Stride for stride
Stone and Streit find success running alongside one another
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FAIRMONT - Regulars at the I-90 Invite know the course’s overlapping section. The northeast section of the course at Cedar Creek Park has athletes repeatedly running across a stretch of grass before turning right toward the finish line.
A noticeable trend took place during this year's girls 5,000-meter varsity/junior varsity race. Fairmont's Brooklyn Stone and Sophia Streit seemed to run in lockstep every time they passed the repeated section, going stride for stride.
Streit broke the deadlock down the final stretch. She finished second with a time of 20:55.4. Stone followed one second later to claim third. Both runners showed why they've been the consistent top finishers for head coach Andrew Moeller and the Cardinals.
Running simultaneously wasn't a one-off occurrence. It's been a pattern. Their partnership began during Fairmont's opening two races at the Early Bird Invite and Mountain Lake Meet. Streit, competing in her first cross country season, quickly demonstrated her long-distance talent and found herself running alongside Stone. The two have since made running together a regular part of both competition and training.
"Obviously, Sophia is new to cross country, so we didn't know where she was going to be at," Stone said. "Once we knew that she was close to me, it kind of became intentional that we would run together because it would help."
Running with a partner brings a handful of advantages. The biggest impact, according to Stone and Streit, stems from the mental side of the sport rather than the physical. It's a motivational tool when working with a familiar face.
"It's mostly just us pushing each other. The faster that she runs, the faster I run," Streit said. "You don't want to fall behind the other person, so it definitely keeps you going."
"They are literally stride for stride on the races. And when we are doing a workout, it's the same thing. They are with each other the whole time," Moeller said. "Having that confidence of, 'Well, if they are doing it, then I can do it too,' because they've done everything together."
Setting the pace
Stone entered 2026 as Fairmont's top returning runner. She consistently finished highest on the team last year, claiming three top-10 finishes and posting her season's best time at the section championships.
Attention shifted towards her to be a face teammates can look up to. Stone knew that.
"Last year I was the top runner," Stone said. "So I created big goals this year, and then I worked a lot in the offseason to keep that for this year."
Everything started in the offseason. The junior recalls training every day in the winter with teammate Delaney Klug, switching from chilly outdoor runs to logging miles on a treadmill. Stone's work helped her maintain condition from summer months into the fall. She credits this as a major reason her earlier races showed drastic growth.
The 17:14.4 performance at this past Early Bird Invite, a 4,000-meter race, was a near two-minute improvement. By the Gerry Smith XC Invitational, Stone was already matching her previous season's best times. She recently recorded a personal best at last week's Jordan XC Invitational. Stone's time of 20:42.8 is 39 seconds better than any 5,000-meter output in 2025.
"There's a huge difference between the expectation she had for herself at the beginning of last year and the end of the season," Moeller said. "That shift kept carrying over to the offseason, where instead of being just another runner on the team, she viewed herself in that leadership position by being up at the front. ...The confidence has definitely grown a lot."
Embracing the distance
Cross country hadn't been a familiar sport for Streit. She spent the previous three seasons in Fairmont's track and field program, running the 100- and 300-meter hurdles on top of a few relays.
This was her introduction to Moeller, who coaches mid-distance for the Cardinals. Streit only ran up to 400- and 800-meter races. But after this spring season, Moeller's recruiting pitch for Streit joining his program increased significantly. He thought her talents and mindset could easily translate to running longer distances.
"You always put effort forward, but if there's such a thing as being effortless, she does give off that look. She can really hide the discomfort she is feeling, and it was clear right away that she was not only willing, but wanting to push through that," Moeller said. "Distance running isn't flashy. It's not something super desirable to do. But just seeing the dedication and work ethic she had towards it was definitely a green flag for me to want to get her to run."
Streit admits that transitioning to 4,000 and 5,000 meters was tough. The early practices of building a strong condition aren't easy. However, by the time Fairmont's season opening race in the Early Bird Invite came around, it seemed as if Streit had been running cross country all her life.
She completed the 4,000-meter race with a 17:38.5 time and a 10th-place finish. Much like her running mate, Streit has continuously improved with each race since. Her 28th-place showing at the Jordan Invitational was merely one second behind Stone and a new personal best.
"In track, we trained a little farther than just the 800 [meters]," Streit said. "At first, it was really hard, obviously. But the more I ran, the easier it became. ...I didn't really know what to expect. I was just kind of thrown into it. As I started running, it just got easier for me."
Stone and Streit have each notched five top-10 finishes in their nine regular season races. Both runners have broken into the 21-minute barrier over the past few weeks. As Fairmont enters the postseason next week, Stone and Streit will continue pushing one another while pursuing their own goals.
"I really don't think that it's a situation of somebody holding back so that they can run with the other," Moeller said. "I really do think that they are just feeding off of each other and both doing better as individuals because that other person is right next to them."