The saying goes that when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and Nansemond-Suffolk Academy junior cross country star Chandler Bergeron has embodied that adage.

After bursting onto the scene in 2014, she has faced greater competitive challenges this year, but she has still maintained a presence at or near the top of the results in the girls’ 5,000-meter run.

Bergeron placed sixth out of 216 runners at the Virginia Independent Schools state cross country championships on Nov. 13. Her placement helped the Lady Saints take fourth out of 22 teams and then led to her becoming the Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

“I felt pretty good at the end, but I would have liked to do better,” she said of her performance.

Her time of 20:32.46 was well behind her personal record, but the course in Fork Union was a major factor in that.

“It was a very tough course,” NSA coach Karen Norman said. “Probably the toughest that we’ve run.”

“It was really hilly,” Bergeron said, and it was difficult to prepare for given the relative lack of such terrain in the Hampton Roads area.

Norman said the Lady Saints train sometimes at Windsor Castle, which has hills, but “it’s nothing to compare with what we see at the state meet. I think she did really well.”

Bergeron’s high placement at the state championships was a positive ending to a year in which she showed important growth.

“Last year was her first year, and to do as well as she did was great, but it seems like the whole bar has been raised in TCIS girls’ running this year,” Norman said. “A lot of the teams are very strong and are going to be strong for the next few years.”

Bergeron was quite confident coming into the year, but she said she became disappointed when she was not winning everything.

Norman praised Bergeron as the reason for the heightened level of competition.

“I think Chandler kind of raised the bar last year,” Norman said, noting she was a girl who came out of nowhere and started winning races. “It made everybody work a little bit harder.”

And despite the elevated challenge, Bergeron estimates she has taken first place four times this season, and she has placed second five times, including in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools championships.

She has used weight training to get stronger, she’s run on hills to increase her endurance and done speed work to cut her time.

Last year, her personal record in the 5,000 meters was 18:41, and this year, she cut it to 18:22.24.

“Once you get that fast, it doesn’t drop by the minute anymore,” Norman said. “If you can get 20 to 30 seconds every year, you’re doing great.”

Colleges have started to take notice of Bergeron, bringing into focus one of her major goals of running at the next level.