GRAY – As a freshman, Amanda Peterson prepared for her first indoor state championship meet and couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.
The sprinter from Gray-New Gloucester took one look around the field house at Bates College in Lewiston, trying to comprehend it all. She saw the clusters of teams — some with more than 75 athletes — who were camped out along the bleachers. She saw the fans who lined the edge of the track, three or four deep in some places. She heard all the noise contained within the facility, and everywhere she looked she saw athletes running, jumping, stretching, handing off relay batons or carrying starting blocks.
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“I just thought, ‘Whoa,’” Peterson recalled. “There’s either people in the stands or they’re crowding out onto the track and it’s hard to warm up, or there’s other teams in other places … and it’s definitely a lot of people.
“You have to experience it first. It’s not something you can explain to someone else.”
Peterson, a junior sprinter for the Patriots, has experience to fall back on.
Today, however, she’ll have a handful of teammates with her. Peterson is one of five Patriots to qualify for today’s Class B championships at Bates College. In addition to running the 55-meter dash and a leg of the 800 relay, she will defend her Class B title in the 200.
“I’m kind of excited but I’m still feeling the nerves,” Peterson said. “It’s a lot to live up to. It’s like, OK, I have the state title in the 200, but there are all these other girls looking at me, saying, ‘I have to beat her because she won it as a sophomore, so it’s our turn.’
“But I kind of look at it as, if they win, then maybe they worked harder than I did or maybe they wanted it more.”
Peterson won Western Maine Conference titles last weekend in the 55 (7.5 seconds) and the 200 (26.88) and she enters today’s Class B championships with Class B’s top time in the 55, and is tied with Hermon’s Maddie Page for the top-seeded time in the 200.
“Last year, she competed as one of the ‘walking wounded,’ ” Patriots Coach Todd Mercer said. “Every meet, it was like trying to band-aid and tape her back together so that she could compete. This year, she’s stronger, more durable and she’s ready to compete.”
Entering her junior year, Peterson set the goal of lowering her times in her individual events. A team captain, she also wanted to help create a sense of community within her team.
“She’s the kind of captain that leads by example,” Mercer said. “She leads by the example of ‘do what I do.’ “
That meant focusing on individual improvement, as opposed to placing in each meet. The focus on her team’s personal improvement comes down to tracking personal-best marks on a large poster that’s toted between the school and the team’s meets throughout the season.
“Getting the team excited about doing well has been one of our biggest goals,” Peterson said.
In addition to Gray-New Gloucester’s five Class B qualifiers, the Patriots will have a group of teammates who will attend strictly as spectators. They’ll find out what it’s like to be in the state-meet atmosphere, while Peterson will have experience to rely on, as well as a new kind of pressure to handle.
“You’re in that weird place where you think, I’m really proud, but I still have to work hard,” Peterson said. “I still have to fight for it because somebody else is trying to get it from me.”
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com
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