It all started with a phone call.
Not yet in college, senior Aysha Gregory, captain of the Terrapin track and field team, still remembers picking up the line.
“Jillian called me before I even met her, and she was like, ‘We’re going to be rooming together,'” Gregory says, a nostalgic grin lighting up her face. “I could just tell over the phone she was a really cool person. She even put up with my little brother, who kept grabbing the telephone and trying to talk to her.”
She pauses. Her tone shifts.
“But when I met her, oh, I was scared,” Gregory says, thinking back to their first face-to-face encounter. “I’m 5-[foot]-5, and she’s like 6 feet tall. I was like, ‘This girl could kick my butt.'”
The potential bully Gregory is alluding to is senior teammate and fellow captain Jillian Anwah, who – giggling sheepishly at Gregory’s recounting of the tale – looks far more gentle giant than roommate tyrant.
In their careers together, Anwah and Gregory have blossomed into a powerful tandem of throwers for the Terps. The duo competes in discus, hammer and shot put, and each has collected numerous accolades along the way.
Gregory recently broke the Terp record in the hammer throw. This season she made the Championship of America in the event and is looking for a possible bid to nationals.
Jillian is the first woman in Terp history to ever to reach 50 feet in the shot and 60 feet in the weight. She made All-ACC in the shot put this year and ranks second all-time at the university in the shot put, discus and weight.
Anwah and Gregory have lived together since freshman year and – laughing with each other in the shed at Ludwig Field – their connection is obvious. Still, their paths could not have been more different.
In high school, Anwah played basketball before a knee injury in her senior year ended her career. She came to this university as an engineering major before contacting the track team about joining the squad.
Anwah remembers looking up Gregory on the Internet prior to their first phone conversation.
“I knew this girl Aysha Gregory from Wilmington, Del., was hot stuff,” Anwah says. “She had been doing track since like eight or nine [years old], and I had been doing track since like 17, so I was really nervous. I looked her up online, and there were like 8 billion articles.”
And then there was the photo.
“There was this picture of her like this,” says Anwah, standing up to strike the exaggerated pose, “and all you see is this quad, this amazing strength, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, all this year I’m going to be playing catch-up.'”
Anxious, she made the call.
“At that time, I was really intimidated, but when we talked on the phone it was cool,” Anwah says. “Even just random things, she likes blue, I like blue…”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” Gregory interrupts.
Anwah continues: “So for our room we coordinated and things like that, so that was nice.”
When they got on campus, Anwah leaned on Gregory to teach her the ins and outs of the relatively unfamiliar sport.
“In high school track I just came out when I could,” Anwah says. “[Gregory] helped me out with the little random things about track. Y’know, like at first I would wear basketball shorts [to practice].”
“I had to get her into the spandex movement,” Gregory explains.
They have watched each other grow on the field. As much as the sport has strengthened their relationship, their camaraderie has likewise helped them reach their record-breaking feats.
“Our performance and practicing together has helped our friendship, but me and Jillian are friends more than just because of track,” Gregory says. “There’s so much about her and about me that we share that maybe if it weren’t for track we wouldn’t be that close. But I trust her, and that relates both to taking advice when we are at meets and knowing that she would never steer me wrong in any part of my life.”
In four years, the two have been through a lot – from rooming together to an attempt at cross country that left both in stitches.
“We’re not very into cardio running,” Anwah jokes. “It’s just distance actually – don’t get it twisted. Throwers, they can be fast.”
Anwah looks pained as she describes the burning in their quads from the uphill climb. For the distance-averse throwers, the journey seemed endless.
“We swore it was gonna stop sooner than it did,” Gregory says.
“And it just kept going and going … We hit the bottom of the hill, and we’re like, ‘Ugh, we’re done [running],'” Anwah says. “Then we look to the left, and it’s all downhill from there. We were like, ‘Aw, we could have just ran that!'”
“So we were like, ‘C’mon, let’s go,’ and we started running again,” Gregory says.
The pair gets worked up while telling the story, finishing each other’s sentences and making sure no detail goes untold. They admit they reflect frequently on their accomplishments both on and off the field.
“We come back from every track meet, and we actually sit down … and we actually discuss this,” Gregory says.
Anwah continues, “If you think about our freshman year … just the development. Aysha learned a new event, hammer, and now she has the school record. It’s crazy.”
When posed the question of what life would be like without each other, they offered a uniform response: “Wow.”
Clearly it’s not something they like to envision.
“My experience at Maryland is really integral with Aysha,” Anwah says. “I would have been just an engineer with my books. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but just knowing how great [track] is – that would have really sucked.”
“Some people go through [track] by themselves, or they’re in a group and they don’t like each other. We like each other, and we have support for one another,” Gregory says. “I would definitely be really lonely [without Anwah].”
With the end of the semester and graduation rapidly approaching, the duo has been especially nostalgic. Every meet is their last home meet, their last ACC championship, their last Penn Relays.
“We never pictured it like this, but it’s not bad,” Gregory says. “For some reason I thought it was gonna be a little longer; I didn’t think it was gonna be over this soon.”
Anwah smiles warmly at her teammate.
“It is what it is,” she says.
Gregory concurs.
“It’s life.”
And it has become their lives, together – ever since that one phone call.
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