Ledyard — Adam Crawford's track career began during an early-season wrestling tournament, the Guilford Invitational, his junior year at Ledyard High School. Crawford tore his meniscus, rendering him unable to complete the wrestling season or to play baseball in the spring.

Crawford, traditionally a catcher, found another purpose for his arm strength. He began throwing the javelin, at first with no run-up, a bulky knee brace making it difficult for him to do anything but stand there and let it fly.

"I would just take one step and throw it," Crawford said, demonstrating the maneuver. "I had a big old brace the whole time."

But it didn't take Crawford long. He was second in last year's Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet with a throw of 165 feet, 10 inches, then added a personal best of 168-11 to finish third in Class M, qualifying for the State Open.

At Saturday's Ledyard Invitational Relays, Crawford won the javelin with a toss of 154-0. He was also second in the 4x110-meter shuttle hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles — hurdling is a new undertaking for him this year, not that he wouldn't have tried that with a knee brace, too.

He also earned a first-place medal as a part of Ledyard's javelin relay team, wearing all of his medals around his neck early Saturday afternoon, as well as proudly displaying a white Boston University hat.

Crawford will attend BU next year to major in biomedical engineering and hopes to walk on to the track team.

So far in his successful senior year at Ledyard, Crawford has been an All-ECC pick as a defender for the boys' soccer team, which shared the league's regular-season title in Division II, and he finished second in the ECC and sixth in Class M as a 170-pound wrestler. He will also graduate first in his class.

Crawford won a scholarship from the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors for an essay he wrote describing his connection to throwing the javelin as one he has never experienced in sports before. Wrote Crawford: "Every nerve in my body catches fire."

"I was a couple days away from posting the roster (last year)," Ledyard coach Jose "Pasta" Sanabria said Saturday. "Adam still had some physical therapy to do, but I told him I would keep him on the roster, 'Stick with the family.' We shook hands and he said he was appreciative of it.

"A week and a half later, I got a letter from his physical therapist saying he had completed all the required tasks. ... He kept improving and developing at a tremendous rate. He had the gift there. He said, 'I think I can hurdle, too.' I said, 'We'll save that for next year.' I think he can be a decathlete by the end of the year. He's very competitive. I wish we had him freshman year."

Among other Ledyard Relays highlights — the normal two-day event was packed into one day due to Friday's inclement weather — the New London girls' shot put relay team (90-6.75) and javelin team (204-4) both finished first behind the strength of Eliza Brown, Marissa Parker and Solana Parra-Polimeni.

Brown won the javelin (86-10). In the shot put, Parker finished third with a personal best throw of 33-0 and Brown was fourth at 32-7.25. New London's throwers are coached this year by former Fitch great and Monmouth University Hall of Famer Lacy Johnson, who has previously coached collegiately.

Parker, a senior, is headed to compete next year at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. Brown, a junior, is the granddaughter of 1968 Boston Marathon winner and Groton native Amby Burfoot. Brown has already qualified for the state meet in all three throwing events.

"I love it," said Johnson, a 1996 Fitch graduate and The Day's All-Area Track & Field Athlete of the Year as a senior. "They're doing great, building and building. There is a lot of talent in New London."

Said Brown with a smile: "My first meeting with Lacy, she coached me a little before she came to New London, she saw me throw and she said, 'Whoa, whoa. I'm going to need you to forget all of that.'"

Other local individual winners were St. Bernard's Brigid Kunka in the girls' 3,200 (11:56.2), Ledyard's Natalie Poulton in the girls' discus (93-1), Waterford's Sam Menders in the boys' triple jump (40-5.5), Montville's Tyrone Mack in the boys' shot put (48-1) and Fitch's Tom Joyner in the boys' discus (137-5).

v.fulkerson@theday.com