DATE: Saturday, October 4, 1997             TAG: 9710040581

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFF ZEIGLER, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: HERTFORD                          LENGTH:   73 lines

PERQUIMANS JUNIOR RUNNER KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR BYRUM IS HAVING A RECORD SEASON

Leo Durocher, one-time manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, once said ``Nice guys finish last.'' That sentiment doesn't apply to Amanda Byrum.

Byrum, a junior cross country runner for Perquimans County High School, has won 11 races and has broken her own school record four times this year.

But, says her coach Sadot Mendez, Byrum is more than just a great runner.

``She's the kind of person you like to be around,'' Mendez said. ``I think if you ask the rest of the kids the one person they respect, it's her. She earned that respect because of how good a runner she is and how she conducts herself. Having a girl on the team like her is good for Perquimans. I think I hit the jackpot when she came out.''

Mendez and Byrum go back a long way. Byrum said she had Mendez as a teacher in grade school.

``Ever since I was little, I loved to run,'' she said. ``He would always see me run in field day events. He just knew I was a pretty good runner.''

A miscommunication about when practice started her fresh man year put Byrum out on the course late. But she caught up quickly and has never looked back.

``She showed that she could be a really good athlete,'' Mendez said. ``Eventually she beat the top runners, too. She became the second runner on the team that year.''

``When I first started out, at the first meet, I said I would never do this again. But then as the year went on, I got real used to it and it just became fun to me,'' she said. ``I got to meet a lot of people and make a lot of friends. It's just a great sport. I love it.''

Her love for cross country has translated into school records. She shattered her own school record twice in one week. Last week, in a match against Jamesville and Bear Grass, she won the race, clocking the 3.1 mile run in 21:57, one second faster than her previous best.

On Wednesday, she took first place in a meet against C.B. Aycock and smashed her record by 34 seconds, with a time of 21:23.

Perquimans runs its home races on a grassy, circular course near a graveyard. The runners glide over the flat course, which includes a brief period in the woods, a jump over a ditch and a small hill. Byrum calls the course easy, and said she hoped to have her time down to 21:30 by Oct. 9, the day of the Perquimans Invitational meet.

``That's my goal by the end of the year,'' she said in an interview before the C.B. Aycock race, ``to get down to 21:30-something.''

Another goal is to qualify for the state meet, which she missed last year by one position. She placed 16th in the regional meet. The first 15 go to the state meet.

``Last year, her best race was regionals,'' Mendez said. ``The conditions were messy, and there was water all over, but she put on her best show that day and barely missed going to states. But she's such a good kid, those things don't get her down. It's more of an incentive for her to keep going.''

Byrum, who was also a member of the Perquimans softball team that won the 1A state championship last year, describes herself as a steady runner with a minimal kick. She's actually a slow starter.

``At the beginning of the races, most of the time I'm real far back in the pack, and then I start passing people,'' she said. ``Coach says I don't have a big kick, but I'm still running strong when I'm finished.''

Coming from behind gives her an emotional boost.

``When I'm out running it's like, `Amanda, you can't stop, you have to keep on going.' If there's someone in front of you, you say `I can catch up with them,' '' she said. ``When you finally catch up with them, you want to catch up with the next person.''

Mendez said that cross country is as much a mental sport as it is physical.

``That's one of the keys. It takes a strong mind to run long distances,'' he said. ``Several of the runners are tops in the class. It's a sport that you really have to concentrate.''

Byrum said the support of her family and friends is also a key to her success.

``They're always congratulating me on the stuff I do and it makes me feel real good,'' she said. ``It pushes me to make me do better. I keep striving to do my best.

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