Peterson’s Times Catching Up to His Mind

John Goldhammer, track and field coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, says Elisha Peterson is like most others on his team. Only 18, Peterson is still improving as a distance runner. He’s not a leader, not a captain. And physically, nothing stands out about him.

“You couldn’t tell him from any other college student,” Goldhammer said.

But Peterson is far from the average college student.

Peterson enrolled at Harvey Mudd College when he was only 15. Saying that running relieved stress, he immediately joined the cross-country team.

Now a junior, with a chance to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in math, he plans to stay in school and run next year, hoping he can qualify for nationals in the 5,000 meters.

But Peterson has another plan too.

He has had all A’s so far and hopes to become only the fourth person in school history to maintain a 4.0 grade-point average for his entire undergraduate career.

“I do worry about it,” said Peterson, who completed second and third grades in one year and sixth and seventh grades in another and was taking high school courses when he was 10. “But it’s not my end-all goal. If I do it, great, if I don’t I’ll live with it.”

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t confident.

“I know I can do it,” he said. “It’s just up to how hard I work. After my first semester, I was surprised. But after that I got used to it.”

And the work that Peterson does in the classroom is equaled only by the work he has done on the track.

When he joined Goldhammer’s team, Peterson was running the 5,000 in 17-plus minutes.

Now, his best time is 15:39, and he’s hoping to get it down to 15 flat and become one of the best in the event in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

“His margin of improvement has been phenomenal each year,” Goldhammer said. “He’s figured out mathematically that if he continues his rate of improvement, he’ll break 15 flat.

“If he can run 14:45, that’s good enough for nationals. He should be our No. 1 runner next year.”

There are two reasons for Peterson’s drastic improvement, the first an entirely natural one. Since he started college at 15, his body has been maturing. He is only now the age of most freshmen, still the second-youngest runner on the team.

The other is his work ethic. Last summer, when he stayed at school to work on a mathematical research project, he ran 1,200 miles in 15 weeks.

About the only thing Peterson doesn’t have a grasp on is what he wants to do once he’s out of school.

But he has plenty of time to figure that out. He’s already two years ahead of most juniors.

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Azusa Pacific senior guard T.J. Walker is one of only two repeat NAIA first-team basketball All-Americans, the first player in Golden State Athletic Conference history to earn the honor twice. Joining him on the first team was Westmont’s Brian Gomes. Jack Hartman of Biola and Josh Giles of Concordia were selected for the second team.

Elizabeth Hansell of The Master’s College was selected for the women’s third team.

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Occidental guard Anna Celaya was chosen the SCIAC women’s basketball player of the year for the second year in a row. She led the conference in scoring, assists and steals, was sixth in free-throw shooting and seventh in rebounding. . . . The Cal Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer women both lost in the first round of the Division III national tournament. Cal Lutheran lost by two to Pacific Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer lost by 30 to Gustavus Adolphus of St. Peter, Minn.

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Cal State Los Angeles sophomore Nicole Duncan won the Division II national championship in the long jump with a jump of 19 feet 10.75 inches. She also finished sixth in the 55 meters.

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Quincy Stinson of Cal State L.A. was selected for the Division II men’s basketball all-West region first team. Chosen for the second team were Jair Fray of Cal State Dominguez Hills and Jimmy Alapag of Cal State San Bernardino. San Bernardino also had the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. coach of the year in Larry Reynolds, who led his team to the national round of eight. On the women’s side, freshman Lauri McIntosh of Cal Poly Pomona made the region’s first team.

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In women’s Division III swimming, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps finished 16th in the nation, Pomona-Pitzer 19th and Redlands 26th. Top individuals were Claremont’s Lauren Williams and Anna Armstrong. Williams finished third in the 1,650-yard freestyle and 400 individual medley, setting SCIAC records in both. Armstrong also set a SCIAC record with a fourth-place finish in the 200 butterfly. On the men’s side, Claremont tied for seventh and Pomona-Pitzer was 50th. Claremont’s Steven Brende set the SCIAC record in the 50 freestyle. Claremont’s 200 freestyle relay team also set one.

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Cal State Bakersfield and UC Riverside played one of the longest softball games in Division II history March 12, an 18-inning game won by Bakersfield, 5-4. It was the longest in CCAA history, and seventh-longest in Division II.

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In Division II swimming, Cal State Bakersfield finished second in the nation, relinquishing its title to Drury College of Springfield, Mo.