First let's draw an image to represent this situation:
In order to find the distance between Maria and Shawn, we can use the Pythagorean theorem in the right triangle created. So we have:
[tex]\begin{gathered} x^2=7^2+6^2 \\ x^2=49+36 \\ x^2=85 \\ x=\sqrt[]{85}=9.22 \end{gathered}[/tex]Rounding to the nearest tenth, the distance is 9.2 feet.