On a day where strong winds wreaked havoc with one event after another at the Taylorsville Invitational, Judge Memorial runner Hailey Knettles would not be deterred.

Times and distances were not looking good for many athletes as they dealt with swirling dust thick enough to obscure the Wasatch Mountains from view and gusts forceful enough to blow over tents where various athletes gathered to rest between events.

Even under such conditions, Knettles posted a winning time of 5 minutes and 11.61 seconds in the 1,600 meters and finished a full 20 seconds ahead of her next closest competitor.

More importantly, she dropped 9.5 seconds off her winning time from the Big Red Invitational two weeks earlier.

"It's always a good feeling," Knettles said of dropping time in that fashion.

With her natural ability and success as a runner, it seems ironic to discover that Knettles took up distance running originally as a training tool for swimming. She never ran competitively before starting high school.

"It was just kind of a luck of the draw the way I picked it up," Knettles said. "But I really started liking it."

By her sophomore year, Knettles went from simply enjoying cross country and track to actively carving out a niche as an elite distance runner. She started to realize what constituted good times and what she needed to do to reach those marks.

Knettles felt like she had a better head on her shoulders than during her first exposure to track meets and cross country meets as a freshman.

"I definitely approached the races with more strategy," Knettles said. "I knew what I was going after in the races. I understood what the workouts were for. I just knew what the purpose of the workout was, so I made sure I approached it knowing what I needed to get out of it."

With each passing season, Knettles has grown more unstoppable in her chosen events. She hit the apex for cross country this past fall when she smoked her competition at Sugarhouse Park to win the 3A state title.

Knettles finished the championship meet in 18 minutes and 25.4 seconds. Her time turned out to be the fastest of any individual girls champion in the five classifications.

A strong senior season also netted Knettles some postseason recognition when she earned 2007-08 Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year honors.

Bulldogs coach Dan Quinn credits some of Knettles' growth as a runner to her willingness to learn from former state champions who preceded her like Sam Macmillan and Samantha Gaffney.

"She definitely came in and learned how to run," Quinn said. "(She) developed, was competitive and continued to improve over the years. Really, her junior year she stepped up and ran some big races."

Knettles' success culminated in her committing to run for the University of Portland. Now she hopes to follow her predecessors in another way by capping off her high school career with a first-ever track and field state title.

It should be a realistic goal. Knettles stood on the cusp a year ago with third-place finishes in the 800 and 1,600 and a fourth place finish in the 3,200.

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E-mail: jcoon@desnews.com