Melbourne Central Catholic High School senior Amanda Beach Commits to Duke University

Rhonda Riley and the Duke women will be getting one of many new recruits for their team as Amanda Beach has verbally committed to run for the programs at Duke University. The MCC senior made it official on Sunday when she took to Twitter to share the good news.

When asked how she felt about her overall recruiting process and her ultimate decision to choose Duke, Amanda said that it very fun, and almost a dream come true. She says that at the beginning of her junior year of high school, for some reason, she began to think a lot about Duke. At the time, she frankly thought that it would be awesome to go there. A thought became more of a consideration and that consideration became a decision, one that has led her to become who she is today: a Blue Devil.

“Now that I’m a Blue Devil, it feels like God definitely blessed me,” she said. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that my dream is a reality,”

For a time, Amanda battled with the decision of where spend the next four years, or possibly more, of her life. Prior to choosing Duke, she was also considering two of the main Florida powerhouses, the University of Florida and Florida State University. But then, she joked that she considered the fact that Florida only has one season and it would be nice to get some variation.

Amanda brings variation to the Duke program, boasting personal-best of 17:47 over 5000 meters, 5:05 for 1600 meters and 10:48 in the 3200. As one last hoorah, Amanda would like to dip under her 5K best, and truly work on the little things to prepare for a final season. But, keeping things light, she just wants to enjoy running in high school while she still has the time because, come May, it’s all over, not counting the postseason going into the summer.

Looking back at her entire journey,  Amanda reflects on one thing that perhaps has defined her not just as a runner, but as a person. When she was a sophomore, she discovered that she was anemic, a condition that develops when your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin. This can lead to easier fatigue, skin pallor, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, dizziness, or a fast heartbeat. This prevented Amanda from performing at the level she needed to, despite being in phenomenal shape.

“It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened because I learned to appreciate any success I’ve had even more,” she said. “I’ve pretty much viewed any setbacks or bad races as learning experiences. It’s all part of a greater plan.”