Jalon HillSophomore track and field runner Gordon Lewis is out to prove something. You might even say he has a chip on his shoulder while doing so.
The Fredericksburg, Va. native holds the most records of any sport in Riverbend High School history. He currently holds the record for the 55-, 100-, 200-, 300-, and 400-meter races.
His consistent success on the track has also earned Lewis a spot on the Free-Lance Star All-Area team twice and the Virginia All-State team three times.
But in spite of his impressive list of accomplishments, Lewis wasn’t on many schools’ recruiting radar.
Lewis said that he felt “overlooked” and “disappointed” that he didn’t get as many offers as he believed he deserved.
NCCU was the only school to offer Lewis a full scholarship. But that was enough to help him regain his confidence.
“I went through a period where I didn’t believe I was good enough to run at a Division I level,” he explained. “But since then it’s been one of my top motivators.”
He has used his lack of offers as motivation since his arrival at NCCU whenever he participates in both the 200-meter and 400-meter relays.
Gordon also credits his mother as his motivation and biggest reason for his track and field success.
“I don’t want my mom to have to pay for college, so the better I do the less chance she will have to pay,” Lewis said. “She has always pushed for me to do whatever I liked and be the best I could possibly be at it. My mom supported me no matter what I did, so having her support when I changed sports help me gain the confidence to try and run track.”
Lewis was a three-sport athlete in high school as he also played football and basketball. Even though he excelled in all three, track was always his true passion.
“I’ve been running for six years and I chose it because I genuinely enjoy it,” he explained. “No matter how hard my day has been or how hard practice gets, I’ll always end up with a smile on my face by the time I’m done running.”
Lewis would eventually set the record for the 200-meter dash with a time of 20.82 seconds at the 2018 MEAC Outdoor Championship.
Jazire Notice, a teammate of Lewis’ at NCCU, had high praise for the record-setting runner not only as a teammate but as a competitor as well.
“As a teammate, he’s very motivating and encouraging. When we are in the same event group when running things that I’m not the fastest at, he pushes and pulls me to where I need to be. He encourages my best performance overall, as well as other members of the team,” Notice said.
“Every time he steps on the track, no matter who he lines up against he gets the job done. Hands down, one of the best teammates I’ve had.”
Outside of his passion for running, Gordon also loves to watch anime and play video games in his spare time to wind down. He hopes to keep excelling in track while he is in school and continue his career on a professional level after graduation along with using his computer science degree to one day become a software developer.
