There are 23 furniture stores listed in the Carbondale yellow pages, none of which junior cross-country runner Kim Koerner will be calling to find a chair to sit in and take a break.

SIUC women’s cross-country coach Don DeNoon described Koerner as an over-achiever, who has a 4.00 GPA for the 1995 spring semester, and runs with tenacity instead of an extreme amount of talent.

If you lined her up with a group of runners, you would have a hard time figuring out that she was one of the better runners out there, DeNoon said. She doesn’t have that great runner’s form, but she likes to be perfect.

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In high school, Koerner was bribed by her older brother to join the cross-country team. He gave her one shoe for her birthday, and said she could not have the other until she joined the team.

That one missing shoe eventually turned into a scholarship to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

In her freshman year at SIUC, Koerner had what she described as a good cross-country season, but caught mononucleosis and missed most of the track season. Her sophomore year, she came into cross-country in great shape, but a stress fracture hindered her ability to run.

DeNoon said the illness and the nagging injuries took their toll on her, both physically and mentally.

Her sophomore year in cross-country, you could see she was really elated (with her performances), but she was frustrated with the stress-fracture, he said.

Finally, in her junior year, she has put together the season she has been waiting for. As co-captain of the team, she has had the duty of helping a young, talented, and inexperienced group of freshmen mature as the season has gone along.

There is no doubt that her success affects the rest of the team, DeNoon said. You can tell it through her demeanor, and when she talks to the rest of the team, you can see she’s a positive leader.

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She has won her past two races with strong performances. Her legs have not been the decisive part, but yet her heart has won the races for her.

After her first collegiate victory Oct. 7, she jumped in to the arms of her father who was there to see his daughter run on Family Weekend. She had beat her personal best time by 40 seconds.

Following the race, she had the entire team spit on the trophy in the sake of tradition carried over from high school.

At Eastern Illinois on Oct. 14, she battled for the lead late in the race, and finally won.

I was tired from the week before, and I had put some pressure on myself to win, she said. I knew I had a chance to win, but I wasn’t in the lead until the final 40 meters.

Koerner said the only explanation she could think of to explain her recent success is three years of hard work finally paying off.

DeNoon agreed with her, saying that her recent success has given her enough confidence to believe in herself week in and week out.

Last year at the end of the indoor track season we saw her become healthy and strong, and she’s really been our top runner from the start, he said. By her running away at the Martin Foods Invite, I think it gave her enough confidence to come back the next week at Eastern.

With two consecutive victories for Koerner, the team will be looking for leadership from her at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships on Oct. 29 in Tulsa, Okla.

Koerner believes she leads both vocally and by example.

I try to be a good leader, but there isn’t really any one leader on this team. We all pick it up if one of us isn’t running well, she said. I try to encourage people a lot, because I know I run better when I’m confident in myself.

DeNoon said it has taken Koerner three years to enjoy what she is capable of, but he is not surprised by her success this season.

Some people grow and mature faster, but Kim’s got a lot of growing left, he said.

With the confidence and work ethic that she has, this year may be the year that Koerner places high enough in the MVC Championships to qualify for the district championships.

Her freshman year, she placed 14th in the race, and DeNoon said it is realistic to see her in the top 10.

DeNoon refers to Sue Dagget of Illinois State as the runner to beat at the MVC Championships, but he also said Koerner should take the races one at a time.

This may be the year that Sue Dagget looks at the tail end of Koerner, he said. There are a lot of good runners in the district, but no great ones. She’ll have to get passed the conference first, though.

Koerner said she expects to do well at the conference championships, but she believes the team will do well also.

A lot of teams aren’t expecting too much from us, and I think we’ll surprise them, she said. I’m going to give it my best because I want to be All-Conference.