ERIE — Penn State-Behrend track and field coach Greg Cooper said Paige Allen would make the most of her time on the track, indoor and outdoor, for the Lions.

It’s the fact that Allen is making the least of her time that has the Butler graduate and Behrend sophomore on the national stage.

Allen ran the 60-meters in 7.79 seconds last week at the Kenyon (Ohio) Invitational, breaking the school record.

It was also the eighth fastest time in Division III in the country.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Allen said. “I was shaking a little bit.”

Nothing can shake Allen’s resolve.

Recruited by Division I and Division II schools out of Butler, Allen chose to go to Behrend because she put her education above track.

She also didn’t want the sport to consume every aspect of her life.

As it is now, she is able to compartmentalize her athletic pursuits from her academic ones — and she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“It’s a very prestigious school (for my major of health policy and administration),” Allen said. “It was the perfect fit for me. I could have gotten money to run, but this is where I was meant to be.”

It isn’t always easy.

It snows — a lot — in Erie, which often severely curtails how much work on the outdoor track she and her teammates can accomplish.

During the indoor season, they run on a three-lane track that they share with other sports.

Allen has to log miles on a tread mill, which she said has contributed to her shin splints.

Still, Allen is excelling — even beyond her own initial expectations.

“I wish I could say I expected this,” Allen said. “But I can’t. I was honestly surprised I have put up the times I have posted.”

It has changed her future goals.

“I want to get into the 7.6 range by my senior year (in the 60-meter dash),” Allen said.

To do that, she is taking a two-pronged approach to an event that has very little room for error: weight lifting and cutting precious hundredths-of-seconds off her start.

“It’s all speed and all about the blocks,” Allen said. “If you get off to a bad start, the race is over.”

Allen has a ritual before she runs.

She walks a few feet behind the starting line, does a couple of jumps to loosen up her legs and hips and takes a series of deep, relaxing breaths.

“It helps calm me down,” she said.

Allen is also a work-out fiend. She spends time strengthening her legs.

“It’s all about explosion,” she said. “Everything I do in the weight room revolves around my legs.

“I have thunder thighs for a girl,” Allen added, chuckling.

Another radical change this season for Allen has come in the way she runs her other events, namely the 200-meter dash.

Allen broke the school record in that event as well last weekend with a 25.80.

She runs the 200 with the same mentality she has when she runs the 60 — speed out of the blocks.

It make for a rough final 60 meters, Allen said.

“I used to run the 200 a lot different,” Allen said. “Now I come out like I do when I run the 60 and hope that makes up for the slower last part of the race. It’s hard. It’s pretty rough, the last bit of the race, but I push through it.”