GRAY – Ben Miklovich chose baseball. Track and field chose him.

The Gray-New Gloucester High School senior grew up following most of the other boys his age in the two communities: Grabbing an aluminum bat and taking his licks in Little League and Babe Ruth.

One problem: Miklovich discovered what Ted Williams told us all along. Using that toothpick and trying to hit a round ball, squarely, is perhaps the toughest challenge in all of sports.

“I started to figure out that I couldn’t really hit,” Miklovich said. “But I could steal bases.”

That revelation let to a fateful decision at the start of Miklovich’s freshman year. Rather than relegate himself to junior varsity baseball, or perhaps a career as a pinch runner, he swapped his cleats for sneakers.

Most of Class B has been chasing him ever since.

Slowed by injuries and admittedly his own stubbornness for the first segment of his career, Miklovich is sprinting to the wire with a flourish. At this year’s Class B indoor championship, he won the 55-meter dash, finished second in the 200 and anchored the Patriots’ 4×200 relay team to victory.

For those accomplishments at the end of a strong Western Maine Conference season, Miklovich is the Sun Journal all-region boys’ indoor track athlete of the year.

“When I first started out, I’m not the most ambitious person,” said Miklovich. “I didn’t like to work out. I was pretty lazy. I didn’t give myself a good opportunity to get warmed up. This past year I’ve grown up a lot.”

Nobody needed to tell the competition.

Miklovich stopped the clock at 6.63 seconds in the 55 on the resurfaced track at Bates College’s Merrill Gymnasium, falling four-hundredths of a second shy of the state meet record.

“It was different running on a new track,” Miklovich said. “It felt kind of weird, but it was extremely fast.”

Longtime rival Nate Martin of Greely needed a new record to nudge Miklovich off the top of the podium in the 200. Miklovich got his revenge by teaming up with G-NG underclassmen Cody Chase, Ethan Ray and Will Danieli to rule the relay.

Chase and Ray also scored individual points for the Patriots at the state showcase, providing evidence of Miklovich’s senior leadership and maturity.

He learned a hard lesson last spring. Although Miklovich finished second in the 100 and G-NG third in the 4×200 relay at the outdoor states, he believes the results would have been better and that he also could have medaled in the individual 200 if not for a nagging hamstring injury.

“I’m serious about my training now. I’m excited about spring,” Miklovich said. “I pulled my hamstring last year pretty bad. I really didn’t work that hard. I didn’t take all the precautions I needed to with stretching.”

Those words capture what Miklovich likes best about his adopted sport.

He’s not counting on anyone to drive him home from second base or to make the throw that completes a double play and gets him out of a pitching jam.

“You get out there and there’s so much adrenaline, so much competition,” Miklovich said. “After all is said and done, you’re the person who is going to determine if you do well. It’s really fun, too.”

Miklovich has been accepted at the University of Southern Maine and University of Maine. He’s waiting to hear back from a third school before making a decision.

USM probably has the built-in advantage, Miklovich acknowledged.

“They’ve recruited me pretty heavily. It’s close to home,” he said. “I’ve been running on that track every day for a long time.”