Ruby Acker had a fantastic freshmen cross country season, earning co-BCR Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year honors a year ago.
Princeton coach Pat Hodge found his fast frosh was just getting started.
For a follow-up sophomore season, Acker turned in a season-best time of 19 minutes, 31 seconds at the Peoria Invitational on Oct. 5, led Princeton at the conference, regional and sectional meets and was only 11 seconds from qualifying for state.
For all of her accomplishments, Acker is the 2024 BCR Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
“It was a super season for Ruby,” Hodge said. “Probably had a couple of state-caliber performances at the Peoria and Panther meets. Close to one minute improvement and was close at sectionals.”
Acker was pleased with her season, but left with a taste of wanting a little more.
“It went pretty well. I was really happy with my times and how I was able to improve from last year and my places in a lot of the meets,” she said. “I was really happy being able to get first in a lot of meets. It was new for meets because I didn’t last year. And also getting to place first and second with Payton [Frueh] was really great.”
Acker placed fourth in Princeton’s Gary Coates Invitational as well as the Three Rivers Conference Meet, leading the Tigresses to a third-place finish at Monmouth Park in Monmouth.
“Conference was really hard. That was a new course we had never run, so I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “It was really a hard course and I was surprised by that. And then Gary Coates is always fun running at home.”
She said her favorite race was the Peoria Heights Invite on Oct. 19. She finished 45th in a field of 260 with some of the top runners in the state.
“I like Detweiller because there’s lot of runners, a lot of competition. It’s easier for me to pace at a faster pace when there’s a lot of people in front of me,” she said.
She said wants to make it back to Detweiller Park in the future for state.
“I’m like, ‘This is the course. Get used to it and prepare.’ So I’m kind of thinking about the state course and what it would be like,” she said.
In the postseason, Acker led all Bureau County runners with an eighth-place finish (21:14.4) at the Seneca Regional and a 28th-place showing (20:08.6) at the Rock Island Sectional. Both were personal-best finishes in those meets for Acker, who cut her placement in exactly half from a year ago when she placed 16th and 56th, respectively.
She thinks about those 11 seconds at sectionals that separated her from qualifying for state.
“I think how I definitely could have picked it up in the beginning and run slightly faster would have increased my chances,” she said. “Training in the offseason is definitely one of my goals and then picking distance up and then lets hope next year and senior year I can qualify for state.”
Acker, who also plays soccer in the spring, said running track helps her in cross country.
“It helps with speed a lot. I think it helps to know how to pace for a mile and then see if you can [run] slightly slower in bigger distances,” she said.