Maryvale Prep runners rank among the best in area, consistently winning Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championships in both track and cross country.
Now, seven Lions are gearing up for perhaps biggest meet in their running careers — the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., June 17-19.
Senior Kendall Gray, juniors Sydney King, Courtney Kenny, Gabby Halaby and Emily Craig and sophomores Cameron Hinton and Brittney Graff are the standout athletes headed to North Carolina.
They hope eye-catching performances there catch the attention of college coaches.
Hinton is the only Lion to qualify in an individual event; The other competitors are spread across three relay teams.
"This meet is the culmination of how hard and long they have been working, dating back to the cross country season last year," said Maryvale coach Jason Miller, whose team won the A Conference this spring in convincing fashion over McDonogh. "It's been a grueling season, if you started training last July and you keep on training until this June.
"This is kind of like a reward, but they still want to go out and end their season with a personal record or school record," he added.
Hinton will be gunning for top honors in the 400 meters in the Emerging Elite Division.
She's won four IAAM individual titles in her career, including back-to-back titles in the 400 last two springs.
Before high school, the 5-foot-10 Hinton experienced success in national AAU Junior Olympic meets up and down the East Coast.
She expects to qualify for 400 in the AAU Junior Olympics in Houston in July following her trip to the New Balance Nationals.
"She doesn't take many breaks from competing," Miller said. "She prepares herself mentally through the heat, the bad weather. She's hungry to be the best. She is a Division I college runner."
Hinton is also a huge part of Maryvale's relay teams. Three of them will be competing in nationals.
The 1,600 sprint medley relay features Hinton, Kenny, Halaby and Gray while Hinton, King, Halaby and Kenny make up the 800 relay team.
Those two same groups set school records in the 800 (1:46.43) and the 1,600 (3.59.55) this spring.
Graff, King, Craig and Gray comprise the 4,000 distance medley relay.
Loyola Blakefield will also be sending a group of runners to the New Balance Nationals.
Senior Michael Bell headlines the Dons. He'll be competing in the long jump in the emerging elite division.
Bell captured a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland long jump title this spring with a leap of 22 feet.
"He is just a kid who loves to compete," Loyola coach Chris Cucuzzella said. "There is a four-event limit in track and field. If there wasn't that four-event limit, he would be bugging me about doing every event. He just wants to do everything."
Bell will be running a leg in the 1,600 medley relay team that includes junior Austin Eby and seniors Jeff Moran and Dana Young and the 800 relay group that also features senior Biafra Okoronkwo, junior Brodie Holmes and Young.
"Michael is the glue that holds that group together," Cucuzella said of 800 relay team.
Bell, Young and Okoronkwo were part of 800 team that won the MIAA indoor championship.
Bell and Eby will be competing in outdoor nationals for the first time, but they ran in the New Balance Indoor Nationals in New York City for the past two years.
"I think these seniors just want one last chance to run fast," Cucuzzella said.