BUTLER TWP — When it comes to mountain biking, Angelina Palermo received some tough love early.

Now she’s tough to beat, period.

The 16-year-old Butler High School junior is coming off a season in which she won Pennsylvania and Maryland state championships in cross country mountain bicycling. She also won the Month of Mud — a four-race series across Pa.

Her father, Ron Palermo, raced motorcycles and joins Angelina in racing mountain bikes.

“When I was racing motorcycles, I saw a lot of dads making their kids race,” Palermo said. “I never wanted to be that guy.

“Angelina wanted to come along when I was mountain biking. When she did, we made her keep up. Back when she was 9 or 10, if she couldn’t get over a certain hump or piece of terrain, I’d make her keep doing it until she got it.”

She gets it.

Angelina began mountain bike racing in 2010 after hearing about a Month of Mud race at Moraine State Park that year.

“Dad and I always ride out that way and he said I should give it a try, that I’d probably be good at it,” she said.

She wound up winning the series that year, albeit in the Beginner/Sport category. This year, she won the Expert division of the series.

“I began taking it more seriously, practicing and training more,” Angelina said. “I went to a development camp last summer and that really helped, too.”

Ten mountain bikers attended the week-long camp — run by four pro mountain bike coaches — in Deep Creek, Md. Angelina was the only girl among them.

“Each day, a coach would ride with us and tell us things to work on,” Angelina said. “Mountain biking is very technical. There is technique in how to get over rocks and logs. You have to have ‘bunny hop’ skills.”

Palermo said his daughter’s technical skills “are as strong as anybody’s. What she had to do was build her endurance.”

So she went to work on it.

Angelina rides her bike four days a week, going 10 to 20 miles in 90 minutes. Her first race last year was the Leesburg Bakers Dozen in Virginia, a 13-hour race that covered 111 miles. She placed second in the event.

Over Labor Day weekend, she competed in a 24-hour mountain bike relay at Seven Springs. Angelina was the only girl on the Dirty Harry’s team that placed third in the corporate class. She completed two laps, averaging an hour and 30 minutes consisting of 14 miles.

She joined her father in traveling all over Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia to compete in races.

“I didn’t always race. I don’t need to,” Palermo said. “I get plenty of enjoyment out of just watching her.

“For years, when we went riding together, I’d go at a slow enough pace so she could keep up. Eventually, she got her speed up to mine. Now, I can’t catch up to her.”

Because mountain bike training and events are generally done over rough terrain, it’s not the same as simply going out for a bicycle ride.

“For every 10 miles you do on the road, it’s like going 30 miles on a mountain bike,” Angelina said.

Because she is a state champion, Angelina has already qualified for the national championship race in 2013. That will be held in July in Macungie, Pa., near Allentown.

“My goal this year is to become a national champion,” she said.

Her father believes it can happen.

“She’s very capable of it and she’s motivated to do it,” he said.