BY MIKE LOWE

MaineToday Media, Inc.

Growing up on a farm in Greenwood, a town of about 800 in the western Maine countryside, Anna Willard couldn't have been prepared for the life she now leads.

She has been a highly sought interview these last few weeks as she prepares to participate in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Ore.

Willard, a 2002 graduate of Telstar High in Bethel, is one of the top steeplechasers in the country, ranked third going into the trials behind Lisa Galaviz and Jennifer Barringer. The top three finishers in the 3,000-meter event will go to Beijing for the Summer Games. Willard, 24, doesn't plan on leaving anything to chance.

"I'm going to win," she said. "I'm going in with those expectations. Mentally I feel I should be No. 1. So I have something to prove.

"I've elevated my fitness to a new level. I feel I'm a new athlete now. I'm ready."

Willard always has had high expectations for herself. She didn't lose a high school meet her junior and senior seasons, setting five course records as a senior.

"She doesn't run second unless she's hurt or you're better," said her high school coach, John Applin.

She went to Brown University, where she ran the 800 and 1,500 her first two years. As a junior, she offered to try the steeplechase after the school's No. 1 steeplechaser was injured. After a couple of workouts, she went out and set the school record.

"My coach said to me, 'Well, you*ve got a new event,' " said Willard, who was a two-time All-American for Brown.

She had a year of eligibility remaining when she went to Michigan for grad school. There she blossomed into one of the best steeplechasers in the nation.

"The thing is, she doesn't view herself as just a steeplechaser," said Mike McGuire, the distance coach at Michigan who still trains Willard. "And what will make her such a great steeplechaser is her range of ability in other races. She can go to a flat event and more than hold her own on the national level."

In fact, Willard also qualified to run the 1,500 in the trials, but chose not to run it. Why? The 1,500 quarterfinals will be run about two hours before the steeplechase final and she doesn't want to risk anything in her best event.

Her success at the national -- and possibly international -- level doesn't surprise Applin.

"She made up her mind early that she was going to see how far this running game could take her," he said in an e-mail. "And she was willing to spend the time to train, bear the pain and keep her eye on the prize."

Still, Willard admits she led a "pretty sheltered life" in Maine. She did chores on the farm, which featured horses, cows, pigs and chickens. She helped her father hay the fields each summer "since the time I could touch the pedals until my sophomore year in college, the last summer I lived in Maine."

She thought about the Olympics, like any young athlete dreaming about reaching the pinnacle, but couldn't envision making a living by running. Now she's in the middle of a contract with Nike that will run through the 2012 Olympics.