With each month tiptoeing by grudgingly slow, Tori Paterra labored in making the decision that would impact her athletic career forever.

It was as if Paterra was waiting for a sign, a compelling moment that would emphatically swing the pendulum in the specific direction of one of her two loves -- softball or track -- thus removing a jumbo-sized burden from her back.

But in true Paterra fashion, she inevitably opted to toss the extra weight away herself, letting a career-best discus heave and second-place finish in the Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association indoor state championships emphatically provide the exclamation point that answered the question she once bemoaned.

Track was here to stay.

Paterra, a junior throwing standout at Elizabeth Forward, is heavily engrossed in her first full season on the Warriors' track team after splitting her talents between the track and softball teams the previous two seasons.

"When I went to states and placed second, my mind was made up," Paterra said. "I love softball, but I'm getting all of these [college] letters and doing really well, so I told myself I'd go for it and see how far it could take me."

Considering Paterra's high level of success in each sport, the decision was even more difficult than one might think.

Paterra was one of the top sophomore softball players in the WPIAL last year, hitting better than .500 and earning all-section honors as a catcher. She'd practice and play daily with her softball teammates, before quickly running over to track practice for instruction from coach John Yarosh and throwing coach John Walsh.

She thrived there, too, finishing in the top six in the javelin and shot put in the WPIAL Class AAA championships, advancing to the PIAA championships in both.

But after seeing those two sports intertwine for so long, Paterra was finally ready to put all of her energy into one.

With her gears now heading in the same direction, Paterra is aiming to push her track exploits up a notch by refining her throwing techniques, particularly in her top event, the javelin. Paterra's personal-best throw of 141 feet, 3 inches came last year, and as exceptional as the mark is by any means, Walsh said it came based primarily on brute strength, meaning some fine tuning could put Paterra among the state's elite.

"Last year she didn't even know how to throw the javelin. You need to pull it, not throw it. And she wasn't doing that," Walsh said. "This year I'm trying to teach her to throw it properly. She threw over 141 [feet] last year and I think she could go over 160 this year. Will she get to the level we need her to be? Yeah. But it's going to take some time."

The evolving throwing motion led to a less-than-dominant start, but Paterra is beginning to come on, and her throw of 128-6 in a recent dual meet is among the best in the WPIAL this season.

"But like we tell them, 'Don't peak now. Peak when it counts,'" Yarosh said. "And she said she'll be ready for states."

Paterra, the daughter of former Slippery Rock star and NFL player Greg Paterra, is hoping to improve on last year's finishes in the WPIAL championships (sixth in javelin; fourth in shot put) and PIAA championships (eighth, javelin; 12th, shot put).

Said Paterra: "I'm trying to go to the WPIALs and to states again and get a better ranking than I did last year. I definitely want to get in the top three or four. I've really been shooting for that one."