Reebok Top 25 Most Dynamic Athletes: Anna Maxwell

It was an excruciating decision to make as a freshman, but Anna Maxwell knew that to run among the nation’s elite it was a sacrifice she had to make.

She gave up competitive soccer, and largely all the deep friendships she made growing up around the sport. And equally tough, she said goodbye to the sport of equestrian, along with it her horse and longtime childhood companion, Lolly Pop.

"It was sad for sure," she said. "Both were a big parts of my life. But frankly I couldn’t do it all."

It has all paid off for Maxwell, a 17-year-old rising senior at San Lorenzo Valley (Felton, Calif.), who has turned into one of the nation’s top middle and long distance runners.



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She won the California state 1,600 meter run — there’s a who's who list of names in the track world who have won that race — and recorded the nation’s sixth best time in the event two weeks earlier. Maxwell also recorded the country’s fifth best 3,200 time and the 26th 800.

After finishing third and eighth in state cross country meets the previous two seasons, an allergic reaction to wheat and rice caused breakdowns on the course for Maxwell in the fall of 2012. It was a painful and confusing time.

But once diagnosed and relegated to a gluten-free diet, Maxwell regained her stride and strength, leading to one of the top junior middle- and long-distance running seasons in the country.

Combine that with her scholarly ways — she’s received only one "B" in high school, took five AP classes as a junior and had a 4.27 grade point average — and Maxwell is indeed one of the most versatile student-athletes in the country.

As far as what sport she prefers, Maxwell sums it up this way: "When it’s the fall and cross country season I love it the most. When it’s track season, I love it the most. I just love it all."



See all the Reebok Dynamic Athletes{PAGEBREAK} Hometown: Felton, Calif.

School: San Lorenzo Valley (Felton, Calif.) (enrollment 806)

Class: 2014

Sports: Cross country, track and field (800, 1,600 and 3,200)

College plans: The recruiting process is just heating up and Maxwell is looking at primarily Pacific-12 Conference schools. She also visited Duke and North Carolina while competing in the New Balance National Championships in Greensboro last month. She hasn’t selected her official visits yet.

"I’m honestly going to try to have fun with it and not get too stressed," said Maxwell, who plans to major in either engineering or environmental law.



Favorite athletes: Steve Prefontaine ("I watched all his movies and videos as a freshman when I really started running," she said.), Shalane Flanagan ("she’s awesome") and Kara Goucher ("I met her at a running camp. Amazing.").

CoachSpeak: "Anna strives to be the best she can be at everything. She’s very competitive with herself. … Beyond being an elite runner, what we all love about Anna is she’s so very quiet and humble. You’ll never hear her talking about herself."
— San Lorenzo Valley coach Rob Collins{PAGEBREAK}Maxwell ran some track in middle school and had a lot of success, but soccer appeared to be her first love.

When she got to high school, she felt she needed an endurance sport in the fall to help her to excel at soccer in the winter.

"It was water polo or cross country," she said. "I knew a lot of water polo people but what they do under the water can be a little violent. I went with cross country."

Good decision. She loved the closeness of the team, training in beautiful, scenic, wide-open places, and going to weekend meets at far away locales.

Under Collins, San Lorenzo Valley is a state power. The Cougars have won four state Division IV titles and placed second four other times. Maxwell finished third as a freshman in 17 minutes, 55 seconds over the rolling 3.1-mile course in Fresno.



As a sophomore she was eighth in 18:06 and the Cougars finished second. Last year, Maxwell fell ill late in the season and her allergic reactions to pasta did her in. She fell at the state meet, but gamely finished the race anyway, placing 195th in 25:01. She had similar late breakdown at the Central Coast Section meet where she finished third after winning as a freshman and sophomore.

"It was a tough time for sure, but once we figured out the problem, Anna was better than ever in track," Collins said.

The late-season collapse will only spur her on for 2013, Collins said.

"She has a lot of fire and redemption brewing for this season," he said. "She definitely is out to conquer the demons from last season."{PAGEBREAK} Maxwell did most of her conquering in 2012-13 during the track season, with one of the best seasons in Central Coast Section history.

Her best times in the 800 (2:09.34), 1,600 (4:42.57) and 3,200 (10:10.51) all surpassed one of the CCS’s all-time great distance runners, Alejandra Barrientos, to become the school record-holder. Barrientos’ times were 2:09.35, 4:44.43 and 10:11.56.

"To break all three as a junior is an amazing accomplishment," Collins said.



The crowning jewel of Maxwell's senior year was winning the state 1,600 under near 100-degree heat in Clovis. The day before during trials, also nearing triple-digit heat, it took a scorching 4:55 just to make the finals and all of the top runners hovered around 4:50.

That told Maxwell that her competitors were likely spent, so she took it out hard in the finals and basically broke the field in the first 800 while taking a 25-meter lead.

It was the same strategy she used at the CCS championships, where she ran her career best of 4:42.57. She won going away at state in 4:47.33 over runner-up and CCS rival Nikki Hiltz of Aptos in 4:48.07.

Two hours later, Maxwell gained enough energy to place third in the 3,200 — a fine finish — but she noted she was edged at the line by runner-up Sydney Segal (10:25.37).

That’s more incentive for 2013-14.

Maxwell earned a spot on the U.S. World Youth IAAF team that traveled to the Ukraine in July. The 14-day trip was a rich experience, said Maxwell, who was one of two U.S. runners to reach the finals of the 1,500. She finished ninth in 4:23.75.



"I was pretty tired by the end of the season," she said. "It was just great to compete against other girls from all over the world."{PAGEBREAK}