First-year Maryville High School track coach Nick White didn’t get much time with seniors Ellen Wortham and Ally Colvin, but he still was able to appreciate their athletic abilities.

Now that their high school careers have recently finished, White has taken stock of their cartography skills.

“Those two put Maryville track on the map,” he said.

A map mileage scale isn’t needed to figure the distance between Maryville and the college choice of Wortham and Colvin. The two will sign to run for the University of Tennessee at 12:30 today.

“We’re losing not only two good athletes but two kids who know how things work, what you’ve got to do to be successful,” said White. “Hopefully our younger kids were paying attention.”

Both athletes were highly recruited. Louisville, Miami, Memphis and Tennessee Tech were after Wortham. Chattanooga, Tennessee State, Memphis and Austin-Peay sought out Colvin.

Maryville finished in third place at last week’s Class AAA state meet at Middle Tennessee State. Wortham and Colvin played a role in all 50 of Maryville’s points.

Wortham won the state pentathlon to start off the week. She later won the high jump (5 feet, 6 inches) and placed second in the long jump (18-3), 300 hurdles (42.07 seconds) and 4x400 relay.

As a freshman at Tennessee, Wortham could score points as a multi-event athlete, White said.

“You run into a lot of kids who try to get by on their athletic ability,” he said. “But she’s a worker.

“She’s been a premier track athlete all four years of high school. . . . When she was younger, she beat (West star) Jackie Coward pretty easily — until Jackie grew up.”

Colvin, a middle-distance runner by trade, finished third in the state 800 meter in 2:19.86. White said Colvin could have qualified in the 3,200 and 1,600 but that relay members sacrificed personal events for a shot at winning the 4x400.

Maryville broke the state record in the event. But so did West, which took first (3:51.12) ahead of Maryville (3:51.82).

Colvin’s unselfishness left quite the impression on White, but so did the perseverance she displayed by running through hamstring and quadriceps injuries.

“I bet you she was running 45-50 miles per week while she was training through the season,” he said. “She’s one of those special kids who likes to run.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.