Bronte Soul knows if she’s going to go up against some of the biggest performers, she’s going to need to step up — and she has.

The Freeport senior has hit a remarkable stretch in the long and triple jumps the past two weeks, just in time for the upcoming WPIAL Class AA team playoffs as well as individual qualifiers and finals.

Soul took the Butler Track and Field Invitational by storm two weeks ago, setting a school-record 37 feet, 7 inches, good enough to win one of the biggest invitationals of the year.

She followed up by leaping 37-11 in the triple and a 17-3Z\x in the long jump, both school records, in a win last Thursday against Springdale.

That triple jump moved Soul into 22nd on the WPIAL’s all-time list — Class AA and AAA combined — and she sits second all-time in Butler County behind Butler’s Leatha Dudeck’s 38-2½ in 1987.

“My ultimate goal is to beat the best,” Soul said. “I’m trying to beat everyone. I’m going to SRU and I need to be able to bring something to the team.

“I want to try and get to the 40s. If I can get to 39, that would be good,” Soul added.

At the rate Soul is going, that doesn’t seem to be out of the realm of possibility.

“She’s just self-motivated,” Freeport coach John Gaillot said. “Her work ethic is far above anyone else’s normal.

“It seems like in the big meets, her game just elevates. At the Butler Invitational, she broke the team record four times, a half-inch here, then three inches the next time,” Gaillot added.

Last season, in which the Yellowjackets won the WPIAL team championship, Soul and Harley Westerman flip-flopped the team record.

Now, the record belongs to Soul and she still had some of her biggest meets coming up, including Friday’s Mars Invitational.

“My mind is solely on Mars right now,” Soul said last week. “I’m looking forward to it. I want to go out there and show I can do this, even though I’m from a AA school.”

That was her mindset heading into the Butler Invitational, which had several of the biggest schools in the western side of the state.

“I expected to see jumpers from Pine-Richland and people I’ve made friends with, but I didn’t expect first place,” Soul noted.

“I just wanted to do my best. I can’t expect more than that,” Soul added.

And Soul has learned that lesson, something reinforced by Gaillot, who also serves as the school’s football coach.

“She’s on a relay and there’s been a number of times we missed or dropped the baton and she’d get upset,” Gaillot said. “I would tell her, ‘hey, next play.’ Now she’ll look at me and say ‘Next play.’

“She seems more relaxed instead of having too much pressure on herself ... I’m very proud of her, how hard she works in the classroom and on the track. She’s a wonderful young lady,” Gaillot added.

Soul, however, did drop her first jumping event of the year on Tuesday to Riverview’s Mary Andrejko in the triple jump by about four inches.

That showed her the idea of constantly improving and trying to better the previous jump.

With each jump, I’m thinking, ‘what do I need to do to get better next time,’” Soul said. “I’m thinking, ‘OK, I didn’t get enough speed, I need to be behind the board a little more.’ All this runs through my mind,” Soul added.

With one month remaining in the season — which wraps up over Memorial Day weekend at the PIAA Championships — Soul still knows her best is yet to come, even in the long jump.

“I just want to keep getting better,” Soul said. “The long jump was never my strength. It’s not something I looked forward to.

“I thought this year, as long as I can get my best, I can be at the record. I was so close last year, so I thought this year I can get it.”