By Matthew Dietz
NKyTribune sports reporter
Highlands senior Maggie Schroeder, one of the most successful distance runners in the area, signed a letter of intent with Northern Kentucky University in May. Before she begins her collegiate career, however, she is on a mission to do something she has never done in high school — win a state title in track.
On Tuesday, Schroeder qualified for the Class 2A state track meet with second-place finishes in the 3200-meter run and 4×800 relay events at the Region 4 meet at Bourbon County High School. She also placed third in 1600-meter run and could earn a spot in the state meet based on her finish time.
“She’s been injured and fought back to run the region,” said Highlands coach Brian Alessandro. “She was terrific with taking over a month off.”
Highlands distance runner Maggie Schroeder
Schroeder has nine days to recover from her injury before her last chance to compete for a Class 2A state title comes on Friday, June 11 at the University of Kentucky.
During her six-year varsity career, the senior has won two Class 2A state titles in cross country. She placed second, fifth, seventh and 10th in four other state meets.
But her best individual performance in a Class 2A state track meet was second in the 3200-meter run in 2019. She was also part of an 4×800-meter relay team that placed second in 2018.
Schroeder didn’t get a chance to compete for a state title last spring when COVID-19 cancelled the 2020 track season. But the time off helped her regain her strength after missing almost all of her junior cross country season with an illness.
“Typically, like right now if I wanted to, I could run 10 miles and I would feel fine,” she said. “Back then, at that point, I was struggling doing three miles on the treadmill.”
During her free time last spring, Schroeder said she was able to slowly get her body used to longer runs again. The work she put in during that time paid dividends as she finished first in the Class 2A cross country state meet last October.
Schroeder said she does not have a strict training regimen during track season. It’s usually up to coach Alessandro to decide what type of workouts the team will do, including 400-meter runs, 600-meter runs and 800-meter runs.
“We’ll incorporate a little bit of tempo running, but that is more for the cross country season than the track season,” Schroeder said. “Of course that is mixed in with regular runs, and easy runs and then one long run during the week.”
Maggie Schroeder will attend NKU on a combined academic and athletic scholarship.
Schroeder said she grew up in a very active family that instilled her focus on fitness. That’s why she was able to compete in varsity cross country and track teams when she was a seventh grader.
“It was easier for me to gain fitness as well, just because I grew up to like being fit, so it really just has not been difficult to gain and maintain fitness,” she said.
Schroeder will be attending NKU on a combined academic and athletic scholarship. She is weighing multiple options on her major, including journalism or in the medical or pharmaceutical field.
Originally, NKU was not where she expected to be attending college. After Alessandro encouraged her to talk with the NKU coaching staff and team members, she was convinced that it was where she wanted to be.
“I talked to (NKU assistant) coach P.J. Ball, I absolutely loved her,” Schroeder said. “I met the team on a Zoom call and they were all really friendly. And I was like, this seems like a really great program, even though it’s close to home.”
Staying close to home allows Schroeder to continue another one of her passions — horseback riding. She has been riding for several years at Misty Ridge Farm, which is near the NKU campus.
“Being able to stay at Misty Ridge is really nice, just because of all the connections that I have there with the different people and the different horses,” she said. “Just being able to stay with one thing that I’m really familiar with, that’s really nice.”
