This fall, Houlton junior Teanne Ewings turned heads on the cross country course, progressively cutting her 5-kilometer personal record down to 17:15 from 18:53, and finishing second in the New England Cross Country Championships.
This indoor track season, Ewings has picked up where she left off, and then some.
Fueled by her newfound dedication to running, combined with her obvious natural talent, Ewings has won every single 800-meter, 1-mile and 2-mile race she has participated in this winter, logging nationally-ranked times and further stoking her historic rivalry with Orono’s Ruth White.
At the Dec. 29 Eastern Maine Indoor Track League meet at the University of Maine, Ewings won the 2-mile race with a time of 10:28.4, simultaneously setting a 16-second personal record, breaking a 12-year state record and recording the nation’s fastest 2-mile time of the season at that point.
As of Monday, it was still the third-fastest time in the nation this year.
Moreover, her 2-mile time was unofficially 48 seconds faster (adjusted from 3,200-meter run) than her season record from the 2023 outdoor track season.
At the Jan. 15 EMITL meet at UMaine, Ewings was at it again, winning the 1-mile race with a time of 4:57.9 — simultaneously breaking the 5-minute threshold for the first time in her career, and coming up just three seconds short of the state record. Ewings also reset her 800-meter personal record on Jan. 15, winning the race with a time of 2:18.7.
“She’s dedicated; it’s a goal of hers to be as knowledgeable about running as she can, and attack the sport from multiple levels,” Houlton head cross country and outdoor track coach Chris Rines said. “This year, she saw what she was capable of. Nothing’s not on the table.”
Ewings’ conviction was evident in her decision to participate in the EMITL this year, considering Houlton doesn’t currently have an indoor track team. Ewings commutes to UMaine multiple times a week to train under Old Town head coach Rod White, and races as an independent.
Over the summer and early fall, Ewings laid the groundwork for her breakout junior season, upping her weekly mileage and working with coach Rines to become a “high IQ runner,” as he calls her. She set a 30-second 5K personal record in her very first cross country meet of the year, and as the fall season progressed, her times inched closer and closer to White’s — culminating in an epic Festival of Champions race in which White and Ewings finished first and second, setting the two best times in course history.
“I really realized that I wanted to improve; I started to really focus on running,” Ewings said. “There are days you might not feel the best, but you still gotta go out and do it. It’s about staying consistent.”
Ewings attributes her healthy rivalry with White as an additional reason for her unprecedented rate of improvement.
“I wouldn’t have been able to run those times if [Ruth] wasn’t there in front of me,” Ewings said. “I’m really hoping that we can keep pushing each other and having a good time this spring.”
Last year, White finished with faster personal records in the 800-meter, 1,600m, 3,200m and 5-kilometer races, but since then Ewings has officially overtaken White in the 800m and unofficially overtaken White in the 1,600m and 3,200m (adjusted from 1-mile and 2-mile indoors).
While Ewings and White haven’t faced off this winter — White competes on Orono’s Nordic skiing team during the winter sports season — their respective distance running careers are peaking at the same time, setting the stage for an action-packed outdoor track season.
“I definitely want to [set] personal records outdoors, and hopefully we can get our teams to states,” Ewings said. “I just really like running. The community’s great.”
