SOUTH PORTLAND — The past two years, middle-distance runner Juliana Selser often has run with little in the way of competition.

As a result, the three-time defending state 800-meter champion rarely has anyone pushing her to faster times.

But now the South Portland junior has decided to change her approach, regardless of who might be in the race.

Earlier this month, Selser competed at the Dartmouth Relays in Hanover, New Hampshire. She was placed in the second heat in the 800 and won it with ease – by four seconds – in a state-leading time of 2 minutes, 21.72 seconds. However, Selser placed fifth overall in the 800 at Dartmouth; the fastest runners fed off the competition of being in the seeded heat.

So at her next meet, an SMAA meet at the University of Southern Maine, Selser ran purely for time. She won by 11 seconds and posted an indoor-best time of 2:19.64, which led the state until Tia Tardy of Mt. Desert Island topped it last weekend with a time of 2:18.0.

“I had three hours to think of it on the drive home from Dartmouth,” she said. “Dartmouth was a blessing because it made me decide to push the pace by myself. It’s frustrating running alone. You have no motivation to go faster. But I decided it wouldn’t matter any more.”

Karen Reardon, the South Portland girls’ track coach, was planning to run Selser the week after the Dartmouth Relays in the 400 meters or the mile, not in back-to-back 800s. But when she started getting a string of texts from Selser after Dartmouth, she changed her mind.

“We try to mix it up,” Reardon said. “But I thought, if she wants to get after it, we’ll let her. The reason we went to Dartmouth was to get her in a good race with competition. That didn’t work out.”

The race on Jan. 14 at USM marked the first time Selser ran under 2:20 indoors. She did so running a negative split (or the second 400 meters faster than the first).

“That’s her hallmark,” Reardon said with a smile. “She does not like to lose. That’s a big piece of it.”

Selser took her first state title as a freshman by winning the 800 at the Class A outdoor championships – largely because she was disgusted with how she did at the indoor state meet. She finished seventh in the 400 indoors and wanted redemption.

“I was going to play lacrosse outdoors freshman year,” Selser said. “But I was so upset at myself I didn’t do well at indoor states. Plus I couldn’t stand everyone else training and getting better.”

So far Selser has improved her time at every big race.

After winning the Class A state title in the 800 as a freshman outdoors in 2:21.11, she ran a 2:17.28 at the New England championships.

As a sophomore, she won the Class A indoor state title in 2:20.34. Then in outdoor track she won the Class A title in 2:20.48 and at the New Englands improved her time at that meet to 2:15.79.

She finished 10th at the New Englands last year after winning the slow heat by 2 seconds. Needless to say, Selser thinks she can go faster than 2:15.

This indoor season she hopes to drop her time to 2:16 to qualify for the nationals.

“That would be amazing,” she said.