By Michael Newman

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An easy choice in this category and classification.

Kailey Fox of Yorkville made a huge jump in many ways. She went from attending Peotone High School last fall to attending Yorkville last January. Fox did make it to state for Peotone running 19:39 to finish 88^th. We had an idea that she would be in the top five for the Lady Foxes after she ran 11:11 for 3200 meters last spring.

Fox was in the top 20 in all of her regular season races this fall with the 18^th place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational her “lowest finish”. She ran a personal best of 16:42 as the team’s second runner in the 3A State Meet. She finished 10^th overall. Fox earned all NXR-Midwest Regional 2^nd-team honors as she finished 14^th in that race. Improving by almost three minutes is hard to imagine. This junior achieved that and will achieve more before she graduates in the spring of 2020.

One athlete that should also be recognized in this category is Laurel Moneysmith of Wheaton-Warrenville South High School. As a junior, Moneysmith moved up the ladder on her team as she ran a personal best of 18:06 in the IHSA 3A State Meet race. This fall, one year later, Moneysmith was the team’s second runner almost all season which culminated by finishing 17^th in the 3A State race earning all-state honors. She improved her Detweiller park best in 12 months by 66 seconds. She will be attending Marquette University next fall. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

Congratulations to Kailey Fox of Yorkville High School as the 2018 ILXCTF.com 3A Girls XC Most Improved Runner of the Year.

Photo Credit – © 2018 Laura Duffy