Just before University of Southern Maine freshman Cyrus Evans began his 8k Maine State Championships college cross-country race at Bangor’s Saxl Park in late September, his mother, Joy, greeted with a hug from behind and a kiss on the cheek. She too was in uniform, that of the University of Maine at Farmington.
Cyrus Evans, 18, and Joy Evans, 37, relish these moments, even if they take some explaining.
“It didn’t really hit home until Cyrus saw me in my gear on race day,” Joy Evans said. “‘His whole team saw me were like, ‘Is that your girlfriend,’ and he’s like, ‘No, it’s my mom.’”
“That is what happened,” Cyrus Evans confirmed. “I was a little embarrassed, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s my mom. She’s a rock star.’ My teammates were happy to hear that. It made my day.”
This fall, the Evans family is trailblazing, not just on the cross-country course, but as a mother-son duo competing in their first year of college athletics at the same time, in the same sport at that.
Long before they shared a college cross-country course, Joy and Cyrus Evans ran together recreationally. Joy and her husband, Barrett, sweethearts since their days at Reno High School in Nevada, encouraged Cyrus to accompany them on casual runs on his bike, and then — when he grew older and stronger — on foot.
Cyrus Evans joined his school’s cross-country team in fifth grade, and his career blossomed from there.
Though Joy Evans lived in East Wilton with her grandparents for a few years growing up, she moved to Nevada for high school. The Evans family moved back from Nevada to Farmington three years ago when Cyrus was a junior in high school and his younger brother, Lucius, was in first grade.
While Cyrus Evans followed the traditional path from high school directly to college, Joy Evans did not. She initially focused on raising her children as a stay at home mother but always dreamt of “going from ordinary to extraordinary.”
After taking classes sporadically while living in Nevada, Joy Evans enrolled at UMF on a more consistent basis in January 2021. She built up enough credits over the past two years to reach senior status academically, achieving high honors status as an education major with plans to pursue a master’s in special education.
Joy Evans initially reached out to UMF coaches when she enrolled and after sharing her times and trying out on the track, she secured a spot on the team. Life circumstances got in the way. Two years later, she made it happen.
Although Joy Evans never competed in college athletics prior to this fall, she’s consistently UMF’s top runner. She recently earned a North Atlantic Conference Rookie of the Week for her 16th-place effort at the Maine State Championship, the team and league’s top finisher with a time of 24:40.6 and an average mile time of 6:21.0, the second fastest 6K time in program history.
Like his mother, Cyrus Evans blazes the cross-country trails. The 2023 Mt. Blue graduate enrolled at USM. He lives on campus and studies mechanical engineering. They talk about running often. No pressure, though.
“We’re supportive of each other,” Cyrus Evans said.
“Just really grateful and thankful to have this opportunity,” Joy Evans added.
