Coming off a junior season in which she won two indoor state championships and one outdoors, Arundel’s Noel Evans was poised for a spectacular senior campaign.
However, a sprained ankle cost her a month of her indoor season and gave her a long road back to her championship form. But it also gave her a newfound outlook on the sport, one that carried her to Capital Gazette 2024 girls outdoor track and field Athlete of the Year honors.
“This year, coming off of a good junior year, senior year is supposed to be full of good expectations; I was going to go run some crazy times,” Evans said. “And then my injury happened and I’m like, ‘This goal is farther away than I thought.’ But I think just coming back from the injury, I had to learn how to take pressures and expectations away from track and field and just enjoy the running aspect of it. It helped me fall back in love with track.”
Slowly but surely, Evans worked her way back.
“I was in the gym a lot during my injury so that’s what kind of kept me in shape, but my first race back I ran a minute [in the 400-meter race]. I hadn’t ran a minute since sophomore year, so I was devastated after that,” she said. “But I kind of slowly began to build back my times. Each race I ran I would have a season’s best, even by a second.”
By the end of the season, she was better than ever. “I think the injury kind of pushed me to be a better athlete and I think that kind of showed at states,” she said.
Evans won the Class 3A state championship in the 200 (24.85 seconds) and 400 (54.9) and also ran on Arundel’s championship-winning 4×200 and 4×400 relays.
All the while, Evans helped the Wildcats rack up points toward their state title.
“It was a weird season for us,” she said. “Our girls team was small. It was always, though, this weird dream. We got third at counties, and we’re like, ‘We can put some big points up here.’ We got second at regionals, we were getting closer and closer. When it came to the 4×4, we looked at each other and said, ‘We got to get this job done and get a state title.’”
Bryce Hatcher and Grace Hickman joined Evans on both winning relays. Ta’Laiya Mellerson rounded out the 4×200 team, while Aiyana Gutrick was on the 4×400 group. Evans called her teammates “pillars in my recovery.”
“Coming back, I felt really behind, but my teammates kept me up and kept me going,” Evans said. “We’re all so close and they’ve really just been my No. 1 inspirations because they all have been working hard, and seeing them work pushed me to get back to where I was so I could be there for them.”
Evans leaves Arundel as one of its most highly decorated athletes, totaling eight state championships in her career. Not bad for a runner who didn’t start until her sophomore year.
“I’ve been playing volleyball for the past 10 years, then my mom was like, ‘Hey Noel, why don’t you try out track, just to stay in shape for volleyball?” she said. “Then I just fell right in love with track and quit volleyball my senior year.”
Part of the allure was her teammates and the atmosphere they created; another part is what she termed the “beautiful moments” where everyone supports everyone at meets. And then there’s the feeling she gets when out on a run.
“I think it’s just running in general. It’s always been a big thing for me, especially during COVID,” she said. “I would just go out on a mile run. It just clears my head and I just feel so at peace when I’m running. So when I’m on the track, when that gun goes off, everything just goes silent. It’s just me pushing myself to the limit.”
Evans will move on to the University of North Carolina Charlotte where a combination of the school’s engineering program and the attention she got from the coaching staff drew her attention.
“I just really wanted to go to a college by a city … and just do something outside of my comfort zone,” she said. “I found Charlotte and I took a visit there last November and, there’s a feeling where you just know and I had that feeling at Charlotte.”
While she’s running at Charlotte, she leaves behind a legacy of success at Arundel. She also hopes she leaves a message to those coming up through the program about what’s possible.
“I want them to know they can all achieve whatever they want,” she said. “Some of them I know might feel a little behind right now in the sport because you might see 8-year-olds running faster times than you did that young, but they can achieve anything they want if they keep working hard.”
Coach of the Year
Eric Allen, Arundel
Allen didn’t take the biggest of teams into the Class 3A state championship meet, but he got the most out of every athlete he had.
Evans was his workhorse, bringing in two individual wins and 20 points toward the Wildcats’ eventual team state championship. But she couldn’t do it alone.
Arundel deployed a strong roster of runners and balanced out the lineup with strength in the field events, specifically in the throws where three Wildcats placed top eight in the shot put.
Allen also put together three state championship relay teams — the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 — finding the right combination of six strong sprinters to create three outstanding teams.
All-County first team
Carson Boteler, Broadneck, senior
Boteler closed a career of county dominance in the pole vault. She was the Anne Arundel County and Class 4A East Region champion and finished third at states where she cleared a season-best 11 feet, 6 inches.
Rebecca Burgee, Southern, junior
Burgee was county champion and finished as 2A state runner-up in the 800 (2:15.63) and ran on the Bulldogs’ state runner-up 4×400 team and third-place 4×800 team. She was county runner-up in the 1,600.
Charlotte DeForest, Crofton, senior
DeForest won the county title in the long jump (17-1) and finished second in the triple jump. She was the 4A East Region champion and took sixth at states in the long jump.
Abby Finch, Arundel, senior
Finch was the county champion in the shot put (36-7) and runner-up in the discus (95-7). She was third at the 3A East Region meet in the shot put and finished sixth at states.
Casey Gish, Broadneck, senior
Gish claimed county, regional and 4A state championships in the high jump with a best height of 5-6. She was county and regional champion and finished third at states in the triple jump (37-9 3/4).
Bryce Hatcher, Arundel, senior
Hatcher was a catalyst for Arundel’s 3A team state championship, finishing third in the 100, eighth in the 200 and running on the winning 4×200 and 4×400 relays. She was also county champion in the 100 (12.13).
Ta’Laiya Mellerson, Arundel, junior
Mellerson was state runner-up in the 100 (12.08) and ran on Arundel’s state championship 4×100 and 4×200 relays. She was county runner-up in the 100.
Chayse Mitchell, Spalding, sophomore
Mitchell claimed two Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference titles — in the high jump and triple jump — and was second in the long jump. She set a personal best in the triple jump (39-5 3/4) to finish 13th at New Balance Nationals.
Marley Shaw, Southern, sophomore
Shaw was the county’s top hurdler, winning championships in the 100 and 300 hurdles. She was the 2A West Region champion and finished third at states in the 300 hurdles (45.75). She was region runner-up in the 100.
Ava Zimmerman, Severna Park, junior
Zimmerman won the county champion in the 1,600 and was runner-up at the 3A East Region meet. She finished 13th at states despite running a personal-best 5:14.15. She was third in the county in the 800.
All-County second team
Jaslyn Bangoura, Meade, sophomore
Laila Carpenter, Crofton, junior
Jalaia Creary, Spalding, senior
Alexis Grove, South River, sophomore
Grace Hickman, Arundel, senior
Kaylee Jenish, Severna Park, senior
Josephine Kamas, Severna Park, freshman
Abigail Makela, Crofton, senior
Malani Martin, Annapolis Area Christian School, senior
Emmy McCarthy, St. Mary’s, junior
Siena Pegues, Severna Park, freshman