It’s hard to explain strategy, Amanda Peterson said, because it happens so fast.

It is, after all, a sprint — the 55 meter dash. And the topic at hand was not just any 55 meter dash, but the state final in the event.

“I did know the girl that I wanted to strive to get ahead of. That’s usually the goal before every race, to pick out the girl that you think is going to be faster than you and try to catch her,” Peterson said.

Conduct a poll of Class B sprinters before the same race and Peterson, a Gray-New Gloucester junior, would have probably been the one in each of their sights, and she knew it.

“I was confident, but I was still really nervous,” Peterson said. “I think I was more nervous this year than I was last year, mainly because I felt everybody was looking to me to win.”

No one put more pressure on Peterson than she did on her self.

“She is very demanding of herself, and when she comes into a meet, she expects to win,” Gray-NG coach Todd Mercer said.

When the gun sounded, Peterson was among the first out of the blocks. About 25 meters in, she could feel someone or someones gaining on her, so she kicked into another gear and torched the Bates College track in 7.49 seconds.

“By the end, it was a sigh of relief, I guess,” she said. “I was, like, ‘I did it. All that hard work, I finally did it.'”

Peterson had an easier time of it in the 200, picking up her second title of the day in 27.01, winning by more than three-tenths of a second.

But the sense of relief wasn’t quite as prevalent. Winning the 55 title was something Peterson had strived for ever since her sophomore year, when nagging knee problems kept her from reaching her potential in the event.

“It was kind of an obvious goal to get faster in that one,” she said.

“That was something that just gnawed at her, and something for her to focus on that drove her to work hard over the course of the season,” Mercer said.

Peterson did just that, sacrificing regular-season dominance for post-season prizes with a grueling practice regimen.

“Over the course of the season, we worked her harder and harder, so her times didn’t really drop like you would hope until the end of the season,” Mercer said. “But we kept her pretty worn out right up until the Western Maine Conference meet. We started laying off a little bit and she started popping PRs.”

“When it comes to Friday or Saturday night, your body feels nice and relaxed, like it’s been rested.” she said.

A relaxed Peterson won the 55 and 200 at the WMC championships, then ran to gold at states. She was at her best two weeks later at New Englands.

“I feel like I reached my goals and even reached above my goals at New Englands (where) I got a new PR and came in ninth,” said Peterson, who was the top Maine finisher in 7.41 seconds.

Because she peaked when it counted most, Amanda Peterson is the 2011 Sun Journal Girls’ Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.