For Amy Meyers, an eighth-grader at West Junior High, field events and short-distance races are not her style. No high jump, triple jump or 400-meter runs, either. She prefers running long-distance races like the 1,600-meter run and the 3,200-meter run.

And last Tuesday at Southwest Junior High, her partiality came through in a big way when she broke the West Junior High record in the 1,600 with a time of 12 minutes, 33 seconds.

“It didn’t seem as hard as I thought it’d be,” Amy said.

Before the race began, with the help of her track coach, Natalie Myers, the two figured out the split times Amy needed to hit to break the record. Amy scribbled the times down on her left hand so she could see if she was keeping pace. However, she did not look at her hand the entire race.

She was too focused on running.

But Myers told Amy her split times after she finished each lap.

“I was thinking I can do this,” Amy said.

After hitting her split times and catching a few boy runners along the way in the last laps of the race, Amy went into her kick during the final straightaway and broke the record.

“It feels good,” Amy said of breaking the record.

But accomplishing that task was something Amy initially didn’t set out to do this season. She really just wanted to perform well in all of her events, and if a record fell, then that was a bonus.

But it became clear early on to those closest to her that she could indeed complete the task.

Over the winter, Amy, also an avid Kaw Valley Soccer Association player, participated in the six-week strength and conditioning program at TherapyWorks in Lawrence. There she lifted weights, performed plyometric exercises – techniques used to improve power and explosiveness – and also worked on her hamstring flexibility and running form.

After she completed the program, Amy continued conditioning on her own, as she would do hundreds of situps at a time and routinely go on three-mile runs. And often times her father and siblings went along as well. But her father, Keith, said that was time well spent.

“It’s something we do as a family,” he said. “And it’s fun. It’s quality time you have together and you look forward to it.”

In the near future, Amy is looking forward to running in the Bulldog Relays today. She hopes to beat her current record-setting time in the 3,200 run. Beyond that she wants to run cross country and track at Free State High in a few years. But in the meantime there isn’t much chance of her changing her mind on what kind of track and field events she enjoys the most.

“I just like running,” she said. “It’s more fun to run long distance.”