Abby Garrett and Will Freeman hoped to cross the finish line on Season 34 of “The Amazing Race,” but fate had another plan for the couple from Alabama.

Garrett and Freeman, high-school sweethearts from Mountain Brook, were eliminated on Wednesday’s episode of the CBS reality series after Freeman tested positive for COVID-19.

The two were in the middle of a race leg in Jordan when they were cut from the competition, and had made it through five previous episodes. Garrett and Freeman traveled to Germany, Austria and Italy before they were ousted — deciphering clues, navigating unfamiliar routes, dealing with detours, getting past roadblocks and more.

Were they disappointed when COVID stopped them in their tracks? Absolutely. Garrett, 24, a data scientist, and Freeman, 25, an accountant, are self-proclaimed “superfans” of “The Amazing Race” who’ve been planning their competition strategies for years. They also were in the running for a $1 million prize.

Still, the couple made their exit on this week’s episode with grace and good humor, thanking the TV series — and host Phil Keoghan — for giving them an opportunity to compete.

“I was pretty crushed,” Freeman said in an interview published Thursday by Parade magazine. “I feel like I ruined our chances.”

“You didn’t ruin it!,” Garrett chimed in. “It is hard being the one that tested positive. I wanted to try and keep high spirits for him. But the night that we knew he tests positive, there were ugly sobs.”

Episodes of “The Amazing Race” are filmed in advance. Garrett and Freeman said frequent COVID tests for the contestants were on the agenda during filming, to protect the cast and crew. When Freeman’s test came back positive in Jordan, after a race leg in Italy, their journey on the show came to an abrupt conclusion.

The couple said they were quarantined at a hotel while the race continued without them.

“It was tough because all I could do was rethink the legs and think about what we could be doing,” Freeman said in an exit interview with Gold Derby. “It was really the thinking ahead of, like, today the teams are racing. We should be there or we could be there.”

Garrett and Freeman were in the middle of the pack throughout the competition, never winning a leg but never being in danger of elimination. They were among 12 teams competing on Season 34, and the only team from Alabama.

“Our whole mindset throughout the race was ‘slow and steady wins the race,’” Garrett told Parade. “We felt like we were kind of a slow burn that was just going to peak at the right time. And I think what’s hard is we never got to see the peak. Middle of the pack teams, you never really get to know.”

Although the couple was never among the most high-profile teams on the Emmy-winning reality competition show, they had hoped to make a bigger impression in the adventures to come. Leaving with little fanfare was a letdown, Garrett said.

“You want to go out swinging,” Garrett told Gold Derby. “You ran as hard as you could. You competed as hard as you could. You gave it your all. I think that’s what’s so hard — there wasn’t any of that. It’s just positive test, boom, over, just like that. There’s not even a leg to come to terms with, ‘Yeah, we’re back of the pack.’ You see people people crying in the back of the cab and have this beautiful moment. It’s just we got a test and it’s over.”

As contestants on “The Amazing Race,” Garrett and Freeman were following in the footsteps of other Alabama teams who’ve made their marks on the show.

Chuck and Wynonna McCall of Daphne, for example, competed on Season 22, which aired in spring 2013. The married couple, affectionately known as “Team Mullet,” became fan favorites and took sixth place.

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Anthony Battaglia, a former Huntsville Havoc hockey player, teamed with his brother, Bates Battaglia, on the same season as the McCalls, winning the $1 million prize. (“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” Anthony said.)

Also, Lyn Turk and Karlyn Harris, longtime friends from Birmingham and Helena, teamed as “The Bamas” on “Amazing Race” in 2006 and took third place.