By Don Ketchum

The Division III state track and field meet will be here soon, and Torey Braly will be ready.

She will travel to the meet location from her home in Cottonwood, sitting in the vehicle as it passes the mile markers and listening to music to help clear her head.

When it is time for the hurdles and sprints, the Mingus High senior will step a bit behind her competitors as they prepare to line up in the blocks, looking down the track and again focusing on what she has to do.

With the crack of the starter’s gun, they are off.

May the best one win.

Will it be Braly? The chances are good that she will be right there in contention.

The hurdles are her specialty. She is the defending champion in the 300 and is a two-time runner-up in the 100.

Braly is a versatile, all-around athlete. She was named to The Arizona Republic’s All-Arizona soccer team, and has earned a scholarship to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

She is excited for that opportunity, but has plenty of business on the track to take care of before then.

There was a health obstacle late in the soccer season when she injured a knee. She wore a brace on it for awhile, including early in track season, but cast it away after a few weeks.

“My MCL (medial collateral ligament) was loose,’’ she said. “I overcompensated a little bit with the other leg and my calf would cramp up.

“I was crushed. I thought my future in soccer and track was gone. But I was able to come back and I realized that it could have been much worse.’’

She worked with trainer Mike Boysen, also the athletic director at Mingus, “and I am 100 percent now.’’

Braly has qualified for state in five events – the hurdles, 100- and 200-meter dashes and 4x100 relay.

“She seems to be running strong,’’ said Yancey DeVore, the first-year track and field coach for both girls and boys.

While Braly has a lot of natural ability, her success is as much a result of hard work.

“She has a really good work ethic and is very coachable,’’ DeVore said. “The extra work she puts in pays off.’’

Braly started her track career in the fifth grade and continues to enjoy the competition.

“I might not be the fastest sprinter around, but I am one of the fastest at getting over the hurdles,’’ she said. “When I first started doing the hurdles, I was jumping over them but not running. Now I am taller and I run over them without nearly as much effort.

“I have not really fallen on my face (after contact with the hurdle), but I have split my knees open. My trail leg gets lazy sometimes, but I make it over. I love the challenge of running over something, not running as straight.’’

Running in soccer is a combination of speed and endurance, she said, because she is running the whole game, but the track events are pure speed.

She also has worked with former NAU hurdler Steve Darby, and that has helped her improve.

Braly sometimes likes to return the favor to younger athletes. DeVore recalled when one of Mingus’ feeder schools asked to use some of Mingus’ hurdles and said Braly helped set them up and gave the young athletes advice on how to run their races.

“Some of them had no idea of what to do, and there were others you could see that some day are going to be good,’’ Braly said. “I enjoyed working with them.’’

Said DeVore: “Their coaches were impressed.’’

Braly also knows the importance of academics. She carries a 4.0 grade-point average.

Carrying the day at the state meet won’t be easy. Braly knows that because of her past success and her strong reputation, opponents will be targeting her. She had her eye on Safford’s Ciera Holston as one of the stronger contenders.

DeVore will be very interested to see what happens, and wants Braly to succeed in her final state meet.

“You wish you had a bunch of athletes like her on your team,’’ he said.