Karlee Freeman, Raymond High School’s versatile three-sport standout, will continue her track career at the University of Southern California.
A three-time state 2B girls discus champion, the Raymond senior signed a track letter of intent with USC on Sunday. She will receive a full-ride scholarship with the Trojans.
Freeman chose USC over the University of Arizona after visiting the Los Angeles campus in early September.
“In the long run, it will get me where I need to be and (between athletics and education) will set me up for life, basically,” Freeman said Tuesday. “Our throwing coach (Dan Lang) and the team is great. I’m just glad to get out of Raymond and experience something different.”
A former national Junior Olympics age-group champion in the discus, Freeman said she would probably focus on that event at USC — at least initially.
“If my shot put improves this year, it could be the shot as well,” she related.
She is also considering adding the hammer throw (an event that is not offered at most state high school meets) to her repertoire.
Freeman would be the third recent Twin Harbors female athlete to compete in the throwing events at a Pac-12 school. Montesano High School graduate Jordan Spradlin is now a freshman at the University of Arizona. Tera Novy, another Monte grad, recently completed a successful career as a thrower at USC.
The threesome share the same coach. Freeman began working with Montesano alum Shaun Straka, who has provided instruction to most of the area’s top discus and shot put performers, last summer.
Freeman said she had strongly considered joining Spradlin and Kalama alum Kaelyn Shipley, a two-time state javelin champion, at Arizona before the USC campus visit.
Although Freeman is also a standout in basketball and volleyball, there was little doubt that track would provide her entree to a college scholarship.
She established state-meet and sophomore state records by winning the Class 2B discus with a throw of 159-8 in 2016.
Although hampered by a knee injury that limited her to standing throws at the state meet, Freeman repeated in the state girls discus last spring with a 136-1 mark and also won the state shot put title at 40-6 1/4.
She also established a state Junior Olympics record with a throw of 171-4 this year.
As a junior, she also won the state 2B 100-meter hurdles championship.
Although she missed last year’s volleyball and basketball seasons after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery in the summer of 2016, Freeman said her knee is now healthy.
“I had a few problems with it in track season, but it healed itself and it’s doing fine now,” she said. “I didn’t have any problems with it in volleyball.”
Freeman’s long-term goal, she acknowledged, is eventually competing in the Olympics. She has annually recorded some of the nation’s best age-group marks in the discus.
Her career plans are more uncertain. She has yet to decide upon a major at USC.
“There’s a ton of options and a ton of connections,” she noted. “Whatever I choose, USC is going to help me out huge when I graduate.”
