WICHITA, Kan.—
Independent senior Nicole Fox has always been involved with running her entire life. Going to her first cross country national championship when she was only three, Fox has come a long way in her running career.“My family has always been a running family,” said Fox, “so it’s always been something that I assumed I would do, although there has never been pressure for me to run just because everyone in my family did.”
Fox started running and competing in races when she joined the middle school’s cross country team in seventh grade and has run every year since then in cross country and track with the exception of her freshman year when she could not participate in track due to a stress fracture.
“My [personal record] this season [around a 16:45 at Marion] is the fastest I have ever run the 4K,” said Fox.
Fox’s times this past season were most comparable to her freshman year. Her sophomore year was hampered because she was coming off a previous stress fracture and her times began to improve once more her junior year until the end of this past senior season.
“I think I became a smarter runner as the year progressed… the competition improved and I was pleased with how I performed in a competitive league,” Fox said.
While she loves cross country and distance running, Fox believes she is better suited for track races.
“I'm actually more of a short long-distance runner,” said Fox. ”My best and favorite event is the 800-meter (run) because of its fast pace. It's sort of just a race where you give everything you've got for half a mile.”
For track, Fox plans on running to keep her base from cross country while also adding in speed work specifically for the 800. Fox also plans on weight lifting and swimming as cross training so she is prepared for the spring season without burning herself out over the winter.
Unlike Independent’s boys cross country team, which has had its six seniors go out for cross country all their four years of high school, Nicole has been the only girl in her grade to go out for cross country. In her sophomore and junior years, Fox has had only a couple other girls to train with.
This means that Fox has spent an incredible amount of time with the six seniors and two others on the boys cross country team.
“It's been a pretty unique experience running with this group of guys throughout high school,” said Fox. “They're like brothers to me after all the time we've spent together.”
Although Fox does not plan to run in college, she has definitely left her mark on the Independent school’s girls cross country program and team she was a captain of for the past three years.
