SLIPPERY ROCK — Jasmine Bailey radically changed her thinking.

Where she once focused on her time at the end of a race, now she focused on crossing the finish line before anyone else.

“I would worry about what time I got,” said Bailey, a junior on the Slippery Rock University women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams and a Butler graduate. “I just decided that didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was winning, going out and winning. I think change helps me a lot.”

That new way of thinking certainly helped her last weekend at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Edinboro University.

Bailey turned in the best 200-meter race of her career.

And the best the conference, SRU and Edinboro University had ever seen, as well.

Bailey finished first with a time of 24.85 seconds, breaking the school, facility and PSAC mark in the process.

Bailey said breaking all three records in the same race was the last thing she expected.

“I didn’t think I had that great of a race,” Bailey said, laughing. “I thought I was slow.”

She was anything but.

When she found out her time and its place in school and conference history, Bailey said she wasn’t quite sure how to react.

“Well, the first thing I did was tear up a little bit,” she said. “It was shocking. I don’t think I could have done it without my coaches and my teammates and my family. They all have supported me so much. It was shocking to break the records, but so amazing.”

Bailey always had a number etched into her mind for what she wanted to accomplish in the race.

That number was 25 — as in 25 seconds or less.

Now that she has achieved that indoor goal, she wants more.

Her time placed her 31st in the nation in Division II, just missing out on qualifying for the national race, which takes only the top 25.

“I really wanted that,” Bailey said. “But now it gives me something else to shoot for next year.”

Bailey spends five days a week in the weight room, working not only on her legs, but her entire body.

She said she just recently started taking weight training more seriously and it has paid off in a big way.

Bailey is also working on the little things that go into a successful 200-meter race, namely getting off the blocks without a hitch.

She also runs the 60-meter dash during the indoor season and that work on the blocks translates to the 200.

“I think that when it comes to the 200, the blocks matter, but they aren’t the whole race like the 60,” Bailey said. “But I try to treat the 200 like the 60 out of the blocks because if I can get a start like I do in the 60 in the 200, I’m going to have a good race.”

Bailey will now switch gears to the outdoor season where she runs the 100 and 200.

She said the 200 is easier to run during the outdoor season.

“There are more turns and the turns are tighter in indoor,” Bailey said. “Times are better in the outdoor season.”

Her best outdoor time in the 200 is 25.12, a time she is looking forward to shattering this spring.

“Getting that time in indoor definitely gives me a lot of confidence and a lot to shoot for in outdoor,” Bailey said. “Especially when I ran under 25 in indoor.”