The further an athlete progresses, the more they learn they to appreciate their accomplishments.

"I've learned over my time in college to embrace these races and moments now because they don't last forever," said former Northwestern runner Haley Yost.Now a junior at Eastern Kentucky University, the former Lady Tiger has lived that mantra to the fullest. Yost doesn't take anything for granted when it comes to running.Rewind to her freshman season and Yost, just months onto the college scene, recalls watching the NCAA Championships with some of her teammates. At that moment they set a goal of theirs to be the first Eastern Kentucky women's squad to ever qualify for that event as a team by the time they graduated.But then Yost suffered an unfortunate setback a couple months later."My freshman year I got foot surgery at the end of January," Yost said. "I had a bone spur on the top of one of my tarsals, so I ended up redshirting indoor and outdoor [track and field] that year."When she became healthy and got back to full strength, Yost catapulted to become one of the Colonels' top runners this past fall. She placed eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, followed by a 63rd-place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regional in her first trip to that meet. She also jumped from a finish in the 30s in her freshman year at the league meet to a top-10 finish in 2016."My junior year cross country season was the first season I started to see things come together in racing," Yost said. "Freshman year was an adjustment year where I was bumping up miles and running without any pressure or expectations. Sophomore year cross country ended up being a very difficult season. This past season I just wanted to enjoy racing, but do whatever I could do for the team."My sophomore year, I didn't get to race conference because I wasn't in the top eight on my team. So this year, finishing eighth in the meet was a great feeling. It's so rewarding to see the progression and how far I've come just in a year."Yost was a steady contributor to the Colonels' memorable cross country season. She set a personal best time of 17:36.2 in the 5K during those conference championships just a couple of weeks ago.Hitting a sub-18 minute time in the 5K was one of Yost's biggest goals throughout her summer training sessions. She smashed that mark and wants to reach even greater heights next season."Going into my junior year, I knew I wanted to be a contributor on the team," Yost said. "I wanted to be able to run well enough to score some points for the team. We lost three of our top five runners, so I really wanted to step up and help fill those gaps."This was my first time competing at NCAA Southeast Regionals, so to finish 63rd is definitely a good feeling. It's a really good spot for me to work off of and try to keep improving next year."Cross country season may be over, but Yost is preparing for her second indoor and outdoor track and field seasons after missing out due to injury suffered during her freshman year."Last year was my first season on the track, and I ended up running middle-distance events just by chance," Yost said."I wanted to try to get a spot on the [distance medley relay] for indoor OVC championships, so asked if I could run the 800 meter. I ended up somehow winning that smaller meet, and the 800 became one of my main events last spring."Indoor season for the Colonels begins on January 15 with the Kentucky Invitational and Yost will be back making strides, and not taking anything for granted.