By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

Norton freshman Regan Simpson traveled to Florida to visit her father, John, for eight weeks in the summer. Nearly every morning, Simpson woke up between 5:30 and 6:30, avoided the Florida heat and ran between three and eight miles. Overall, she averaged 35 miles a week and ran more than 300 miles in the summer to prepare for her first season of high school cross country this fall. Simpson rarely missed a morning run.

"I imagine myself finishing and doing good and what it will be like when I cross the finish line, all of the hard work it takes to get there," she said. "Sometimes it takes a lot for me to get out the door. I just have to think, once you get out there, it's good and once you get done, it is so good."

Simpson's summer workouts have helped a young Norton team remain one of the area's and Class 3A's best programs. The Bluejay girls, who lost all-state runner and Kansas State University signee Laura Lee Baird to graduation, are ranked No. 4 in Class 3A under first-year head coach George Rossi. Baird was third last year at state, while state medalist Kara Jones also has graduated from a fifth-place Bluejays team last fall.

"Our strength is we are able to stay real tight together," Rossi said. "Our one through five splits are real tight with each other and that is what is keeping us in the race right now. We are not finishing 1-2 like we have been, but our five and six runners have moved up a little bit and kind of keeping that pack a little tighter."

Norton, without a senior, finished second at the Wamego Invitational in the Class 3-2-1A division last weekend, one of the biggest early-season meets. Simpson was second at the season-opening Norton Invitational, was 10th at Wamego and fourth (eighth overall) in the Class 4-1A division on Thursday at the Hays High Invitational. She has been the top Bluejay runner in every race and set a team goal to qualify the Bluejays for state.

"She is a pretty motivated young lady and she loves to run," Rossi said. "That is kind of the key. Some of these girls, they love cross country, but they don't really like to run all that much."

Norton is paced by Simpson, freshman Kamilla Jones, junior Dustyna Sprigg, sophomore Abby Bainter, freshman Julia Kent and junior Kaylen Rossi. The top six runners were all in the top 41 (out of 105) runners at Wamego. At Hays, they finished 3-11-12-14-15-16 in the 4-1A division and were second by one point, to Thomas More Prep-Marian. Rossi has coached the young talent on running harder in practices and meets and navigating new cross country courses for the first time.

"Especially Julia Kent, she comes across the finish line and she is done," Rossi said. "She is recovered by the time she gets through the chute. She is learning. I asked her (Thursday), 'can you run harder? (She said), 'well, I think so.' '' She ran a lot better time (at Hays), too."

Rossi considers Simpson the team's leader because of the freshman's summer workouts. Bainter ran at the state meet last season, but Simpson has a larger base of summer miles.

"I saw her run last year in junior high and watching her run in junior high meets, I figured it would kind of be a toss-up between her and Abby, who would be the No. 1," Rossi said of Simpson. "She had so many miles. She is in lot better shape than Abby is right now. Abby wasn't really for sure whether she was going to come out and didn't do a whole lot in the summertime."

Simpson, though, ran extensively in Florida after a strong junior high career. She started running in sixth grade and played volleyball in the fall.

"I played volleyball three years in junior high and I liked it a lot, but I just prefer to run," she said.

This summer, Simpson tried to always run in the mornings. A few times, though, she turned off the alarm clock and slept in. Then, she would run in the middle of the day in the Florida heat.

"Probably never going to do that again," she said with a laugh. "I couldn't even run three miles. I had to stop and walk. It was so hot. It was unbelievable. ... (The workouts) helped me a lot, just getting out the door and feeling better. I just feel better."

Simpson, though, still needed work on running and pacing herself through a cross country race. At the season-opening Norton Invitational, Simpson ran 18 minutes, 21 seconds to finish second to Almena-Northern Valley's Kayla Lowry. She was 5 seconds ahead of Jones and 26 in front of Bainter.

"I was kind of nervous, but I was more anxious," Simpson said. "I was excited for my first race. I didn't really feel the greatest during the race. I was in a lot of pain, but it worked good. I went out way too fast. I was dead at the end. I was dead before the two-mile mark."

Every race, Simpson sets goals of wanting to break 17 minutes or finish in the top-five. At Wamego, Simpson lowered her time when she ran 18:09, 35 seconds faster than her nearest teammate. At the flatter Fort Hays State University course, Simpson ran 16:40.83, a time that beat all but four 5A-6A runners in the field, too. She called the race "definitely" the best of the season -- a time helped by her Florida workouts.

"I didn't think it was going to be possible for me to break 17 this year," she said.