After running through heavy winds and puddles of mud, sophomore Juliet Frum was in third place with less than a mile left in the IHSA Girls Cross Country Class 3A State Final Meet. With 400 meters left, she passed York senior Bria Bennis, finishing in second place with a time of 17:16. 

“At first, I felt like she was right on my tail,” said Frum. “But when I passed her, she was already kind of dead, so I knew that she probably wouldn’t come back.”

According to Bennis, running alongside Frum was extremely helpful, as they were pushing each other throughout the race, which allowed them to break off from the pack of runners they were with.

Frum finished with All-State Honors for the second year in a row. At sectionals, Frum ran a 16:53, placing second and breaking a school record, one of many this year. 

“We’ve seen girls run 16 [minutes], but we’ve never seen anyone from [Glenbrook North] do it and it’s really challenging,” head coach Bob LeBlanc said.

Sophomore Cormick Buti, fellow cross country runner, drove about three hours from Northbrook to the state meet in Peoria to watch Frum compete in the state finals for the second year in a row. 

Buti was standing on the side of the finish line waiting for Frum to complete her race, and when he saw her turn the corner, he started screaming.

“The finish is a long straight shot and you’re able to see her all the way from the end, just coming around the turn and then just seeing nobody behind her for a good while and realizing, ‘Holy cow, she’s going to win second,’” Buti said. 

According to LeBlanc, the team votes on awards at the end of every season, and this year the team chose Frum as the hardest worker. 

“That’s something about coaching her that I really appreciate,” said LeBlanc. “She really sets the tone that the team should follow.” 

Frum started running when she was eight years old because her mom is a runner. 

“I always heard stories about her college and post-college running experiences and I wanted to be like her,” said Frum. “So we started running turkey trots and stuff together.”

In sixth grade, Frum joined the cross country and track teams and started running 5Ks.

Frum participated in club swimming during the offseason, which helped her endurance going into GBN’s cross country team’s summer running before her freshman year.

This season, Frum’s training has gotten more serious, and she is more focused on running while still swimming during the offseason. 

“I did a lot of the same workouts from last season, except my coaches knew that I’d make it to state, so the workouts were a little bit more intense and my paces were switched because they had new target times for me,” Frum said.  

Frum hopes to commit to a college for cross country and take home a state championship trophy after placing second this year and 17th last year. 

“My goal was to get top 10 but it didn’t really register in my head that [it] was a possibility,’’ said Frum. “It still hasn’t set in that I’m second in state because last year 17th was amazing. There are so many fast girls, and now I’m one of those top runners.”