By moving from the men’s cross country category to the women’s, a male high school sophomore has become one of the best ‘female’ runners in the state.
Former cross country runner Teagan Ewings feels a bit bewildered watching her sister, Teanne, run at high school meets.
That’s because Teanne Ewings has to run against a boy who identifies as a girl.
“When I was in high school, even the thought of a transgender athlete being in my race was not even on my radar,” 21-year-old Teagan Ewings told The Epoch Times.
But much has changed in school sports.
Even just a year ago, a 16-year-old cross-country runner from Maine Coast Waldorf School (MCWS), ran as a boy.
He placed 172nd in the state men’s cross country during his freshman year.
But then he grew his short hair out and transitioned to women’s cross country. Now, his running times allow him to be considered one of the state’s top girl runners.
In a meet on Oct. 5, he won the 5K (3.1 mile) race with a time of 18:09, beating the second-place girl, Emma Young, by 66 seconds.
As of Sept. 26, he ranked fifth in the state among all women and third among the state’s small-school athletes, according to online rankings by Maine track and cross country time website MileSplit.
Teanne Ewings ranks second overall and second in the state’s division for small-school athletes.
The Epoch Times attempted to contact the male runner, but his Instagram is private. His profile picture shows a crying child, along with the Pride flag and transgender pride flag.
The Epoch Times contacted MCWS but received no comment by publication time.
The Maine Principals Association (MPA) emailed The Epoch Times a statement that state law requires them to include him in women’s sports.
“The Maine Principals’ Association is committed to working with schools across the entire state to ensure that Maine State Law is followed,” the MPA’s statement reads.
“The state of Maine recently enacted laws that explicitly prohibit ‘Unlawful educational discrimination in schools based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, a physical or mental disability, ancestry, national origin, race, color, or religion.'”
