Sophomore hurdler Maya Rollins, a native of Ann Arbor, Mich., is a do-it-all student-athlete.
Academics and athletics are equally important to her — which was instilled by a few role models. One of those role models was her physics teacher at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, Mr. Armstrong. Before his class, Rollins had always been strong at math, though she did not love physics at the outset.
“He wouldn't let me quit,” Rollins said. “He was like, ‘Maya, you are great at this. You're going to be great at it.’ And he just wouldn't let me quit. And I fell in love with [physics].”
Even still, Rollins was hesitant to choose such a challenging degree.
"And I know I have an interest in it, [yet] I didn't want to fully commit, because that's a whole lot,” Rollins said. “But … I said, ‘You know what? Full steam ahead, this is what I'm doing.’”
Rollins is pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree, but “full steam ahead,” applies to her Virginia career as well. Rollins had an exceedingly strong freshman year — racking up achievements including the Virginia freshman record in the 60-meter hurdles and the third-fastest 100-meter hurdle time in Virginia program history.
This summer, she also took to the international stage to compete, taking home a win in the Barbados National Championships in the U20 100-meter women’s hurdles and securing the Barbados Junior National Record in the event.
But Rollins’ history with the track is much longer than most other runners can claim. In fact, she has been running since she was five.
This is a little less surprising once you learn that her father, Fabian Rollins, was not simply a collegiate athlete –– although he was at Eastern Michigan –– but also an Olympian, competing for Barbados in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 400 meters.
“[It] was the coolest thing, getting to be able to look up to him,” Maya said. “And he still is my biggest hero and biggest inspiration.”
Rollins’s dad was her coach from the time she started running up until the end of high school, and, going into the college recruiting process, she knew she wanted a coach like her dad — one who had a fun and positive personality but was also going to push her to achieve.
Her dad happened to find Virginia’s assistant coach LaRon Bennett, who was a three-time NCAA All-American in the 400 meter hurdles himself, and they decided to reach out to him.
Rollins immediately clicked with Bennett on a coaching level but also found a lot of overlap in their Christian faith.
“The best thing that he has said about [racing] was, ‘Don't think about it too much,’” Rollins said, “‘God already knows … What is going to happen with this race. All you can do is prepare to show the world the gift that he has blessed you with.’ And I think that is the best thing I've ever heard, and it completely wipes away all that stress and anxiety.”
Rollins uses this approach to her races, accepting whatever happens but also that there is not much more she can do than run.
For the National Championships in Barbados, Rollins realized this on an even higher level when she discovered that –– as she was heading into the preliminary round –– the air-infused sole of her right spike had popped, possibly damaging the shoe’s stability. But she maintained a positive attitude.
“I said, ‘You know what? Who cares? I still have my feet, and the shoes are shoes. It's fine,’” Rollins said. “So we got onto that line, and I said, ‘Okay, I'm just gonna run.’”
Rollins came out of the race qualifying for finals, broken spikes and all.
Even after qualifying, Rollins did not have an alternate pair of spikes, so she had to head back into the finals at a potential disadvantage. However, she had a strong warmup and wanted the win — and that is exactly what she got. Rollins crossed the line in first place with a new title behind her.
“To hear all the cheers and to see all my family that I don't see very often because I'm in the U.S., it was so, so special,” Rollins said.
Barbados was not Rollins’s only stop for the summer. She also headed to Paraguay for the 2025 Junior Pan American Games, where she placed second in the 100-meter hurdles final. When she talked about these races, Rollins highlighted the heightened sense of competition.
“You're watching all these people compete and run and practice,” Rollins said. “I know I'm gonna do well here, because iron sharpens iron, as it says in the Bible, if I'm running against the best people in my age group, I'm gonna do well.
Coming to Virginia in the fall of 2024, like in her international races, involved a big shift in the level of competition compared to the more relaxed high school track mentality.
High school track programs typically include a wide range of people –– there are those who want to run, jump or throw in college but also just as many people who are there primarily for the fun of the sport or to stay in shape for their main sport. But, joining the Cavaliers, Rollins noticed a clear difference.
“Everyone [is] trying to push the human body past its limits, and then even further than that,” Rollins said.
As a short-distance hurdler, Rollins has to have the capabilities of a sprinter while staying in enough control to vault over each hurdle. Like sprinters, because the race is so short, every movement and moment matters.
“From the block start, to the eight steps that we take before that first hurdle, to how our knee lifts over it, to how our foot is flexed over the hurdle, [there are] all those tiny, tiny little details,” Rollins said. “It is a race to every single hurdle. It's not just a race to the finish line, because if you are off a teeny bit, especially at some faster speeds, you can get tripped up very easily.”
This year, Rollins hopes the work she puts into refining each of these parts of her race will allow her to break 13 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and to achieve an ACC win in the event for outdoor track.
However, Rollins cannot just be focused on her races, since she has plenty going on outside of her sport. When Rollins is not on the track perfecting her technique, sprinting or doing strength training, she is more than a little busy getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Clearly, when Rollins decides to commit to something, whether it is hurdling, her faith or her major, she is ready to give it her all.
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