Madelyn Peterie decided to restart cross country as a sophomore.

Already a member of the track and field team and the girls wrestling team at Richmond-Burton, Peterie signed up for cross country to stay in shape for her sophomore year of wrestling. In just one season of cross country, about two months long, Peterie took seven minutes off her 3-mile time.

“I did it in middle school, but I didn’t really like it,” Peterie said. “I started again because my mom wanted me to, but I realized that it would really help with wrestling, and it has. ... When I’m running my cross country races, I like comparing it to wrestling. I like to think that running one more race is like wrestling one more match.”

Peterie’s improved conditioning, along with her offseason training with Team Tortorice Wrestling, led by Richmond-Burton head girls coach Devin Tortorice, led to major strides during her sophomore wrestling season. After failing to place at regionals as a freshman, Peterie went 20-10, posted three top-four placings at tournaments and became a sectional qualifier for the first time as a sophomore.

“I was surprised, and I was really happy,” Peterie said. “I got to take a lot of the team to sectionals with me, which was really fun. ... I went 1-2 at regionals my freshman year, and being able to see that much improvement, from not placing in anything to placing at regionals, was really cool. Joining cross country has kept me in really good shape. It’s helped me stay in cardiovascular shape.”

Peterie continued to run cross country as a junior, helping the Rockets finish fourth at regionals and sixth at sectionals to qualify for the 1A state championship in Peoria. Peterie set a PR at the state meet and erased over five minutes from her first 3-mile time of the season. Her conditioning enabled her to drop two weight classes, moving from 140 to 130 for her junior wrestling season.

“Maddie’s incredibly strong and that’s been one of her biggest assets,” Tortorice said. “She’s put the work in over the offseason, she’s training year-round, and she has an incredibly healthy mindset about it, which goes so far in this sport. It’s a very vulnerable sport, and every single time Maddie wants to compete and she’s excited to be at the tournaments. That’s one of her big attributes.”

Now halfway through her junior season, Peterie is enjoying the best results of her career. Currently 20-1 with three tournament wins, Peterie finished first at Rockford East’s E-Rab Girls Invitational, the Lakes Snow Brawl and Hampshire’s Whip-Pur Women’s Classic. Peterie entered the new year undefeated before placing second at the Dundee-Crown Girls Invitational on Jan. 3.

“She’s just getting into her curve,” Tortorice said. “The sport is growing exponentially, and some of these girls didn’t start until their seventh, eighth grade or freshman year. I think that’s the case with Maddie, and as far as her ceiling, I definitely think she’s a college-level athlete. If she wants to do it, I think she could.”

Peterie, whose father Jason was a high school wrestler in Kansas, has pinned to win in nearly all of her bouts this season. She went 4-0 with four pins to take the E-Rab Girls Invitational, her first varsity tournament win at R-B. Peterie credited improved offensive skills, like her double leg takedowns, as a reason for her improved results on the mat this season.

“I feel like girls, as a whole, tend to be defensive wrestlers,” Peterie said. “Working on my shots and trying to bridge from being defensive to aggressive has helped a lot. Scoring takedowns, that was a really big issue for me my freshman year. After my freshman season ended, I did offseason training and I really learned how to take a shot. I realized then that I really like wrestling.”

Armed with regional and sectional tournament experience, Peterie has her eyes set on qualifying for the state tournament. It’s a goal Peterie has had since her freshman season, when she shared the practice room with Jasmine McCaskel, an R-B alum and two-time state medalist who now wrestles at Cornell College.

“I would hear about her, and I wrestled her in practice,” Peterie said. “She was really good, and now she wrestles in college. She comes back sometimes, and I always looked up to her. She was really good on top, and when I was on bottom wrestling against her was helpful for me. It taught me not to give up and to keep going.”

Peterie, whose younger sister Brooklyn is a freshman wrestler for the Rockets, started competing in eighth grade. Growing up in Spring Grove, about two miles from R-B, Peterie was inspired to wrestle at an early age, recalling stories shared by her father.

“I would hear people talking about it and I thought it would be so much fun,” Peterie said. “There wasn’t really a place and it wasn’t big for girls to do wrestling, so my parents were hesitant. ... In eighth grade, I heard one of my friends talk about doing it, and I thought I might as well do it. I thought it’d be a lot less scary to join if there was another girl doing it. I’m really happy that I did.”