Maira Scott

Springfield HS, Springfield, Holland, OH, c/o 2024
AthleticNET Bio

The parallels between Maira Scott and Abby Steiner are hard not to notice. Both are Ohioans whose high schools are separated by 115 miles. Like Steiner, Scott grew up as a two sport athlete. She cheered and ran track. It wasn’t until the ninth grade that she turned more attention to track. She and her mother, Megan , then began a quest to become better. Through research, they became aware of Steiner and soon, Maira began to take note of her achievements and became a huge fan. She has yet to meet her in person.

Maira went all in with trying to improve. She changed her diet, got acupuncture, started to lift weights and shazam, she won the indoor state 200m championship as a sophomore. But wait? She was then disqualified for running on the lane line, an infraction she and others she didn’t even see. Strangers came to her defense and argued on her behalf. No one could provide evidence of where, how many steps she took and where the infraction took place. The ruling stood. It was frustrating.

In the spring, she finished eighth in the 100m (12.03) and runner-up in the 200m(24.39) at the outdoor state meet.

The disqualification and not winning outdoors added more fuel to the fire Scott had inside her to be the best. In her entire school history, they have had only four state champions in any sport and Scott wanted to show that someone from outside of the Columbus area could be a state champion in the sprints.

This past season, her determination to become the best included an increased training workload including weight lifting and trekking  two hours to Columbus, OH to work with Ohio Heat club coach, Tremayne Peppers. The Scotts had sought him out  after watching Justin Braun triple-100-200-400- at the Ohio State meet. On Sundays, Megan, Maira and her 3 year old little sister would load the car up and make the two hour drive to workout in Columbus. Other days, her father, Tony, would take her with him on business trips to Columbus so she could train. Then like Steiner, she injured herself. Her injury was an avulsion fracture of her hip a week and a half before Thanksgiving ‘22 that kept her from running until a few weeks before the Ohio indoor state championships March 4.  And like Steiner she rebounded in a big way finishing third in the 60m dash, 7.57 and second in the 200m in 24.42 at the Ohio state indoor meet.

Nothing could have foretold what she did at the outdoor state meet though this past spring. Despite two, one and half hour weather delays of which one was called while she was lined up for the 100m final, Scott stormed to  huge personal bests in the 100m, 11.42(+0.4)  and 200m, 23.20 (+0.7).

This upcoming season, she has found a weightlifting coach closer to her home and plans to keep working to take down Steiner’s records.

“One of my goals is to break Abby's records next year[at the state meet]. Hopefully, I'm praying with hard work I can do it!” .