Sometimes, you just have to go for it.

At the 2013 Colonial League Cross country championships, that's exactly what Salisbury's Kyle Gonoude did.

The junior used a midrace surge on the hilly DeSales University course to take the win with a time of 16:58 to finish 13 seconds ahead of Bangor's Brandon Tocket.

After finishing second in the race a year ago, Gonoude knew he had as good a chance as anyone to come away with the win.

"I came in really thinking that everyone has an equal shot," Gonoude said. "Everyone has really beaten everybody throughout the year, so it was kind of a coin toss to see who wanted it more."

Gonoude's performance was especially rewarding for Salisbury coach Doug Hensinger, who knows how hard the junior has worked to get back to this point.

"It was very satisfying to see him perform the way he did today," Hensinger said. "He had a lot of patience after his injury during the track season. He didn't really start running until the third week of practice and I just told him he needed to take baby steps and be patient."

Gonoude took a giant step forward by claiming the league title and now moves on to Wednesday's district championships looking to improve on his third-place finish from a year ago.

"I'm just going to work my hardest like I did here today and hope a first place comes out of that," Gonoude said.

The Falcons' Gregory Fry took 21st overall in a time of 18:23, while teammates Ian Carey and Sinjon Bartel took 24th and 29th, respectively, propelling Salisbury to a fifth-place finish in the team standings. Bangor won the team league's title for the second conecutive year.

Saucon Valley's Elizabeth Chikotas picked up her fourth consecutive league title in a time of 18:43, dominating the girls race.

But Salisbury's Kelly Gonoude, Kyle's sister, took eighth place overall in a time of 20:45, which earned a medal in what was one of the largest races the junior had ever competed in.

"Since it was my first league meet, I just tried to stay with the girls I normally stayed with during the regular season meets," Gonoude said. "I just tried to move up as the race went on and tried to pass as many girls as I could."

For Hensinger, the performances of the talented brother and sister duo have as much to do with character as skill.

"They're very competitive and they're good athletes and they're good kids," Hensinger said. "They don't know anything other than giving 100 percent."