Competitors in the 55-meters race in the 2006 Class M state indoor meet in New Haven were getting settled in their starting blocks. That’s when Berlin High School sophomore Jaime Rasmussen Flotre found herself next to defending champion senior Sashuana Stewart of Weaver High-Hartford. “No way was I favored to win,” Rasmussen said.

She and her coach Josh Rosek had put a lot of time in reworking her start with emphasis on the first 10 meters, ‘’the key to the race,” Rosek said.

Also, a technical flaw was corrected. Her head was coming up too early at the start. “I had to stay down and drive,” she said. “It made a difference.”

Rasmussen Flotre said the race was so close she had to wait for the final results. Her time was 7.42. “I won by a hair. It was the most important race in my career,” she said. “It gave me momentum, put me on the radar, gave me validity.”

Over the next three years Rasmussen Flotre won the 2007 Class M indoors 55 meters (7.34) and set or helped set six more BHS records: indoors in the spring medley relay, 4X200 relay, 100 and 200 meters and outdoors in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

She was easy to coach, Rosek said. “She had a great smile, attitude. She was always ready to work,” he said. “She’d say, ‘coach what do you have for me today?’ ” It was the way she carried herself. Others fed off her.”

After graduating in 2008, Rasmussen Flotre went to Bucknell and had some success as a freshman. But in her sophomore year, she tore her hamstring twice to end her career. But she stayed with the team and helped in running practice, recruiting and organizing meets.

Her speed was apparent in youth sports. Her softball teammates called her “wheels.”

But even before that, in the fourth grade, she set the 40-yard dash record at Hubbard Elementary School-East Berlin. “It was my first record,” she laughed.

Rasmussen Flotre, 34, lives in Madison. After a 12-year career in sales, she became a stay-at-home mom for her daughters, Nora and Rowan, 5 and under. Her husband, Taylor Flotre, 38, is a financial adviser.

It’s probably way too early to see if the girls have any running talent. Then again, maybe not.