Finding their stride: Foundation Academy sprinters have rose to the top of the track

Finding success never is a straight pathway. 

Foundation Academy’s top track-and-field athletes, Lee Peters and Noah McMullen, understand how to navigate the path to find their true calling. McMullen’s plan never was to pick up track, and for Peters it always was there, but it was waiting for her to grab the reins and take it seriously. 

As juniors, McMullen and Peters began to find their stride. McMullen’s coach encouraged him to join track, while Peters’ dad encouraged her to take her craft seriously. 

Now as seniors, they’ve both dedicated themselves to the physical demand track requires and are dominating from the first block. Although they came from different backgrounds, their journeys now runs side-by-side and they have become Foundation’s top boys and girls track-and-field athletes. 

CHANGING POINT

McMullen had his sights set on football. The wide receiver was dedicated to his craft and didn’t think to pick up another passion. 

But everything changed last year when one of his coaches planted the seed to begin track. Lifting weights only can do so much. Yes, it was making him stronger, but his speed remained the same. 

The seed was planted in McMullen’s mind and a year ago he joined Foundations’s track- and-field team, where he found a new passion. 

While he was finding his footing in track, Peters was discovering how to improve. She had started soccer in second grade and track in third. The two sports always have been important to her and she continued playing them together throughout the years, becoming faster than her older competitors. 

“I’ve always known the gift that God gave me was track,” Peters said. “I knew ever since I was younger and I got to the races, I remember my first time racing and one of my dad’sfriends said, ‘Is that your daughter? She’s super fast.’” 

She was a 10-year-old who was beating 13-year-olds and she continued to improve. But the young star began to pull back from the track scene due to her age. Peters was young and didn’t know if track was truly going to be for her or if it would be a hobby. 

“I kind of stopped training year-round,” Peters said. “I was just doing the season, not really committing outside of that. I still made states, still medaled, but I wasn’t at that next level.” 

It changed during her junior year. Her dad asked, “Do you want to take this seriously?” Peters thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s do it,” and jumped on board. 

What followed was her finding a new level of commitment to track, unlike anything she had ever done before. She went to her coaches Tyson Gay and Tisifenne Taylor for help making her goal a reality. 

Peters began training two months before the season with sprints and distance running to prepare her body, unknowing of the outcome. In her first race back, she recorded a PR. 

At that moment, she realized the work was paying off and she needed to keep working at it. McMullen, too, realized his track efforts drastically improved his speed in football. 

“It translated a lot,” he said. “The year before I wasn’t moving like I was last year. But then I saw a drastic change. If I had a go ball, which is when you run straight and the quarterback will throw it to you to try and get a touchdown, I was beating whoever was guarding me pretty much every time. It wasn’t even really a competition because I would just run right by them.”

FINDING THEIR STRIDE

McMullen and Peters said their improvements never would have been possible without their two coaches, Gay, a former Olympian, and Taylor, who has coached Peters for five years. 

Peters credited her coaches to help her believe in herself and push her to work harder than she ever thought she would be able to. She learned how dedication and consistency create real results and the importance of maintaining a positive attitude when she’s out on the track. 

Their training plan consists of many early mornings and afternoon practices, but it never is a struggle. McMullen said Gay paces the runners through everything, he has a plan of when to do speed work and timeliness when closing out practices to ensure their bodies aren’t extra fatigued. 

Since meets typically are on Fridays, Peters said the team is speed training four to five times per week and lifting twice per week. They lift Tuesdays and Sundays, which gives the team enough weight room time for their muscles to have power and make them faster, but also they aren’t too sore when running. In April, they will cut the weight training to prevent the extra fatigue and “heaviness” their body feels. 

“I honestly didn’t know how fast I could be,” McMullen said. “I knew I had more speed than most other kids, but (Taylor) would yell at me a bit or get on me about doing the little things right because she’d say, ‘You’re a lot better than that.’”

She helped fix his starting-off technique, and before McMullen knew it, he was dropping his time at every meet. 

He recorded his first first-place finish in the 4x100 with a time of 44.71 seconds at the Foundation Invitational Friday, Feb. 27. Then he followed up with a new PR and his second first-place finish in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.06 seconds at the Mount Dora Christian Academy Meet 1 Thursday, March 12. 

McMullen shaved a second off his time in the 100-meter dash this year compared to last, and he’s using his results and production to help him retrieve a track scholarship for college. 

Peters already has committed to the University of Tennessee and won the state title last year in the 100-meter dash, as well as second place in the 200-meter dash. But she already has seen further improvements in her senior year. She recorded a PR in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.33 seconds at the Florida High School Indoor State Championships Saturday, Feb. 7. She then recorded a PR in the 100-meter with her time of 11.35 seconds at the 2026 Bob Hayes High School Invite Saturday, March 21. 

Both of their plans are to continue staying consistent with their training plans to produce a state medal this year. McMullen said last season he jumped the gun, which disqualified him, and this time around, he is much more prepared with his reaction time to ensure the same outcome doesn’t come to fruition. 

Through the journey, all of Foundation’s track-and-field team will continue to push each other and support their teammates, while they tackle the mental challenges of an individual sport, such as projecting negative thoughts and nerves. 

“Having the support of teammates is so important,” Peters said. “I feel like they really push you, and those are your teammates but I feel like they’re family. You don’t want to let your family down, so you’re constantly trying to push each other and help each other.” 

McMullen said racing against their “sibling” is what makes each practice and each meet even more competitive.