Kyle Gonoude has been to the state cross country meet every season of his high school career, including this past weekend's meet that would cap off his senior season.

And despite reaching that plateau for the fourth time in his career, a feat a rare number of runners get to experience, Gonoude, understandably, still gets a bit nervous prior to the biggest race of the season.

Once those nerves and jitters escaped Gonoude and he crossed the finished line, the senior put a stamp on one of the best cross country careers in the Lehigh Valley in recent years. A year after taking seventh at states, Gonoude placed 11th in a time of 16:33 at Saturday's PIAA State Championship Meet at Hershey Entertainment Complex.

"I woke up really nervous, and then I focused mysef," Kyle Gonoude said. "I had little spurts of being nervous throughout the event here. The last hour I just focused myself back and got into race form."

As a sophomore, Gonoude came in 16th place after finishing in 81st as a freshman. He has now earned three medals at the state level at Salisbury. He also took first at this year's league and district meets.

"It's been very successful," Kyle Gonoude said. "Not a lot has gone wrong except for my junior year when I was hurt in the beginning of the year. But other than that, it's been great. It's been a great team with a great coach."

Gonoude had to wait nearly three hours until the Class AA boys race, which was the fifth of six scheduled event on Saturday. He spent the time in between at the team's tent and watching his sister, Kelly Gonoude, compete in the Class AA girls' race as he got prepared for what was ahead.

When the time finally came around, Gonoude just wanted to run to the best of his abilities when the group of 225 runners took off from the starting line.

"I just wanted to run as hard as I could for as long as I could and see what happens," Kyle Gonoude said.

Throughout a course that is as gruleing as any that Gonoude runs throughout the season, Hershey's layout challenges runners with its numerous slopes and hills. And while he generally likes to hold off a bit at the beginning of races, Gonoude understood the first mile would need to be quick out of the gate with the increased competition level across the board.

"It was a really fast first mile," Kyle Gonoude said. "I just tried to work every single hill I could, but everyone got back up to me on the flat part of the top of the hill. It was hard to break away from some people.

"It's really hard to just stick behind the leader the whole time and sit on him until the end. I just had to keep fighting my way through people."

Kelly Gonoude was the other Salisbury representative at the state meet. A year after taking 114th place in her first ever trip to states, she achieved her goals of finishing among the top 80 runners and improving on last year's time of 21:22.

She cross the finish line in a time of 20:42, which was good enough for 71st place among the 210 finishers.

"I definitely wanted to go top 100, maybe top 80," Kelly Gonoude said. "I also wanted to improve my time and stay strong throughout the race instead of slacking on some hills."

Like her brother, she also understood the importance of getting off to a fast start with the challenging terrain that this course provides.

"I started way on the far end," she said. "I had to go out really fast and make my way toward the middle, which is kind of tough because it was really crowded in the beginning. Everyone had to slow down at one point, but I didn't have to slow down too much.

"We kind of mimicked some of the hills on this course at places like the parkway. We did a lot of sprinting and speed work."

For Gonoude, it's also the last race of her high school career, one that included a seventh-place finish in leagues and 15th at districts.

"I was really well prepared for it, because my coach had us do a bunch of hill workouts this week," Kelly Gonoude said. "It's still a tough race with all of the hills, but I felt really prepared."