Brandywine’s Adam Petersen hits the switch, and a new light comes on
Track & Field coverage presented by ATT Sports, Inc.
By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent
To say Adam Petersen discovered track and field this spring isn’t entirely accurate. It’s more like the sport found him.
Brandywine Heights’ junior didn’t even know he was on the team until his mom signed him up. He didn’t start running sprints until midway through the season. No one had a more unconventional path to the top of the medal stand.
It turned out the fastest kid in Class 2A was a soccer player from a school that doesn’t even have a home track. Petersen finished the 100 in 11.21 and took gold at the District 3 championships at Shippensburg Saturday.
“It doesn’t feel real yet,” he said afterward. “I didn’t expect any of this.”
Brandywine Heights track and field athletes were part of a co-op with Kutztown before the Bullets started to compete on their own last year. Petersen became the first athlete in a Brandywine uniform to win a District 3 event, according to the district’s web site.
A few hours later, he did it again. Petersen teamed up with Tyler McCulloch, Dakota Thomas and Josh Sterner to win the 1600 relay.
Petersen was often pestered by his friends to give track a shot. He said he was hooked on his new sport at the first meet: The Oxenreider Relays. He was a long jumper then and posted a 19-2.25 out of the gate.
Once he started to learn technique with the long jump, his results actually got worse. He gave up flying into the sand in favor of running as fast as he could. The short sprint became his niche.
“I was like, ‘This is really fun,’ ” Petersen said. “The fastest kids do the 100. It’s mostly football players and I play soccer. I’m always the smallest guy in the blocks and I smoke them all. It’s cool.”
Petersen makes the 10-mile trip from Mertztown to Kutztown each day after school. The teams still practice together. He developed a friendship and a fun rivalry with Kutztown senior Lennon Neiman, who finished second in Class 2A in the 100.
The friends posed for pictures on the stand after they received their medals. Both earned the chance to compete at states Friday and Saturday.
“It’s fun,” said Neiman, who was also a running back at Kutztown. “We’re always trying to beat each other. We always pick at each other to see who gets the better time. He beats me and then I beat him.”
There’s plenty of playful banter between the friends before the results are posted.
“We’re always talking crap to each other,” Petersen said. “But by the end of the day we were just so hype to be here together. We knew we were going to be 1 and 2.”
Neiman entered the 100 finals as the top qualifier with Petersen ranked second. Neiman finished the final race in 11.26. Both athletes posted PRs at the perfect time.
Petersen has no intention of being a one-hit wonder. The junior plans to return next season to see if he can keep lowering his numbers.
Who knows where track might take him next? He never thought he’d be standing on the Shippensburg infield in the first place.
“I guess kids train their whole lives for this,” Petersen said. “I don’t know. It feels unreal. I’ve got a new light. I’m really excited.”
A new light to go with two shiny new medals.
