Even as a lacrosse player, Sam Freeman’s potential to excel in track and field shone through.

So much so, in fact, that at Scotts Valley High, two NCAA Division I-caliber runners recruited him for their relay team — and he became a Division I runner himself.

Now a sophomore at Fordham University in New York City, Freeman became the first of those runners to win a college race back in December. Competing in the Rams’ first indoor track meet of the season, the Youree Spence-Garcia Invitational in Staten Island, Freeman outdueled Manhattan’s Jaiden Bradshaw to win the 400 meters with a time of 49.92 seconds.

Freeman’s time was just three-tenths of a second off his previous personal best, set at last year’s Atlantic 10 Conference championships, where he finished 11th.

“I’m very happy with that,” Freeman said in early January. “It’s a very good sign.

“Hopefully I’ll be running even faster times come conference.”

With the Atlantic 10 Championship coming up on Feb. 28 in Virginia, Freeman is accomplishing that goal: The 6-foot-2 sprinter obliterated his previous personal record in the 400 on Jan. 17 at the Ramapo College Season Opener, clocking in at 49.10. He also helped Fordham’s men’s 4×400 relay team win with a season-best time of 3:19.82.

He’s added more triumphs on the track since then: Freeman won the open division in the 200 on Jan. 24 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s River Hawk Invitational, posting a time of 21.78. He also placed second in the 500 that day, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:04.68, and added another second-place finish in the 500 on Jan. 31 at Manhattan University’s Metropolitan Championship.

Freeman competed in both lacrosse and track until his junior year at Scotts Valley. Both are spring sports: A long-stick midfielder for the Falcons’ lacrosse team, he’d compete in a match on Thursday, then run in an invitational track meet on Saturday.

There came a point, though, when Freeman discovered he wasn’t posting the times he wanted to in track because of the punishment his body took as he was running long distances in lacrosse.

“My job was to bring the ball up and down the field on every single play, from one end of the field to the other,” Freeman said. “I would just get hacked on by other teams. When you’re running the ball up and down the field, people are going to hit you (with their sticks) and it was bruising my legs.

“It was hard to run as fast as I possibly could when I was getting hacked the day before.”

Still, Freeman ran fast enough to draw the attention of two elite Scotts Valley distance runners who are now at Division I universities: Jeremy Kain, who now runs for Duke, and Austin George, who competes for the University of Portland, recruited Freeman to run the 400-meter leg of the Falcons’ distance medley relay (DMR). That relay team also included Ryder Brabo, who was listed on Sacramento State’s men’s track roster in 2023.

The first time the foursome ran the DMR together, they set a school record at a meet in Aptos. The relay team also performed well at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational in Southern California.

“I had good chemistry with those guys,” Freeman said. “We liked each other and we all wanted to do well for each other.”

Freeman’s success with the DMR squad is part of why he chose to focus on track exclusively.

“Lacrosse was just an offshoot of what I was good at, which is running fast,” he said. “It was a natural transition, especially since I played midfielder, which is pretty much just running in a straight line down the field. I found a gap, and I’d run straight past the other team’s defenders and not get caught.

“I thought, why not just do that instead of running mixed up with other things?”

To some degree, Freeman’s lacrosse background has come in handy on the track at Fordham: For one thing, the start-and-stop style of running in lacrosse has helped with the explosiveness of his movements.

“He’s constantly working to improve his start,” Fordham sprints coach Nickeela Austin said. “He’s got a strong kick at the back end. Now, it’s about how aggressive he can be during the first 200 meters before he gets to the last 200 meters.”

Playing lacrosse has also made Freeman versatile: He can run faster events like the 200 and middle-distance events like the 800. He’s also brought the team-first mentality he developed in lacrosse to track and field, according to Austin.

“In lacrosse, you need each other for the sport,” the assistant coach said. “He brings the same energy to track and field.”

The physicality of lacrosse has benefited Freeman as well: On the banked 200-meter track used in indoor meets, runners have been known to throw elbows, especially after reaching the “break” — the point where runners attempt to move to the inside lane after completing the first lap.

“People try not to trip,” Freeman said. “But when they cut inside on the break, they tend to wipe out.”

To avoid that problem, Freeman typically has to start his races more aggressively in indoor meets than he does on the flat tracks at outdoor meets. This way, he can get to the break ahead of his competition.

“Outdoors, I can go out really slow, fall further behind, have it not look too good, then in the last 200 meters, turn on the jets,” Freeman said. “Indoors, you can’t take off during the last 200 — you have to take off during the first 200.”

An applied mathematics major, Freeman has applied to join Fordham’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He hopes to join the Navy as an aviator after graduation, then eventually pursue a master’s degree “in some form of engineering,” he said.

For now, though, he’s focused on earning a medal in the 400 at the end of this month at the Atlantic-10 Conference championships in Virginia.

“If he continues to build on where he’s at now, we’re definitely looking for a podium finish (top eight) this year,” Austin said.