Ruby Acker and Payton Frueh co-authored a season of success for the Princeton cross country team this fall.

Frueh wrote the beginning and ending chapters, leading the Tigresses at their own Gary Coates Invitational early and at the sectional. She ran the fastest time by 20 seconds of any Bureau County girl at sectionals, earning her first trip to state to close the book.

Acker penned the middle chapters, leading the Tigresses in eight meets, including three first-place efforts, a third-place finish at the Three Rivers Conference Meet and a fifth at regional.

Together, they led the Tigresses to a third-place finish at regionals to earn a trip to sectionals.

They shared team MVP honors.

And now, for all their accomplishments, they share the 2025 BCR Girls Runners of the Year honor. They also shared the honor in 2023, while Acker won it outright a year ago.

PHS coach Pat Hodge said the duo is pretty much inseparable.

“They’ve been running together since eighth grade at Logan, so they seem to have a pretty good feel for each other. It’s usually a matter of them running together in the races and whoever is feeling better that day finishing ahead of the other,” Hodge said. “Ruby made a little bit bigger improvement last year in terms of her personal best, while Payton improved a little bit more this year. In any case, it’s always fun to watch when they can finish within 5 or 10 seconds of each other on a given day.”

The Princeton pair wouldn’t want to run without each other.

“I think that if we didn’t have each other, it would be a lot harder. She motivates me a lot during the race and just during the season,” Acker said.

“It’s really fun because it’s like me and Ruby can accomplish the same goals together and be like, ‘let’s try to do this in the race and help us out,’” Frueh said.

Frueh was tickled to run at state, surprising herself to make it. She attributes her side act as a horse show rider to helping her cross-country training.

“It was really cool. My family runs, but it’s not necessarily a running family. They just run for fun,” she said. “I started this out as a little thing. I show horses, so it was mainly to get in shape and help my core in riding. And then it started to get better and better.

“[Qualifying for state] was a big accomplishment for me and definitely a dream I’ve had, and I never thought I’d get to make it.”

Frueh was most appreciative of having all her teammates run with her at practice the week leading up to state after their own season had ended.

“It was really good. If they didn’t come, I probably wouldn’t have run as well at practice,” she said. “It was a big motivation to keep on coming and be excited to go to practice.

Acker was one of Frueh’s biggest fans at state.

“I was really excited for Payton and was really happy to go watch her, too. It was really fun. I was proud of her,” Acker said.

While Frueh was flying high at the end of the season, Acker had mixed feelings.

“I was happy with a lot of the races, I just kind of lost motivation at the end,” she said. “I think with harder classes this year and stuff, I was just losing motivation for running.”

Acker said the highlight of the season is always being with her team. Race-wise, she was most pleased placing fifth at regionals to get to sectionals, and “so I felt like that was the race I needed to do well.”

Frueh did not run at sectionals last year due to a horse show. She’s glad she got to run this year at sectionals, which proved to be her favorite race of the season.

“I liked sectionals a lot,” she said. “The atmosphere was good, and I just had a feeling the ground was really good. The course was good. It was fast. There was a lot of cheering. It was good.”

For an encore, Acker said she hopes “both make it to state. That’s the goal.”

Frueh agreed, adding “Both keep on improving and staying healthy.”