Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week: Evan Nosek, Kaneland, cross country, senior

Name: Evan Nosek

School: Kaneland, senior

Sport: Cross country

Why he was selected: In his season opener at the Northwestern Medicine Kane County Cross Country Invite, Nosek won the three-mile race in 15:20.70, which cleared the second-place runner by 20 seconds. He also became the first runner to win the meet twice.

Nosek was selected the Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week in an online vote.

Here is his Q&A with sports reporter Joel Boenitz.

Boenitz: You’ve finished in the top three in each of your four races at the Northwestern Medicine course. How does it feel to be always starting the season off on the right foot?

Nosek: It definitely does give me a confidence boost leading into the next parts of the season, especially since there’s such a nice competition always at the county. Everybody’s great and it’s always friendly. So I’d say it definitely does give me a confidence boost for the rest of my races.

Boenitz: Your team got second in the meet, finishing behind Marmion. How do you feel the team looked in its first race?

Nosek: Some of my teammates ended up not racing, so we didn’t exactly have everybody that we wanted to have to race. But in general, Marmion’s a great team. I mean, their team is looking really good this year and I’m glad that we get to compete with them this year. But overall, we had a lot of our guys finishing with personal bests and I’m very proud of them for that.

Boenitz: You finished sixth in the Class 2A state race last season and finished second among all non-seniors. What do you need to do to improve on that finish this season?

Nosek: I’ve just got to stay motivated and listen to my coaches and I’ve got to just keep in mind that it’s a long season and I don’t need to overwork or anything. And, of course, I acknowledge that there are some great competitors out there, too, and they have a lot of potential, so there’s a lot of preparing that needs to happen.

Boenitz: The race was your first without (the graduated) David Valkanov, who you’ve said is basically your brother. What was that like?

Nosek: There’s always a little bit of sadness and everything. But a lot of what everybody has taught me this year is that the best things are yet to come. You’ve got to be thankful for every moment and you can’t just mourn in the past and whatnot. David was an awesome teammate. I still do miss him a lot. And without him in practice, it’s kind of a bummer. But, you know, new opportunities arose for me. Matt Richtman, one of our former alumni, actually is assistant coach now and he’s helping us stay motivated and everything in that nature.

Boenitz: What is your prerace routine and what is a superstition you have?

Nosek: I usually do a typical 45-minute warmup before and then immediately go into static stretching and then finally go into active. And then one of our superstitions is that we tell jokes right before the start of the race to release endorphins. Our coach says to tell funny jokes so we laugh and take a little bit of stress off of us before the race. And I think it does help.