Southland’s Lewison is set to run at Minnesota State
Published 7:48 pm Wednesday, November 22, 2017
- Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Kingsland/Southland’s Drew Lewison clears the first hurdle in the finals of the 300 meter hurdles of the Minnesota Class A State Track and Field Meet at Hamline University in St. Paul last season. Herald File Photo
A year ago, Southland senior Drew Lewison wasn’t sure if he was even going to run the 300-meter hurdles. Now Lewison is not only going to try to run that race in college, he has his sights set on chasing a state title this spring.
Lewison recently committed to compete on the Minnesota State University in Mankato track and field team next season and he has the possibility of earning an athletic scholarship with the Mavericks if he proves to be a productive point scorer in his freshman season.
“I’m pretty excited. I think it’s going to be a lot different running at the next level,” Lewison said.
After he went through some struggles in his sophomore season, Lewison was ready to give up on the 300-meter hurdles last season, but when his coach made him run the race in a meet for GMLOKS, Lewison started to make strides. By the end of the year, he took fifth in the Minnesota Class A state meet with a time of 39.86 seconds and he took 12th in state in the 110-hurdles with a time of 16.33 seconds.
Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Southland’s Drew Lewison competes in the second heat of the 110 high hurdles last season at the Minnesota Class AA State Track and Field Meet at Hamiline University in St. Paul. Herald File Photo
“I realized I was a little faster and then I worked in practice and then I started to enjoy them more as I got better,” Lewison said. “As the season went along, I figured out how to run them better. Before I started off way too slow, thinking I needed a lot of energy for the end. Then I started running faster at the beginning and it shaved off a lot of time.”
Lewison was a bundle of nerves at the state meet this past spring, but getting on the podium at state drove his confidence to higher levels. Now he’s hoping to get his 300 time down to the 38s and he’d like to win a state title.
“Last year I got a lot of the nerves out and I’m looking forward to this year. I think I’ll be a lot less nervous,” Lewison said. “It was a lot different than the year before when I didn’t even get on the podium at sections. It made me realize that I could be successful with it.”
As he looks toward his college career, Lewison plans on focusing on the longer hurdle races and he may run the 400-meter hurdles when he gets to MSU.
He’s also thankful for those that have helped him along the way.
“I’d like to thank all of my teammates and coaches from over the years,” Lewison said. “My teammates helped push me in practice and that helps out a lot.”
