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  • Northwood senior Bethan Knights is one of the top distance...

    Northwood senior Bethan Knights is one of the top distance runners in Orange County. She is preparing to compete in the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday.

  • Northwood's Bethan Knights is confident she has what it will...

    Northwood's Bethan Knights is confident she has what it will take to defeat Simi Valley's Sarah Baxter in the 3,200 meters in the Arcadia Invitational Saturday.

  • Northwood's Bethan Knights, who has comitted to run for Cal...

    Northwood's Bethan Knights, who has comitted to run for Cal next year, has already surpassed many of the goals she set out to accomplish this season.

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IRVINE – Rocky didn’t initially gain stardom by beating Apollo Creed. He lost, but made a name for himself by taking Creed the distance.

Two weeks ago, Northwood’s Bethan Knights made headlines throughout the track and field community, not by defeating Simi Valley sensation Sarah Baxter, but by taking her the distance – all 3,200 meters of it.

Knights will have the opportunity to do more than that when she and Baxter add another chapter to their story when the two face off in the 3,200 again tonight at the Arcadia Invitational.

Baxter is already a legend in her own right as she is the three-time defending state champion in the 3,200 and has never lost a race in the event in her high school career.

At the ASICS/Mt. Carmel Invitational, Knights pushed Baxter to the limit, and the two were side by side as the finish line approached. Both runners crossed the finish line simultaneously, and after further review the race was deemed a tie, a rarity in the 3,200.

“Unbelievable. To see two top athletes, like Bethan and Sarah, go battle lap after lap after lap. Just for neither one of them to back down is unbelievable,” Northwood coach Louie Muñiz said. “You run eight laps and tie, to have a camera and technology, and not be able to determine a winner. Then to top it all off, you have a national leading mark. Those two things, we’ll probably never see it again in our lifetime (in the 3,200).”

Both runners ran a 10:07.52, which is currently the best time in the country. For Knights, the mark was second all-time in Orange County, behind Woodbridge’s Christina Babcock, who ran a 10:04.03 in 2008.

Coming into the race, Knights aimed to run somewhere in the low 10:20-range. Like so often this season, she surpassed those expectations.

“I’ve definitely had to keep revising my goals for the season,” Knights said. “When I looked at it at the beginning of the season, I had some pretty big goals for myself. Time-wise, I’ve kind of reached those. Now I’ve just had to revise them and make them bigger. But there’s definitely some big goals I set for the state meet and Arcadia that I still have.”

Rocky did eventually end up beating Creed, though, when the two faced off again. And that’s what Knights will have to do in order to achieve her goals of winning the 3,200 at Arcadia or a CIF state championship.

When Knights, who is the defending county champion in the 3,200 and will head off to Cal in the fall, meets with Baxter again, she’ll be armed with a newfound belief in herself.

“When I went in to racing her the other day, I kind of had no expectations of really staying with her,” Knights said. “But now I feel more confident that I can stay with her and give her a good race.”

Going toe-to-toe with the best in the state can obviously do wonders for confidence, but mentally is where Knights may be progressing most this season.

Knights doesn’t have much time on her hands, as she was the Register’s girls cross country runner of the year and also earned grades good enough to get into Cal.

With all those time commitments swirling around her, the focus on track could have swayed, but it didn’t.

“I would say she’s mentally stronger this year than she was last season,” said Phil Knights, Bethan’s father. “This year, she’s much stronger and is able to handle all the things around her.”

Muñiz said Knights is capable of breaking Babcock’s all-time county record in the 3,200.

He cites her training as the key to her success this year, and that she never turns down a chance to work out and improve herself.

Muñiz said Knights leads by example for the rest of her teammates. Tonight, when the all the runners get their marks set, Knights hopes to be the leader of the pack.

Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com