Lake County Gazette

A year ago at this time, Vivian Overbeck was producing strong performances for the Vernon Hills High School cross-country team.

Now, she's at a new level of competition — but still cranking out good showings. In her first two collegiate meets while running for Northern Illinois University this fall, Overbeck has turned in two top-14 finishes.

Vivian Overbeck

“Just looking at my workouts, I think I have improved a lot since high school,” Overbeck told the Lake County Gazette. “I am able to hold faster paces for longer, and I am still improving my speed that I built on in track season last spring.”

Overbeck's first collegiate meet was the Illini Challenge on Sept. 2 in Champaign. Overbeck placed 14th with a 5K time of 18 minutes, 46 seconds.

“This was a good meet for me to shake the dust off, since my last race was IHSA track state finals in May,” she said.

Then, on Sept. 9, Overbeck set a personal record in the 5K at the Country Financial Invitational in Normal, coming in 12th in 18:19. She was the fifth runner for the Huskies and scored 12 points for the squad as NIU won the team title in a field of competition that included regionally ranked teams like Illinois, Loyola and Illinois State, niuhuskies.com reported.

“Although I am pleased with my performances so far, I’m hoping for some even better performances at the end of the season,” Overbeck said.

Including her final running seasons in high school, Overbeck is adding to a stellar one-year-plus period. Last November, she finished fifth in the Class 2A state meet as Vernon Hills claimed third place as a team, ihsa.org reported. It was her third time as a top-13 placer at the state meet.

Then at the 2016 IHSA State Championships, she was sixth in the 1,600-meter run, fourth in the 3,200 run and ran on the second-place 4x800 relay team, niuhuskies.com reported.

In preparation for her first college season, Overbeck worked out in accord with the guidance from the NIU coaching staff. The mileage was a bit more than she put in the previous summer, Overbeck said, adding that the volume of hard workouts in college is markedly different.

“Over the last four years, if I was doing intervals or a progression run or tempo run, my mileage for the day would come to about 6 to 8 miles," he said. "In college, my workout day mileage exceeds the upper range of that in high school. It took me a few weeks to adjust to this change, but now I feel so much more confident and comfortable with the mileage.”

Overbeck's goals for the remainder of the season include getting close to finishing a 6K race in 21 minutes.