With the closure of the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex’s indoor track for renovations through the first month of the high school season, track teams across the region were forced to find alternatives if they hoped to participate in early-season meets.
Some traveled as far as New York, and some waited until January to compete.
Last week, teams returned to a newly laid track at the Landover facility after the old surface reached the end of its lifespan and needed replacing. The Anne Arundel County meet on Jan. 8 was the first of the season at the complex, which houses most major meets throughout the area during the winter.
Severna Park, the reigning Maryland 4A boys’ indoor track champion, ran in just its second meet of the year after it elected not to travel for competitions in December. The Falcons’ first meet of the season was Jan. 6 in State College, Pa. Last season, they had already run in four meets by that date, three of which were at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex.
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“We just felt like it was just easier to not have to worry about trying to squeeze a meet in … trying to scramble to get things because most likely we would have been traveling out of state,” Severna Park Coach Josh Alcombright said. “We just felt it was just better to not have to worry about it and just train.”
Many local programs occasionally traveled out of state for select meets in the past, but the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex’s temporary closure made teams a bit more desperate.
It came at an economic and logistical cost for teams. McKinley Tech, last season’s D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association boys’ indoor track champion, spent $12,000 of the $16,000 it initially raised to enter and travel to its first four indoor meets of the season, all of which were in Virginia, Coach Nathaniel Metts said. Metts hoped the sum would last the whole indoor and outdoor track season.
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“Not having the [Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex] throughout the month of December, it became a financial strain on us,” Metts said.
To limit costs, the Trainers have gone from taking more than 40 athletes to meets early in this season to about 20. McKinley Tech junior Michael McNeil said he thinks about his future goals to persevere through the strain of early alarms for traveling and wishes more of his teammates could make it to the Trainers’ out-of-state meets as the season has progressed.
And when teams have to travel, performances can suffer.
“[Travel] is taxing in terms of even some of their performances because I’m noticing where if we were going to [Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex], a kid would have this spark, this energy, just ready to hit the track,” Metts said. “But riding three or four hours down the road … it’s not giving the kids the same energy level.”
The Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex is one of the only indoor tracks in Maryland and consistently hosts meets throughout the high school season, as well as all Maryland and D.C. championships. The facility is scheduled to host 25 high school meets throughout January, including Thursday’s championship for the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association.
At Gonzaga, the Eagles typically compete in at least one meet at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex before the D.C. State Athletic Association championships are hosted there. This winter, their first competition there will be for the city championship.
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Gonzaga has traveled more than three hours each for a pair of meets in Virginia and an event in New York so far this season. Without a chance to participate in a meet at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex until the DCSAA championships, Coach Conrad Singh said he’s planning on showing his team film and pictures from previous years to help them visualize success in Landover.
Perhaps a good activity for their next bus ride.
“To get guys opportunities to compete in fast fields on fast tracks you have to go to New York, or to Virginia Beach, or Liberty University or other places,” Singh said. “As far as what time we wake up to make some of these meets, some of our guys are coming from an hour away from Gonzaga; they got to be there at 4 a.m., so you do the math.”
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