Cross country’s Kelsey Hildreth has gotten off to a record-smashing start in her freshman campaign in DeKalb.

Hildreth, born and raised 45 minutes from DeKalb in Byron, began her career at NIU in historic fashion, shattering the program’s 5K mark (18:07.81) by nearly 47 seconds (17:20) in her first race Sept. 12.

The 5-foot-3 freshman broke the mark owned by Courtney Oldenburg, finishing the Forest Park Festival in second place out of 136.

She approached the race no differently than when she raced for the Byron Tigers: She tried her best to execute her plan throughout the course.

“I usually try and get to the front pack right from the beginning and then just see if I can stay with them from there,” Hildreth said.

Hildreth began to shine for Byron her senior season after having started to run cross country her junior year. In her final season, she finished second at the Class 1A State cross country race, which was held in Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Coming into the race undefeated on the year, Hildreth’s 17:20 time on the 3-mile course was not enough to beat out then-Effingham St. Anthony freshman Anna Sophia Keller, but it was enough for a silver medal.

During the Huskies’ second meet of the season, Hildreth followed up on her record-breaking performance with a 23rd-place finish out of 300 at the Greater Louisville Classic Oct. 4, breaking the tape at 17:36.32.

“She executes a pretty good race plan,” said head coach Greg Hipp. “She likes to be aggressive, but she’s certainly not putting herself in over her head too much. Leading her first race was a little surprise, especially against the level of competition she was at, but at the same time if you think about the level that she raced in high school that’s just her style.

“She puts herself in there and goes to battle. She’s a tough competitor, and she’s really not afraid of too much, or [at least] she sure doesn’t show it.”

Two weeks after finishing in second place during her high school cross country state final, Hildreth found out she had broken her left foot during the race. To this day she doesn’t know when she did. Her injury was so severe she had to wear a cast, which set her back two to three months.

Hildreth spent the winter battling back and got her revenge on Keller when the state 3,200-meter race came around that spring. After getting passed by Keller with nearly 300 meters to go, Hildreth found a burst of speed with less than 100 meters remaining, picking up the win and the Illinois Class 1A state title.

“Definitely having more people to push me and run with has helped a lot,” Hildreth said. “In high school I would run with the boys sometimes to have people to push me a little, but it’s nice to have a team of girls to run with.”