focused on.”
