Anne Arundel indoor track and field season to start Monday, a month later than expected

Anne Arundel County indoor track and field season will begin Monday, a month later than anticipated.

County officials have been forced to cancel four scheduled meets this season due to ongoing construction at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex. That facility is slated to open next week and Anne Arundel County has secured the first competition date Monday with all public schools invited to participate.

“We are happy to be the first county to run on the new surface and look forward to our student-athletes using it for many years to come,” said Clayton Culp, supervisor of Anne Arundel County Athletics.

Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex closed its indoor track and field facility in August for the scheduled replacement of the flooring. Initially, the project was expected to take a couple months to complete. In early September, the facility said in a news release the complex was expected to reopen in early December and “the 2023-2024 indoor track season will be minimally affected by the closure.” Various jurisdictions were allowed to schedule dates for indoor track and field meets.

However in an update on Nov. 21, the complex announced it would not reopen until early January.

Anne Arundel County had scheduled a scrimmage meet for Dec. 12 and regular season meets for Dec. 18 and 30, as well as Jan. 2. All those meets had to be canceled, meaning that many county indoor track and field programs have yet to compete this season.

“This is just an unfortunate circumstance for all involved, particularly our student-athletes and coaches,” Culp said. “PGSLC is a great facility and we appreciate our relationship with their staff. They want the schools in there just as much as we do.”

Culp said the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex staff has been “good partners throughout the process” and done a good job providing updates as they became available.

To ease the pain of the lost dates, Anne Arundel has managed to schedule a countywide meet for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16. Culp secured permission from Anne Arundel County schools for track and field athletes to take off school that day.

The delayed opening of Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex has forced Anne Arundel indoor track and field programs to scramble to find competitive opportunities. There are limited indoor track and field facilities throughout Maryland including Hagerstown Community College, Community College of Baltimore County campuses in Catonsville and Essex, and the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore.

Hagerstown Community College has limited dates available which are usually booked well in advance. That facility does not offer additional dates to counties outside of western Maryland. The Fifth Regiment Armory is available on a limited basis for schools located in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

That leaves invitational events as the only competitive outlet and coaches at many county schools were late in registering for those since they expected to be competing in December meets at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex.

“The biggest problem is that this was sprung upon everyone at the start of the season and there was no time to make adjustments,” Severna Park coach Josh Alcombright said. “There were opportunities out there, but you had to travel. As a program, we decided to simply train throughout December.”

Severna Park will participate in the Kevin Dare Invitational at Penn State University this weekend and the VA Showcase in Virginia Beach the following weekend.

“We’re fortunate to have the parental support to be able to cover the travel costs of going to those meets,” said Alcombright, who has 140 athletes on the indoor track and field roster.

Meade is another program that has yet to compete this season. Coach Marlynn Harrison was thrilled to learn about the two countywide meets being held this month and is planning to take a limited number of athletes to the VA Showcase.

“It’s not possible to take the entire team due to the traveling expenses,” Harrison said.

Culp said Anne Arundel County Athletics is offering supplemental funds to schools in need for the purpose of attending out-of-state invitationals. Harrison said Meade athletic director Jamie Cook is working with Culp to secure some funding for the indoor track and field team to register athletes for the VA Showcase.

“It’s definitely been challenging. We’ve just had to stay strong and adapt to this situation,” Harrison said. “My athletes are just taking it day by day and keeping a positive mentality. We are looking forward to the upcoming meets and are excited to come out and show what we can do as individuals and as a team.”

Broadneck coach Josh Webster was able to schedule two competitions for his team after learning that Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex would not open. Broadneck competed at the Lid Lifter Invitational hosted by the Community College of Baltimore County-Essex and the Dickinson University High School Invitational in Pennsylvania.

CCBC-Essex does not have a track and held the meet on a gymnasium floor, which did not allow for official times that could be used to qualify for regionals. The latter meet was not ideal because it did not include the 300- and 500-meter runs since Pennsylvania runs the 200 and 400 instead.

“This whole situation with the delayed opening of PGSLC highlights the larger facility issue in Maryland for indoor track and field,” Culp said. “We would love to see efforts for more facilities to be built locally and anywhere else in the state to support this incredible sport.”

Culp said the Anne Arundel County indoor track and field championships are still scheduled for Jan. 22 at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex. Regional meets will be held Feb. 5 through 10 with the state championship meets slated for Feb. 20-21.

Webster believes the county, region and state meets should be pushed back by two weeks so the affected counties could schedule additional regular season meets, allowing athletes to make up the missed competition opportunities.

“I think the MPSSAA needs to make some sort of accommodations because this season has been truncated. It’s not fair to the student-athletes,” Webster said. “There is a viable option available and I’m not sure why it is not legitimately being considered.”