A Gaither High School running standout sets her sights on the state meet after overcoming asthma.
By TERRY JONES, Times Correspondent
Published November 11, 2005
CARROLLWOOD - For the first time in her career, Gaither High School distance runner Amanda Quick has been competing with a healthy body.
The senior cross-country standout always has done exceptionally well, even though she has battled asthma. She missed much of her junior season with illness, plus some nasal surgery.
But this year is different. She isn't struggling with her breathing along with the normal pains of distance running. She's been burning up courses and doing well, beating all other female cross-country runners in Hillsborough County.
Up next: the state championship meet Saturday, the culmination of everything that Quick has worked for the past four years.
"Because her training has been uninterrupted this season, she has been able to work harder and is still improving in the final week before the state meet," Gaither coach Ladd Baldwin said. "Even in weak health last year, she finished fifth in the state. I believe she'll finish in the top three this year."
In addition to winning the individual regional cross-country championship, Quick won her district championship and won five of six other meets she ran this season. She placed second in the sixth meet.
One of the more valuable assets to her good health this season is better breathing. A distance runner who struggles for breath struggles to compete. She breathed mostly through her mouth last year.
"Now she breathes more through her nose and that helps her cut times and add endurance to her races," Baldwin said. "I am really pleased with her progress so far this season."
Although colleges are contacting her about scholarships, her focus this year has been on staying healthy, keeping her grades up and being ready for the state meet.
She has made a couple of practice runs on the course in Dade City, where the state meet will be contested.
It won't be easy.
"The course has some roll and it ends with a steep hill to climb," she said. "That is always a tough way to end a 3-mile race. But the course is the same for everyone competing. Everyone must make the adjustment."
Perhaps the biggest adjustment she has made for her final high school season is her breathing. The news is all positive.
"The asthma has gone away," she said.
So far this week, she has been resting more than running. But even when resting, the state meet is in her head.
"I have been conserving my energy this last week and cutting down on the distance training," she said. "Then there is the actual race. The mind-set is very important. I run the race every day in my mind, to get the mental part down solid."
Quick feels she has a reasonable shot at placing in the top three in the final race. Then she'll go to the next important task: picking the college that she'll run for during the next four years.
