East Meadow's Amanda Ashe excels at Spike Shoe meet

Amanda Ashe was all alone. The East Meadow junior dominated her 1,600-meter heat Monday at the Spike Shoe Holiday Festival at The Armory in Manhattan.

Ashe finished first overall in 5:11.1, well ahead of anyone else in her varsity grouping. Despite the big lead, she had to fight off human nature as she ran the final lap.

"It's definitely hard to keep yourself mentally in it," she said. "But, when you really want it, you just go for it."

And go for it she did.

She knew early in her heat that she would need that mentality to keep distance from the rest of the pack. "I looked behind me and saw that there was no one there," she said. "I had the drive to do it."

Ashe credited her early race strategy for the late, large advantage. "I went out at a good pace, not too fast," she said. "This helped me have a kick at the end."

Ashe hopes that later in the season she will find tougher competition, something she feeds off. "[The lead] felt nice,'' she said, "but I could have used someone there to push me a little."

After playing soccer for the previous two years, Ashe ran cross country this year, prepping her for indoor track. "She's got a lot of mileage in and is much stronger," East Meadow coach Steve Josepher said.

With no finals heat, winners were calculated based on their first time. Because of that, Ashe didn't find out she won until cooling off and sitting down with her team. When the news came, a sense of accomplishment swept over her.

"[Finding out] I had won was awesome," she said. "It makes me feel that all of my training is worthwhile."

Ashe wasn't the only Long Islander to post a notable time. The Deer Park quartet of Totianyu Guadalupe, Jasmyn Jimenez, Nicolete Tortorici and Amanda Khare ran the sprint medley relay in 4:39.

The girls were smiling from ear to ear afterward. "We come together as a team, focus, and train hard at practice," Guadalupe said.

It was the first time this season that the athletes have run as part of a team. In a sport that can be very individual at times, the team dynamic is sometimes hard to find -- but, as Deer Park showed, it can be very rewarding.

"For our first time, I think it went [amazingly]," Guadalupe said. "We usually run different events, but it's great that we came together as a team."