When her older sister convinced her to join the Wareham girl's track and field team as an eighth-grader, Pagie Fehskens simply enjoyed running. She couldn't have known that she would quickly become one of the most accomplished female distance runners in school history.

"I love the challenge - the head games of motivation and determination," she said.

Just a sophomore, Fehskens already has her hands on multiple school records, with more in sight. Last month Fehskens broke a 37-year-old school record in the two mile by 23 seconds with a time of 12:16, qualifying her for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 4 meet. Last year Fehskens broke the school record in the 800 meter run by one-tenth of a second running 2:28.2 and tied the mile record running 5:35 flat. She was also a part of school record 4x400 meter teams for indoor and outdoor track.

"This year I took a big leap in my training," Fehskens said. She said runs about 25 miles a week and this year her workouts, such as short, fast intervals on the track or sustained "tempo" runs at a hard effort, have been done at a greater intensity than years past.

"I love the accomplished feeling at the end of a workout," she said.

Those workouts are usually done alone, as Fehskens has been the lone distance runner for most of her career on the girls track team. This year she is joined by freshman Lisa Wynne in her first season of track and field.

"Being with Paige has been great," Wynne said. "She's easy to get along with, easy to ask questions to and really helpful."

While Fehskens and Wynne do some easy runs together, Fehskens still does her workouts on her own.

The consistent improvements of Fehskens have been reflected in the girls team as a whole, which sent eight athletes to the indoor Division 4 state meet this past February. Fehskens partially credits that improvement to the waiver Wareham instituted in 2011 that let eighth graders, like her at the time, join the team.

"It's crazy to go from 12 girls on the team to 38 in a couple of years," she said. "There's no other sport like it. It's so individual but also a team sport"

Fehkens plays soccer in the fall as said she doesn't know if she would run cross country if it was offered at the high school. Wareham High School boys and girls cross country was cut during the summer of 2012 due to budget constraints and declining participation.

"Soccer is a nice break from running," she said.

To stay in shape out of season Fehskens attends running camps and clinics as close as Mattapoisett and as far as Harvard.

Fehskens said she participates in a lot of activities at school (including competing at the DECA national championships in Atlanta this past weekend) and that running has a relaxing and calming influence on her. She said it's taught her to be more disciplined as well.

But one of her biggest takeaways from distance running is relying on one's mental will to fight through the lonely task of a long distance race.

"It's amazing how much power your mind has," she said. "Believing in yourself can go a long way."

With that mindset, she has surely only scratched the surface of what she can accomplish on and off the track.