Teanne Ewings of Houlton/Greater Houlton Christian is the Varsity Maine Girls’ Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Caroline Burns photo
Teanne Ewings is no longer in anyone’s shadow.
The 2024 outdoor track and field season was marked by one of the deepest groups of top-tier girls’ distance runners Maine has ever seen. Five girls posted times under 5 minutes in the 1,600 meters. The only two seniors in that group will run for Division I college programs starting this fall.
When the season was over, Ewings, a home-schooled junior from Houlton, had made a strong case for being the best of them all. That includes being ahead of Orono senior Ruth White, the acclaimed runner who Ewings had been trying to chase down for the last three years.
“I’d say it’s a friendly rivalry,” Ewings said. “Yeah, we compete and we want to beat each other, but before the race, we’re saying good luck, and after the race (we’re) congratulating each other. There’s no bad blood there.”
Because of her success relative to an outstanding group, Ewings is the 2024 Varsity Maine Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
Ewings beat White, the three-time New England cross country champion, convincingly in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the Class C championships with meet-record times of 4:58.65 and 10:33.65. The next week, she finished second in the 3,200 at the New England championships in 10:29.73, with White placing fourth.
“I definitely wanted to cut down on some of my PRs from the previous outdoor season. I wanted to definitely help my team score some points, and my true goal was to beat Ruth in the state meets in all my events. Or, to get first place, I should say,” said Ewings.
Ewings said the 3,200-meter win at the Class C meet stands out as her top moment this spring. Ewings and White ran together through 2,000 meters, swapping the lead. With three laps remaining, Ewings increased her tempo and held the pace to the end, winning by 15 seconds as she broke White’s year-old meet record by 11 seconds.
“I just pulled away and tried to open up as much of a lead as I could,” Ewings said.
Ewings, who turned 17 on June 25, competes for Greater Houlton Christian Academy, where she attended in-person classes until her junior year. GHCA co-ops with Houlton High in cross country and outdoor track.
“I think that (3,200 win) was because of a lot of work, the culmination of the indoor season and the outdoor season,” said Chris Rines, Houlton/Greater Houlton Christian’s coach for cross country and outdoor track. “I think that was pretty significant for Teanne to see how far she’s come.”
During the fall and winter, there was ample evidence of Ewings’ ascension.
In cross country, she finished second to White, who will run at the University of New Hampshire, at the Class C meet and the New England championships, both held at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. White won the Class C meet in 16:57.95. Ewings’ time of 17:22.95 was 48 seconds faster than York senior Cary Drake, the Class B winner, and 68 seconds quicker than Class A winner Samantha Moore, a junior at Portland.
The cross country season showed Ewings how much she had improved relative to White, her top rival. In 2022, at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland, White beat Ewings by 1:27 in the Class C race.
Ewings carried her cross country success into the indoor season. She split with Drake, who will be competing for Northwestern University, at the Class B championships (Ewings won the 2-mile, Drake the mile), and then won her first New England championship, taking the 2-mile in 10:40.09.
“I think we’ve got some great distance runners in the state and really enjoy running with each other. And they’re great people, too, and really fortunate to have those other people,” Ewings said.
Running has been an important part of Ewings’ life for as long as she can remember. The younger of Joseph and Angie Ewings’ two daughters, Teanne has watched her mother compete regularly in road races and run for fitness every day. Older sister Teagan competed for GHCA and then Husson University.
“My mother is pretty inspiring. She goes out every day,” Ewings said.
Next year figures to be another transition for Ewings. She’ll be the front-runner. She also is immersed in the exciting and at times daunting college recruiting process.
“Every day, she’s getting three, four things in the mail from college coaches,” Angie Ewings said. “And these aren’t form letters. These are hand-written notes and postcards.”
Ewings said she wishes she was a bit further along in the recruiting process.
“But I’ve talked to many and narrowed it down a little,” she said. “Division I, those are most of the ones I’m looking at, but I don’t know if it has to be Division I. I’m very fortunate to be able to have that option. I have lots of options.”
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