“It’s actually so crazy, I’m so ecstatic, so happy,” Kosek said. 

She hung behind Lewisburg’s Bailey Espinosa, the defending state champion, much of the race, and passed her the last mile.

“I look up to Bailey so much, and after coming really close behind her at districts, I was like, maybe, if I get the opportunity, it’d be really cool to try to beat her.”

Kosek was 11th at the half mile mark, and got as high as sixth halfway through the race.

“It went out in basically a dead sprint for a solid 800 meters,” explained Kosek. “I was expecting it to go out fast, and I was fully prepared for it to go out fast, and Bailey and I went out really fast at districts, so I knew I was capable of going out really fast, and still having a good race. But, going into that first hill, I was like, ‘oh gosh, we went out really fast, and I hope I’m going to be able to maintain this.’”

The hills at the Parkview Course are notorious for ruining races, but Kosek wasn’t too worried.

“I’m pretty confident with my abilities on the hills,” she said. “I also know that all these all other girls around me are really good at the hills, too. I was really trying to just remind myself to push and get up as fast as I can, and try not to lose places.”

She fell to 13th at the 3200 meter mark, but got back to sixth over the next 800 meters during the wide open, and flat, final mile.

“It’s nice to have recovery, but you’re still going fast,” Kosek remarked. “It really shows who ran the race correct, and has that power to be able to pass people, or hold their position.”

After Kosek got up the final hill it’s about 400 meters to the finish, and she knew she had the medal.

“It was really exciting,” she said. “Going into this we were looking at the possibility of being in the top five, and I knew that fifth place person was right ahead of me. I was just trying to hold on to her, and try to hold my sixth place, and not let anybody pass me.”

With the radical improvement Kosek has made this year it puts the bar of expectations even higher for next season.

“I’m still in kind of a bit of shock with how much progress I’ve made this season, and where I am,” she said. “I want to take that into the track season, and making improvements during track, and then just come out here next season, and try to get a little bit faster at all these meets.”

In the Class AA boys’ race Max Macias was 86th in 17:48.

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