Boys Cross Country Athlete of the Year: Yorkville's Austin Popplewell 'trusted the process,' ascended to be one of area's top runners

To Austin Popplewell, his growth as a runner came down to trusting the process.

It's hard to argue with the results.

Popplewell, a Yorkville senior, is candid about the level of commitment he had when he first came to high school cross country. When he first started off he wasn't on varsity, and wasn't one of the best runners. He didn't particularly want to be at practice, wasn't there to get better and said he went through the motions.

That all changed about two years ago.

"My sophomore year I really turned the corner," Popplewell said. "I started to get along with my coach better, trusted the workouts that he was having us do. I went from there and I've trusted the process ever since."

The fruits of Popplewell's labor were truly realized this fall. With Popplewell and Ivan Westcott consistently at the front of the pack, Yorkville's boys team won conference, regional and sectional championships.

Popplewell took first individually at conference and regionals, and was fourth at the sectional meet.

"Once he made that choice, that this was something that he really wanted, it was a matter of ascending into what you see and his performances," Yorkville coach Chris Muth said. "I think he's still really in the early stages of what he can do. It's one of those things where you see a kid turn the corner and know he has a lot more to go."

Popplewell was just relieved to have a cross country season this fall, with all the uncertainty swirling around the COVID-19 pandemic. He was disappointed to lose his spring track season, like many athletes. In June, with all the stages of Illinois' return going on, his coach was telling Popplewell and his teammates the prospects of a season weren't looking good.

He's grateful that a season came to pass, and clearly made the most of it.

"It was very disappointing that he wasn't able to see all is hard work pay off in the spring time; that's a valuable time for current seniors for the recruitment process," Muth said. "But it didn't deter him from keeping motivated and keeping consistent."

Popplewell was second behind Westcott in Yorkville's first four dual meets of a season, then won the Yorkville Invitational on Sept. 23., the first of four invites he won. He said it was a huge help having a teammate like Westcott and fellow senior Colin Kachlic around to push him.

"It's definitely nice having a teammate that we can push each other in a race, and especially in practice too," Popplewell said. "That goes for all my teammates. We push each other, try to get each other in practice. We have some fun, compete and celebrate together."

Popplewell ran a 14:44.1 at the Yorkville SPC Top Times Invitational, although Muth believes his best race of the season might have come at regionals, where Popplewell ran a 15:08.5 to top Westcott by 16 seconds.

"It showed his fearlessness and competitiveness and his desire to perform at a level that we all knew that he could do for his teammates," Muth said. "He's always been a confident kid in what he can do. Sometimes that doesn't always translate to races but for him it did. We knew we could count on him this year."

Popplewell and Yorkville's other seniors relished the opportunity to lead Yorkville's boys program back to one of the top spots in the state.

Popplewell doesn't need to be reminded that the boys program gets somewhat overshadowed by the success of the girls program, but the Foxes' boys won four straight state trophies from 2012-2015.

"Us seniors, we really kind of put it into perspective of what the team could be," Popplewell said. "Since we were freshmen and sophomores, Yorkville's boys weren't the best team. They still made it to state, but we wanted to change it and have as much as success as the girls did. Definitely us seniors tried to step it up to get that done."

Kendall County Newspapers All-Area team

Steve Aguilar, Sandwich, sr.; Alexander Das, Oswego East, so.; Martin Diaz, Plano, sr.; Balin Doud, Oswego, jr.; Ethan Forsell, Oswego, jr.; Nick Henz, Oswego East, sr.; Colin Kachlic, Yorkville, sr.; Austin Popplewell, Yorkville, sr.; Ivan Westcott, Yorkville, sr.