ANDERSON -- One of the most pleasant surprises of the spring season was the performance of Anderson sophomore Tremayne Brown Jr. for the Indians' track and field team.
Brown won a Madison County championship early in the year, went on to capture sectional and regional titles in the high jump, advanced to the state finals in two events and has been named the 2022 THB Sports Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
The only person not surprised by his performance may be Brown himself.
“This was on my mind from the beginning,” he said. “I was going for (state) from the beginning. That’s all I envisioned really, going to state.”
In just his second year competing in the sport — he started in seventh grade but could not run in eighth because of COVID and chose not to compete as a freshman — Brown served notice of his arrival in mid-April when he took the 110-meter hurdles at the county meet.
And, as it turns out, he was just warming up.
After failing in the county high jump — which was won by Frankton’s Braxton Walls at 6-feet — Brown soared to a personal best leap of 6-5 at Mount Vernon to win the sectional championship and advance to regional. His jump that evening also met the state standard.
But he was disappointed in his 110 hurdles performance. After qualifying fourth (15.30 seconds) in the preliminaries, Brown slipped to fifth with a time of 15.60 seconds, leaving him out of the automatic advance position.
“I was just trying to stay focused and get it off my mind and go on to the high jump,” he said.
He learned later his time was good enough for a callback to advance to regional. At Lawrence Central, he repeated his time of 15.60 to qualify for the finals in sixth place, finished in 15.29 in the finals to move up to third place and he was qualified for the state finals in his second event. He had already cleared 6-4 for the regional high jump title.
“I was very happy. It gave me another chance to go to state, and it was such a relief,” he said. “I was out there on the track every day, practicing hurdles. … I was very focused on it.”
Brown placed 25th in the 110-meter hurdles at Bloomington and earned a spot on the podium in the high jump when he cleared 6-6 on his third try to place eighth. It was the second height he cleared when facing elimination.
“I try to think about nothing and just look over the bar, focus on my form and my steps,” Brown said. “I didn’t really feel it at first. It didn’t even feel like I was there. But it felt great to put on that medal.”
The soft-spoken Brown originally began running track to help his favorite sport, which was football. A three-sport athlete at Anderson, he still loves football, but track is fast becoming his favorite and is something he hopes to continue beyond high school.
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin on June 10, 2022.