Athlete of the Week: Ali Hester

 Foxes senior cross country runner Ali Hester was born to run.

The three-time state qualifier in cross country and track is a co-captain of this year’s team that is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Hester finished second in the Championship Flight of the 38^th annual Minooka Flight Invitational last Saturday. She is Yorkville’s first athlete of the week.

Hester, 17, comes from a family of athletes. Her father, Rich, was a multisport star at Yorkville and mother Diana, ran cross country for Oswego. Her older sister, Madison, 19, is a sophomore at Southern Illinois and was a runner at Yorkville. Younger brother Thor, 13, runs, too, in middle school.

Hester collected firsts at Sandwich’s season opening “War on 34” at Silver Springs State Park on Aug. 26 and the Yorkville Invitational on Aug. 29, sparking the Foxes to team wins. She finished third behind teammate Casey Kramer at the Peoria Woodruff Invitational on Sept. 10. The Foxes won the team title at the site of the state finals, Detweiler Park.

Her coach Chris Muth describes her as “a fierce competitor that works her butt off every day in practice and really enjoys being successful and enjoys the competition. Anything she would like to do, she would be successful at. She shows very good leadership.”

The talented athlete also plays basketball and runs four events (800, 1,600, 3,200 relay and 1,600 relay) during the track and field season. She also has played club soccer.

How long have you been running?

I’ve been running for my whole high school career and ran track in seventh and eighth grade. (She started at about age 12).

When did you take it seriously as a sport and why?

I didn’t take it seriously until I was 15ish. My sister was running cross country. So, I wanted to go after her. She was my inspiration to do cross country and start running and stuff. So, after I started running with her I got serious about it. Because I was getting good at it, I could improve. With all the support I had from everybody was making me want to do well.

Do you have college plans? Do they include sports?

Right now, I’m not like a hundred percent sure where I want to go. I am looking at Southern and then, I’m looking at Bradley University, also. I might look at a few others in just random areas, like Michigan and Kentucky. I will run in college. I will run in college. I’ll do cross country and track.

Being a senior, what is it like being a co-captain of the team? What are the responsibilities?

It’s like a big job. Everyone comes to you with things they are wondering. You always want to be helping and you want to be looked up to in a good way. So, it’s a big pressure on me in a way, but I enjoy it because I like being a leader. I like helping people in many ways, pretty much just being a teammate to everyone. For me, it’s not being an individual. I just can’t think about myself. I have to think about everybody else all the time. I have to work for my team. Being an individual is not as important as that, I guess, to me. Being a big teammate, showing great leadership and just being helpful to the coaches (are some of the responsibilities). At meets, afterwards, I try to help as much as I can cleaning up, I’ll ask them, ‘Do you need my help anymore.’ (I’m always) taking the step to give back what the coaches have given to me.

Do you have a favorite runner, role model?

I know this is all too common, but (Steve) Prefontaine is probably my big runner that I look up to. That’s pretty much it. I’m not big on knowing runners, as I probably should be.

My mom is definitely my role model. She is always caring to people. She gives so much to people. She can never say no. She is so respectful and I look up to that. I know that is the kind of person I want to be when I grow up.

You’ve been a state qualifier three times, what is the experience like running in the state finals?

It was very nerve-wracking, the first year I went. My freshmen year, we didn’t do very well. It was the thought of going there and trying to make it through state. It was really nerve-wracking as a freshman, but at the same time that was also my favorite year because I didn’t have to think about anything. I really didn’t know how to run. I didn’t know when to go fast or when to speed up. I really got to run for the fun of it, which is nice. Now, that we are getting into it more. It just seems really intense to me. We want to get first so bad that it makes me kind of nervous. I know that other people are going through what I went through before. I need to keep on them and keep them happy and not in a depressed mood before the race, or otherwise we are not going to do as well.

What are your expectations for the rest of the season?

I hope our team doesn’t lose what we have right now. I hope we keep the team atmosphere, the family atmosphere, because that’s what really holds us together — everybody helping each other through workouts and being on each other. Being able to talk to them whenever. We kind of know when someone needs to be talked to, when someone is having troubles. We are able to lift each other up. If we lose that, then we are not going to accomplish what we want to and that is doing well at state this year.

Your team has been close to winning the state title the past two seasons — what would winning a title mean to the team and for you?

Winning a state title would be amazing, I’ve worked so hard for other seniors and we’ve gotten second the past two years. I am tired of getting second in every race. Hopefully, we’ll get first this year. I’ve worked and worked, and so have all the other people on the team. Winning the state title would be the top of my high school career. It would just mean a lot. I would probably cry if we got first. It is an exciting experience being there and being there with my teammates. Even if we don’t come out with a first, I am not going to be like heartbroken, but getting a state title would show everybody the hard work we’ve put in throughout my entire high school career.