Anne Arundel indoor track and field athletes bustled excitedly around Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex on Monday night. Their first county meet was here at last.
For the fourth straight year, external circumstances stole a chunk of the schedule. This time, instead of coronavirus or repurposing the cavernous facility for vaccine administration, prolonged renovations were the culprit. The county canceled four scheduled meets. A lot of county teams had yet to experience a single meet yet, even though basketball and wrestling started playing in early December. Those who did have a chance to compete, such as Arundel and Chesapeake, had to travel to nontraditional facilities in Baltimore County or venture out of state.
After their events, runners from different schools spoke to how much they missed these competitions and the difficulties that come with an extended preseason. Chesapeake’s Daniel Adams loved it.
Granted, running never treats him well. A self-admitted owner of a weak stomach, the Cougars senior “hurts” every time he runs. That’s what motivates him. That, and his brother Caleb. The duo invigorate each other when the other is tired.
“The goal of every practice is to hurt as much as I can,” Adams said. “In the moment, I feel like I want to quit and never come back. Then 30 minutes later, I feel like I should’ve ran that harder.”
Adams translated that mentality to Monday’s 500-meter run. He doesn’t like not knowing what he’s running, so of course, he only learned which events he’d be undertaking a few days ago. But when he saw Caleb snap the school record in the 300 (36.35) — a record that lasted 24 years — Adams knew he had to do it, too.
He did just that, running 1:08.35, topping the former school mark of 1:08.88, set in 2009.
“Any race I go into, I’m looking for a school record,” said Adams, who has qualified for states every season. “I have five. When I leave high school, I could at least have 13 records.”
Adams, like most seniors running indoor track and field, must approach these truncated seasons in their own way. The 2020 season — their freshman year — simply didn’t happen. With the PGSLC designated as a vaccination site, their sophomore seasons were forced outdoors.
“I didn’t like that,” Meade senior Kayvawn Simms-Roger’s said.
Anxiety pumped through Simms-Rogers for a different reason than Adams. He raced the fifth heat of the 55-meter dash — of 11. His time (and new personal best), 6.6, clung to the top of the leaderboard through each wave of boys. Then, Arundel’s Gunnar Williams blazed through the final heat to the exact same time.
Tying someone didn’t really disappoint Simms-Rogers. With a grin, he mused: now he has a rival.
“Even if someone goes over me, it just makes sure I know to do better,” he said.
With so little time to achieve his goals — win states in the 55 and 4×200 — the Meade senior must use similarly abbreviated methods to do it. For him, that’s trying to consume and execute the teachings and advice his coaches give him as quickly as possible. That means more time practicing (as if there wasn’t too much already) and asking questions.
Before Monday, that wasn’t always the easiest to do. Watching his teammates from other sports, friends diving fully into their winter seasons while he watched from the sidelines “hurt.”
“I like to be active, so sitting at the house, not having the meet to look forward to that week sucked,” Simms-Rogers said. “But it also motivated me because I knew as soon as I got out here, I was going to rev up and go.”
Motivation was top of mind for Annapolis sophomore Maggie Moylan this past month.
“It’s hard, like, I’m practicing every day, but what am I training for?” Moylan said. “Being here finally makes it worth it.”
Moylan thundered through the longest event of the night, the 3,200 to a winning time of 12:36.47. She would’ve preferred to run the mile, but she has only one more meet before the county championships. Regionals and states follow shortly. She needs experience in both events.
“There’s definitely sacrifices,” the Annapolis sophomore said. “I know I’ll start getting prepared, though I don’t have much time.”
Part of what worked for Moylan with this late start was just knowing how to handle the new normal. Whether she raced more than her two high school seasons or not, she would’ve never had a full slate.
“The nerves were definitely higher than if I’d already had a couple meets,” Moylan said. “But I did this last year. I know what I’m doing. I’ll get through it.”