March was an eventful month for Garden City High School senior Maddie Adams. She was named a News 12/Citibank Scholar Athlete and, along with several team members, achieved All-American status for her performance at the National Scholastic Sports Foundation's Nike Indoor National Championships in Maryland.

Adams is captain of Garden City's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field teams. She started track in the winter of her freshman year. With each race it was clear that her strength as a runner was growing. "We knew that at some point she was just going to explode," her coach, Erica Fregosi, remembered. The explosion occurred soon, during a workout early in the spring. "She took off and there was no looking back," Coach Fregosi said.

As a freshman at the state meet, Adams held her own among the best athletes in New York, taking seventh place in the mile. By the time she was a junior she had entered the ranks of elite runners. Her personal bests are 61.0 in the 400 meter; 1:38.71 in the 600 meter; 2:15.0 in the 800 meter; 4:56:47 in the mile; 7:08:10 in the 2000 meter steeplechase; 10:13.5 in the 3000 meter; and 18:57.5 in the 5000 meter. Among her athletic achievements this year are placing second in the Distance Medley Relay and fourth in the 4x800 Relay team events at the Nike Indoor National Championships.

"Maddie is the core of Garden City's varsity track team. She comes to practice everyday ready to work. We never have to ask her to do something twice, and during workouts she gives 100 percent," Coach Fregosi said in an interview with News 12. "There is never a moment of negativity, only positive thought and goal setting-Maddie is all about the how can I get better; what do I have to do to improve?"

Adams' unweighted academic average is 95.54 percent. She plans to attend Yale University in September and is the district's third News 12/Citibank Scholar Athlete of the year of only 30 awarded island-wide. She is a member of the National Honor Society and Tri-M Music Honor Society, has received a National Merit Scholarship Commendation, is a Peer AIDS Leader and recently participated in the National Young Leadership Conference.