With a 5K time of 19:36 on Oct. 6, Madeline Meyer surpassed her own best time of 20:05 and that of last year’s leading female runner by 10 seconds, and she’s not done yet. The South Coast Conference Championship is on the horizon and Meyer, a Marion resident, has her eyes set on breaking 19:00 before she bids farewell to Old Rochester Regional High School.

Meyer’s has been proven to be driven far beyond the cross country team. At 14 she began taking courses at local community colleges while simultaneously attending high school, for the past three years she’s had original works of art featured in various galleries in downtown New Bedford, and she’s been part of a globally ranked Destination Imagination team since her sophomore year.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be the best I can be,” said Meyer. “I like to stay busy, I like to be constantly improving myself, I like to be productive. Running allows me to do that while also acting as a stress reliever for all the other activities that I do. It’s calming for me. I also just like running on a team and having people to train with.”

Winning is nice, too.

“One of my main goals for cross country is for the girls’ team to make Nationals,” Meyer said. “It would be nice to get in the 18:00’s, that’s another goal, but I’m already really proud of the time that I have now, so if it doesn’t work out then I’ll be okay with it. There’s still that little nagging voice that tells me that I can do better, but in general I am actually very satisfied with my 19:34.”

Despite her accomplishments, Meyer says she is always anxious about trying new things. She even walked away from cross country her sophomore year because she didn’t know anyone else at the practice. Meyer pursued swimming for a while before returning to the team.

“I’ve figured out that being a fast runner is an easy way to make friends,” she said. “I’m really quiet in school and during sports so the social side of things is kind of hard for me, but it’s gotten easier since I started. It’s part of my motivation.”

Athletic Director and cross country coach Bill Tilden hopes to work with Meyer to help her improve her time.

“I think we just scratched the surface,” said Tilden. “There’s still more we can do with her. We haven’t done any speedwork with her yet, so we’ll see what speedwork brings.”

Although she loves running and being part of the team, Meyer said she’s gotten a lot more attention since running 19:36, but she isn’t going to start pushing herself “to the point of unhappiness.”

“In a way it definitely is nerve wracking,” she said. “It’s like people expect a lot more from me now. I expect a lot more from me now, even though I know that that’s not really rational. I’m going to try my best, of course, but I also have lots of other things to put energy into. Like, Destination Imagination, the college process, school, my friends and family, art, stuff like that.”

College is definitely one of those areas that Meyer won’t let fall through the cracks. She hopes to study psychology, neuroscience and art, possibly figuring out a way to tie them all together.

“No matter what I chose for a major or minor, I know I want to run in college. It really helps me in a lot of ways.”