Kendall County MVA Athlete of the Week: Emily Eberhart, Yorkville senior, cross country

WHY SHE WAS SELECTED:

Yorkville's Emily Eberhart was clocked in 18 minutes, 29.9 seconds, helping lead the Foxes to the team championship over five other nationally-ranked teams at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota. She followed that up by finishing in 17:40.0 for seventh place at Naperville North's Twilight Invitational, as Yorkville took second.

Eberhart talked to sports editor Joshua Welge about the two big meets, and all things running. Here is an edited version of the transcript:

Welge: First off, how did you feel about the Twilight meet?

Eberhart: It's always a fun experience and atmosphere just being under the lights, and there is all the great competition. It was definitely a fun race to experience with my teammates.

Welge: How big was it to win the Roy Griak meet?

Eberhart: It's the biggest invitational that Yorkville has ever won. It was an honor to be a part of it. It gives us confidence going into the rest of the season, but it's not the biggest thing that we want to accomplish.

Welge: What are summer workouts like? I know your regimen is a bit different than other runners.

Eberhart: My team was doing close to 60 miles a week this summer. With my bone density, I'm only allowed to do a max of 30, and then I do a lot of cardio. I do 10 minutes of intense cardio for every mile that I can't run.

Welge: Where do you do the cardio?

Eberhart: I got to a fitness center nearby. My teammates and my coaches have been incorporating some cardio into their workouts. I'll have a new cardio buddy, somebody to do it with, throughout the week. Some days I'm by myself. I think [Yorkville coach Chris] Muth has realized that cardio is helping me with my training, and so he's incorporating it with the rest of my team.

Welge: How did you start running?

Eberhart: I was a competitive gymnast up until the eighth grade. It got to the point that that was not what I wanted to do, but I'm the kind of person that always has to do something. My twin brother [Jimmy] was running cross country, and said I should join, and I told him he was crazy. I tried it, and fell in love with it.

Welge: How big is cross country at Yorkville?

Eberhart: There is such a legacy that all the past runners have established with the state championships in 2A and us continuing it in 3A. The program has really grown, and coach Muth has built it up, and made it into something that is fun to be a part of and something that people can enjoy and work toward something that is successful.