Tucker Barber knew he couldn’t sit back anymore.

As a junior, Barber broke out in a big way, earning a 14th place finish at the Class A state meet, and a berth at New Englands, where he placed 127th.

Now, as a senior, Barber is looking forward to building on that success.

“Each season you pick up new things, that you haven’t thought of before,” Barber said. “Last year, I generally had a tactic of hanging back — I still do that, but I realized you have to push yourself and race harder than you think you can sometimes.”

Barber finished the Class A meet at Twin Brook in Cumberland in a time of 17:17.8.

At New Englands in Thetford, Vermont, he ran 17:54.7.

“I think if you asked him at the beginning of the season, he would have no idea,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenburg said. “He would not have told you at the beginning of the season that he’s capable to qualify for New Englands. Now that he’s done that, I am sure he’s looking at himself as an athlete differently going into the season.”

During his sophomore year, his first season doing cross country at the high school level, his times were typically in the 18-, 19- and 20-minute range. While he wasn’t setting the world on fire, he was learning the craft from the upperclassmen.

And while he wasn’t teammates alongside 2013 Class A champion Josh Horne, he did run alongside fellow top contenders Aaron Willingham and Dan Lesko, who were seniors his sophomore year and Horne’s teammates. He learned how passionate Lesko and Willingham were about running.

Going into his junior year, he trained harder and followed Cullenburg’s training regiment.

“Kelley’s workouts definitely helped me a lot,” Barber said. “I am not a huge sprinter and she pushes the workouts and the speed workouts. I am not a huge fan of them, but I do them and I know they help me. I am glad she pushes them like she does.”

He has upped his training this year as he went to a the Acadian Running Camp on Mount Desert Island, something he hadn’t done in summers past. The camp hosts many of the best runners the state has to offer.

“I have been definitely running a lot more this summer than in past summers,” Barber said. “Usually when I try to run in the summer, it’s not as consistent. I definitely don’t try to burn myself out in the summer. This year, even though I tried to keep it relaxed and enjoyable, I have increased the number of times I run. I have ran pretty consistently several times a week at the very least throughout the whole summer. I have made an effort to keep running.”

Last year, his expanded training paid off at the regular season’s marquee event, the Festival of Champions at Belfast High School. He finished with a time of 17:17.9.

“I think for a lot of kids the Festival of Champions is a turning point,” Cullenburg said. “The terrain, we spend so much time running on hills and they get to Festival and often times that’s the first time they really run on a flat or a flatter terrain. The competition is there, you are potentially racing in a seeded race where you know kids are faster than you. The first mile is extremely fast in that race. I think often times kids really surprise themselves for all of those reasons. It comes at a perfect time, end of September, beginning of October, a couple weeks before the conference meet. It’s a great turning point to see where the kids are at.”

He likes running in marquee events and his times reflect that. At the Class A North regional meet, he set his PR with a time of 17:06.82 where he finished 12th. At the KVAC Championship he had another sub-18 minute race, finishing with a time of 17:53.5, which placed him sixth.

“I would say that I definitely feel better and perform better in the bigger races,” Barber said. “Now, is that because the bigger races are generally towards the end of the season and that’s where I start getting into it, or the actual pressure of the race, I am not sure. I would say that, for almost all the big races, I feel much better than I generally do in the (regular season) races. I think that’s partially due to the pressure. I think I handle pressure pretty well. It really motivates me to do what I need to do.”

He also knows he can improve as a senior. Last year, he finished a full minute behind the Class A state champion Osman Doorow of Lewiston in the state meet. One of his goals for this season is to break the 17-minute mark, and drop his times as the season goes on. 

“I think it’s the key again is to pick and choose the races you know you are going to have certain competition in, one race versus another,” Cullenburg said. “You really have to decide ahead of time what races you really want to make your focal races.”

With his goals now clear, Barber won’t be sitting back anymore.

nfournier@sunjournal.com