PREP YEAR IN REVIEW: Large-Schools Girls Track Athlete of the Year Abby Korak of Edwardsville – Alton Telegraph

EDWARDSVILLE – The numbers on a stopwatch make you wonder why, but a belief in her ability had been an issue for Abby Korak.

“The biggest thing — believe or not – is confidence,” her Edwardsville Tigers cross country coach George Patrylak said one summer ago.

Tigers girls track – head coach Camilla Eberlin and distance coach Dustin Davis – encountered the same predicament this spring.

“There was a lot of talking and convincing done by coach Davis to Abby with trying to make her believe that she could hang with the top runners,” Eberlin said. “It was all about getting her to believe in what we already knew she had. Coach Davis worked a ton with her.”

Self-assurance would be found for Korak, 285 miles away in Palatine. And it came from the worst finish – 24th place – of her prep career.

“Abby gained a ton of confidence in Palatine,” Eberlin said. “To run as well as she did against those girls and then to beat the school record, she had a really good race. She had been doing well, but the Palatine meet was when she was really able to convince herself.”

Running in an elite field of 64, Korak set a school record in the 1,600 meters with a time of 5 minutes, 6.17 seconds in a race that had nine girls come in under five minutes. That triggered a record-setting junior season that earns Korak recognition as the 2019 Telegraph Large-Schools Girls Track Athlete of the Year.

Korak would break that school record in the 1,600 twice more, while also setting a Tigers’ mark in the 3,200. And she closed her junior year by becoming Edwardsville’s first 1,600-meter state medalist with an eighth-place performance at the Class 3A girls track state meet in Charleston.

“It was definitely a lot nicer state experience,” said Korak, whose state run helped ease the sting of no medal from a disappointing finish in the Class 3A cross country state meet at Peoria in November.

Korak is a two-time Telegraph Cross Country Runner of the Year who professes no preference for running in the country or on the track.

“I love them both,” she said. “They both have their perks and they both have their downs. I don’t think I could pick a favorite.”

She does not have to. Korak enters her senior year with goals of her first state medal in cross country and her second in track.

The 1,600 meters is her specialty, but Korak also set a Tigers record in the 3,200 while winning the Madison County Meet in 11:04.05. She also won the 3,200 at the Belleville West Invite in 11:12.05, but Korak’s focus is the four-lap race.

After her record-setting run in Palatine, Korak bettered that mark while winning the O’Fallon Sectional in 5:04.83. That time would fall nine days later when Korak went 5:00.92 in her prelim heat at the Class 3A state meet. She came back the next day to make the medals stand in eighth place with a time of 5:05.46.

Senior ambitions for the 1,600 include breaking five minutes.

“That’s always been one of my big goals as a runner, to try to make it under that five-minute barrier,” Korak said. “I’ll have to keep training super hard and, hopefully, I’ll get right under.”

Korak twice ran in the 800 meters, placing second in both the Triad and Collinsville invites. Her 2:17.17 at Collinsville was less than two seconds off the school record. Korak’s senior workload could include more long-distance doubles

“I think coach might have me do the 3,200 a little more next year,” Korak said. “It just depends how training works.”

The 1,600/3,200 double is commonplace for the state’s premiere runners. It doesn’t get an enthusiastic embrace from Korak, but she is willing. “I don’t mind it,” she said. “It challenges me.”

Korak answered the track challenge at state with a medal. With that all-state burden alleviated, Tigers cross country looks forward to another medal push from Korak this fall.

“She has one,” Patrylak said. “Now, hopefully, she gets a little bit more of that confidence with not as much pressure on her. I think we’re going to be looking for big things moving forward.”