Haley Hanseler, a 4.0 student at Mark Morris High School, has a thing for speed. Sixty-five miles per hour, to be exact.

When she doesn’t have her eyes on a school book, Hanseler is making tracks down the side of a mountain as one of the Northwest’s top Junior Olympic skiers for her age group.

“I was 4 when I first started skiing, and I was 6 when I started on my first racing team,” said Hanseler, a freshman at Mark Morris. “I didn’t like it when I was little. In my first race, I went the wrong way around a gate and messed up. But the next year, something started to click. I started going faster and it started to come together.”

Last year, Hanseler, who competes for the Mount Hood Academy Ski Racing Team, earned enough points on the Pacific Northwest Ski Association circuit to qualify for the Junior Olympics at Bogus Basin, Idaho. It was her first foray into JO competition.

Earlier this month at Brundage Mountain in McCall, Idaho, she qualified for the Western Region J3 Junior Olympics, a championship for racers age 13-14 from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.

The event is often a stepping stone for future U.S. Ski Team athletes.

Hanseler, who turned 15 several weeks ago, entered regionals ranked as the No. 2 seed for Super-G, No. 1 for Giant Slalom and No. 2 for Slalom. At the Junior Olympics, she placed seventh in Super-G, fourth in Giant Slalom and 12th in Slalom.

Hanseler typically skis against racers who attend full-time racing academies and train every day. She is able to train only on Saturdays and Sundays.

She is the daughter of Jamie and Linda Hanseler of Longview.