Already a three-time All-State cross country performer, Alex Leptich was looking for a little extra during her senior season at Saline High School.

So, she went to work.

Whether it was on the Potawatomi Trail in Pinckney, Gallup Park in Ann Arbor or the dirt roads around her home in southwest Ann Arbor, Leptich logged 200 miles per month over the summer - a good 70 more than she’d averaged in years prior.

“That set me up for cross country,” says Leptich, who finished fifth individually at the Division 1 finals for the state champion Hornets.

Hard work and dedication to a sport is nothing new to Leptich. She spent her elementary and middle school years competing 15 to 20 hours each week in gymnastics, where she reached Level 8 in the USA Gymnastic’s 10-level training system.

After her family moved to Holland, Mich., from Traverse City when she was 12, Leptich turned to running rather than finding another gymnastics club to join.

“It just got old, and I needed something new,” Leptich says. “But I do think that gymnastics set me up really well. I think it’s one of the more difficult sports, and it set me up to do anything.”

Leptich’s parents, Joseph and Kimberly, had a suggestion for what their daughter’s next pursuit might be. They met at Ferris State University, where both were distance runners.

“It just clicked, came right to me,” Leptich says. It probably had a lot to do with genes. I’ve always been the No. 1 runner of any team I’ve been on.”

That team became Saline in eighth grade, when the family moved to the slice of Ann Arbor that falls within the Saline school district.

In high school cross country, Leptich finished eighth, 21st and 27th in her first three trips to Michigan International Speedway for the Division 1 state championships.

Working with some telephone and email tips from legendary runner Greg Meyer, the last American to win the Boston Marathon, Leptich set out to break the 18-minute barrier this season. She became the second Saline runner in program history to do so when she ran a 17:54 at the Jackson Invitational.

“I knew I had to break 18 for all the accomplishments I wanted to get this year,” Leptich says. “The caliber of where I should be is under 18 minutes, but I wanted to go significantly under.”

Leptich says she hasn’t been as consistently under 18 minutes as she’d like, but she still considers herself “in-season.” She’ll compete at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 28.

“Hopefully I’ll get under and qualify for nationals,” she says.