Math & Science Academy’s McKaylen Lewis listens to her body and her family as she chases Minnesota track and field history

Malcolm Lewis propped his crutches against the stairs of his family’s Woodbury home to sit next to his younger sister, McKaylen, at the kitchen table.

Some injuries are sudden, forcing athletes to a jarring halt. That was Malcolm’s — an Achilles tendon, ruptured at a track meet in March.

Other injuries require quietly listening to the limits of one’s body and trying something no track and field athlete loves to do: Slow down.

McKaylen’s nagging pain was the latter.

In early May, her family sat in uncertainty, knowing that the next day they would hear whether she had the green light to go back to chasing the track and field state record of 20 feet, 1¼ inches and defending two state titles.

“Last year I had really big expectations, and obviously kind of blew them away,” said McKaylen Lewis, a Math & Science Academy sophomore. “ ‘Oh, I need to do that again.’ It’s just been a lot of pressure I’ve been putting on myself.”

In April, Lewis had logged a 19-foot, 4½-inch performance to win the Hamline Elite Meet — short of her personal best, but still the best girls long jump mark in Minnesota this spring. Then, when she finished her 100-meter prelims, she felt a “weird pressure” in her hip, one that had bothered her in the past, but never this badly.

“I felt like I could not even walk,” she said.

She decided to withdraw from the meet’s 100 finals. Her mom, Raylesha Creighton-Lewis, said the Dragons coaches were understanding, but it didn’t make the moment any easier.

“Last year was full of highs,” Creighton-Lewis said. “And then this season is kind of … ” She paused. “Different.”

The strain didn’t completely pause her sophomore season. This weekend, she bounced back and qualified for state again in the long jump and high jump, placing first in both at the Class 1A, Section 4 meet.

Last year at state, Lewis capped off her freshman year with state gold in long jump and high jump. Her 19-9 jump last June set a state championship record and earned audible gasps from the crowd when the distance was announced.

“I probably wore my medals until I fell asleep,” Lewis said.

Later that summer, she jumped 20-1¼ at an AAU club competition — a distance that equaled the all-time Minnesota State High School League record held by St. Michael-Albertville alum Anna Keefer.

Trying to reach that mark this spring, slowed by a hip strain, has taught Lewis patience and the importance of listening to both her body and her support system as she chases Minnesota history. She’s trying to grapple with a question only a small handful of student-athletes face:

You made history as a freshman. What’s next?

Lewis’ mom, uncle and grandfather all ran track in Iowa, so when Lewis was 4 years old, Raylesha Creighton-Lewis signed her kids up for youth running programs at their local YMCA. She recalls warning her daughter that the 400-meter dash might be tougher than she thought, but a young Lewis was insistent that she could sprint her way through a whole lap.

After tripping in the first few steps, Lewis clambered to her feet and finished second.

“When she says she can do it, I’m just going to get out of the way,” Creighton-Lewis said.

Lewis leapt from citywide YMCA meets to club programs at Woodbury, then East Ridge. She joined the Math and Science Academy, or MSA, varsity team as an eighth-grader.

MSA, a charter school in Woodbury, is ranked as the No. 1 school in Minnesota by U.S. News & World Report. Lewis’ two older brothers were both enrolled, giving her a “sibling preference” in the school’s competitive lottery system.

But in athletics, MSA’s state championships are rare gems. The crew of four track and field athletes who represented the Dragons at state last year — including Malcolm — was a relatively big group for MSA.

MSA doesn’t have its own high jump and long jump pits, or even a track. Instead, the team bounces between local rental spaces. Using Tartan High School’s equipment on Saturday mornings, Lewis picked up high jumping less than two months before state last year.

“It speaks a lot to the dedication to the kids,” Dragons coach Alex Brault said. “We’re a smaller school. We’re a track team without a track, at this point. We’ve worn that as a badge of honor. We tell the kids all the time we have to control what we can control.”

During the team awards at last year’s state meet, Lewis and her family were weaving through the packed parking lot when they heard her school‘s name called over the stadium loudspeakers, asking the Dragons to report to the podium. Lewis backtracked so she could receive the hefty third-place team trophy, all by herself.

Her two titles, plus second place in the 200, had scored enough points to single-handedly give the MSA girls their best-ever finish at state.

Long-jumping 19-9 at state “blew away my own expectations,” Lewis said.

Lewis had to wait almost three weeks between the Hamline Elite Meet that aggravated her hip and feedback from her physical therapy assessment, gauging the severity of her injury and whether she could ease back into training ahead of her section meet.

Her family had just gone through the disheartening circuit of doctors with Malcolm, who finished seventh at state in long jump last year.

“And all of the hope … that’s been harder than anything,” Creighton-Lewis said.

But the news from Lewis’ assessment was positive: a minor strain, with physical training that would hopefully answer a lingering discomfort that had Lewis feeling like she wasn’t competing to her full capacity.

At least not yet.

“I’m kind of a people pleaser, so if someone asked me to do [more], then I’ll probably do it,” Lewis said. “But now I’m getting better [at pulling back] because I think my body is forcing me. … With this injury and all, knowing when to stop is really important.”

For someone who is only a sophomore, and whose track season extends into the summer for AAU and U.S. Track & Field nationals, “my coaches and parents understand. They want to make sure I’m not taking myself out for this season,” said Lewis, who placed third in long jump at nationals in her 15-16 age group last summer.

“We’re coaching high schoolers, right?” Brault said. “Keeping in mind that regardless of all of her success, past, current and future, she’s still a kid … keeping things loose and fun and not always thinking about times, results, placements.”

There has been plenty to keep Lewis busy when she’s had to pull back: pre-calculus homework that’s part of a rigorous MSA schedule; going to meets to cheer on her teammates; learning to drive with her dad; manning the front desk of the YMCA where she first tried track.

But just because there are ways to pass time doesn’t make it easy.

“My family, they’ve all been there,” Lewis said. “I’ve talked to them about how I feel, and they do a really good job of calming me down and saying, ‘McKaylen, it’s OK. You have a lot of time.’

“That’s really when the support is really important,” she said. “When you’re winning like that, it’s easy to be confident, but when you’re hurt or down, I think that’s really where the support from family and coaches comes in.”

Her goal is to jump 20 feet consistently, then to eventually crack 21 and compete in college. For comparison, Keefer went on to reach 21-6 at North Carolina, where she won an ACC long jump title.

“She talks about the Olympics,” Creighton-Lewis said. “She’s serious.“

Even while Lewis waited for the results from her P.T. assessment, talking about last year’s windy June day that ended with three medals around her neck and a bulky team trophy in her hands was more motivating than bittersweet.

“It’s all good,” she said. “Thinking about it is a really happy memory, rather than a tainted memory. I know I can get back there. So it’s all good. I get to be proud of what I did.”