Payton Maas is used to doing things by herself.
As a freshman on the West Liberty girls’ track and field team, Maas is the only Comet to compete in the wheelchair races at competitions, leaving her to practice pretty independently.
On meet days, she’s often the only entry in the two events she competes in: the 100-meter wheelchair race and the 200-meter version.
However, sophomore Pearson Hall and freshman Alyssa Lenz made sure Maas had company for the 200 wheelchair race during the Comets’ first meet of the season in Wapello, and teammates are constantly surrounding her before and after races while screaming in support during her competitions.
“It was cool,” Maas said. “I’m glad that they joined me. I didn’t ask for that at all, they just decided to do that. Pearson is a good friend, you don’t have to ask her to do anything, she’ll just do it,” Maas said.
When teammates joined Maas for the race, Hall said the idea came to her as a way to pay Maas back for being a good friend.
Hall had just finished running her own 200-meter dash before she joined Maas, and Lenz followed suit.
“It was a way for us to help her out a little bit,” Lenz said. “She puts a lot of work into it.”
Thus far, Maas’ best times in her races have been a 34.38-second 100 and 1 minute, 15.05-second 200. Both times are better than times that qualified for the state meet in 2022.
“The girls on this team have really accepted me and I’m appreciative of that,” said Maas. “I’m in their friend group at school and carried over to the team. We have an awesome team here at West Liberty. The girls have helped me whenever I needed and learned how to get me in and out of my chair when I compete.
“I love track. I’ve had family members be a part of the track team and when I was thinking about going out, we went to the school board and everyone thought we should try it out. The school has been super awesome about it.”