"At the end of the run, (Stevens) told me something like, 'That was a breakthrough for you and now you know you can put your body through any type of pain,' " Ho said.

Ho, who swept all five races she ran in this year, hopes to take that mentality into Saturday's Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships and next weekend's state cross country championships.

"To get better, you have to do things you haven't done before," said Stevens, who runs for Hawai'i Pacific and is Ho's track coach. "I was really impressed after that long run. It was hard. She never said anything, she never complained.

"And then I found out she had run earlier in the morning."

That dedication has led Ho to be viewed as the state's top runner.

She won the 2-mile ILH meet (11 minutes, 57.34 seconds) and Kaiser Invitational (11:25), set the course record at the 2-mile Hawai'i Prep Invitational (12:48), defeated Mainland runners in the 3-mile Kamehameha Invitational (18:06.53), and became the first Hawai'i girl since 1999 to win the 5K Iolani Invitational (19:59.34).

"She is willing to do whatever it takes," Hawai'i Baptist cross country coach Ross Mukai said. "If she thinks she needs to do more push-ups or sit-ups to get better, she'll do it.

"She's one of the more disciplined people I know."

Over the summer Ho worked on her running form, building a stronger core, and downhill running. But what made the biggest difference was the encouragement she received from Stevens and Pac-Five track coach Greg Cuadra.

Ho, who finished fourth in the state meet last year, was initially pegged by coaches as a sprinter — which is likely why her finishing kick is so strong.

She caught nationally ranked Amanda Patterson of Virginia in the last 15 meters to win by two seconds in the Iolani Invitational this year and passed Iolani's Nicole Anderson with 5 yards left to win by almost 2 seconds in last year's ILH championships.

Ho won the 100- and 200-meter dash, long jump, and 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays at the ILH intermediate championships as an eighth grader, and had a hard time convincing her coaches to let her switch to distance.

"The next year at track when I told them I wanted to do long distance, people were kind of skeptical," she said. "They didn't think I could be as good in distance."

She has always had an interest in long-distance running.

"I can't explain it, I like it," Ho. "I always want to do it every day. Of course, you have the days where you don't want to, but once you set your goals it is so easy to put in your training."

She is so dominant, Mukai places her with the boys during practice.

"She beats all of our guys," said Mukai, who added the boys only beat her in "certain speed workouts."

Even Mukai can't keep up with her during some workouts.

"It's kind of demoralizing for me; it makes me very humble," he said.

With the graduation of defending state champion Tia Ferguson of Seabury Hall, Mukai said he knew Ho would be the runner to beat this year.

"Last year, there was Tia, and in track and cross country she was way above everybody," he said. "The way (Ho) was working at track and during the summer I knew she was going to be far ahead.

"I didn't know exactly how far ahead she was going to be, but I expected her to be the front-runner."