Unfinished business: Lost season won’t keep Penns Valley runners Brendan Colwell, Colton Sands from competing
Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a series chronicling some of the biggest missed storylines of the 2020 spring high school sports season in Centre County.
Brendan Colwell and Colton Sands run the same events, in the same sport and at the same high school. And they run them as well as anyone in the state.
The two Penns Valley cross country and track long-distance runners compete with each other all the time. So much so that they don’t practice together.
“They work hard, they train hard, and they love to race,” Penns Valley distance coach Garrett Milner said. “They need to be training differently at practice just so they’re not racing each other every day.”
The duo competes in various long-distance races year-round, but this year, their last competitive opportunity as high school juniors was taken from them. The spring sports season was canceled in April due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and prevented Sands and Colwell from reaching the goals they set.
Sands and Colwell finished first and second, respectively at the 2019 PIAA A Cross Country Championships in November, and were looking to repeat that feat in the 3200-meter run at the 2020 PIAA AA Track and Field Championships this month. That won’t happen now, much to the disappointment of both runners.
“I was pretty devastated,” Colwell said. “We were both going for a state record so it’s a big deal not to get an attempt at it. To have two kids from the same school break it as juniors would have been pretty awesome.”
Sands is also the defending state champ in the 3,200, and won gold in the boys’ 3000-meter final at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association indoor state track and field championship in early March. He and Colwell had also been looking forward to competing in the prestigious Penn Relays this spring, before it was canceled for the first time in its 126-year history.
But the lost track season hurts the most for Sands.
“There were a lot of goals I had as an individual and we had as a team,” Sands told the CDT in April. “We were really excited about it. We felt like we were in a really good spot and we were really going to accomplish some great things this spring. With it getting canceled there’s no real opportunity to accomplish those goals.”
Even though it was to the detriment of their goals and took away a portion of their high school career, the junior runners understood why it had to be done this way.
“I agree with their decision,” Sands said. “Looking at where we are with this pandemic, it’s definitely the right decision and I’m glad they decided to call it even though it means we’re not going to be able to accomplish the things we wanted to do this spring.”
Their disappointment was fueled by the competitive fire that pushes them when they race each other, and by the opportunity lost. Still, both know there’s plenty to look forward to. They each have a year remaining in their high school careers and know there are plenty of other people who lost their final chance to compete when the season was canceled.
That’s led Colwell and Sands to get something positive out of the cancellation, to make sure the lost season doesn’t turn into a lost opportunity. The two runners are set to compete with each other again in the fall and plan on using their time off from track to improve for next year.
“This will show who’s going to be better in the fall and who took this as down time,” Colwell said. “I think this time (without track) will make everybody better.”
That was Sands’ message to his teammates when the news initially broke, as well. He wants to make sure he and his teammates are ready to go for next season and hopes he and Colwell can run even better times because of it.
“I’m incredibly fortunate to have a guy like Brendan on my team,” Sands said. “To lose one of the seasons I would have had with him as a teammate and him as a competitor is disappointing. ... We’re both going to get even better next year and hopefully put out some crazy performances next year.”
Both runners now have to turn the page forward to that senior season, even if it’s prematurely. They’ll have more opportunities to race, and more opportunities to compete against each other, but if the novel coronavirus has taught the world anything, it’s that nothing is guaranteed.
In November, Sands qualified for the Foot Locker Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Nationals after finishing ninth in the competition’s northeast regional. Colwell fell short of Sands by 6.9 seconds, and missed out on national qualification by 6.4 seconds, finishing 11th in the competition that took 10 to nationals.
That has only pushed Colwell to work even harder.
“Missing nationals by one spot was really tough,” he said. “It definitely adds to the fire. I want to beat Colton and be up there with him.”
Colwell and Sands will have another year of high school to compete with each other before both move on to the next stage of their careers. Both are talented runners who have been recruited by colleges to run at the next level. While the opportunity was lost for one season, Sands believes he’ll have many more to take on his teammate.
“I’m sure we’re going to be running at a high level by the time we reach the NCAA,” Sands said. “We’ll still be competing against one another. I’m looking forward to many more seasons and many more years of competing against him.”
Their window to compete against each other may have shrunk, but the Penns Valley duo will have one more go at each high school sport. At this time next year, both hope to have medals around their necks in the 3200-meter race.
This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
