NEW PALESTINE — Aden Lumbley is diversely talented.
From painting to playing piano, the soon-to-be University of Dayton Flyer can belt out a tune, jam out on guitar and touch nearly 40 feet with an 8.8-pound shot put in her grasp.
The New Palestine High School graduate has a fascination with forensic investigation and human anatomy, which explains her interest in majoring in health sciences beginning this fall.
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However, when it pertained to track and field, particularly throwing the shot and discus, Lumbley took the long road.
As a youth, Lumbley was a competitive swimmer and later had a dream of becoming the next great front-row hitter in volleyball after four seasons of club ball. She admittedly tried everything except soccer, softball and wrestling, though she really wanted to give it a whirl.
Yet, once she entered the circle as a junior high student-athlete, her focus narrowed and continued to grow behind the inspiration of several mentors along the way.
“I really didn’t get into throwing until my eighth-grade year. Todd Sturgeon was my coach in the eighth grade, and he always made sure I held myself to a high standard,” Lumbley recalled. “My freshman year, I went in with that mentality that he gave me.”
The confidence Sturgeon planted within Lumbley blossomed once she joined the Dragons track and field team in 2017 as she watched and learned while finding her own methods.
“I threw with Lillie Cain and Emily Jonas, who are both at UIndy, and I remember them both pushing me and at that point, I knew I really wanted to do this in college,” Lumbley said. “It was something I found a really big love for and it’s something that means a lot to me, obviously.”
Her passion stemmed from her family’s lineage.
Lumbley’s dad, Pat, was a wrestler and thrower at Bloomington South. He walked-on as a thrower at Indiana University after giving up wrestling, and her mother, Courtney, was a cross-country runner, though her father, Barry Brauneller, was a thrower in the Kokomo area in his younger days.
While competitive by nature, Lumbley knew her limitations despite her heritage. If she wanted to be great, she would have to put in the work, and she did all four years at New Palestine.
“If you look at other throwers from across the state, and you look at me, I guess I don’t really fit into that stereotype because a lot girl throwers that are pretty good are usually around 6-feet tall and over 200 pounds. They’re big girls. And, I’m 5-7, 170, so I don’t fit into that category,” Lumbley said.
“My dad is a very large man, and he realized, even when I was in middle school, that I had to make things work. I was never going to be the biggest or the tallest, but I had to work on my technique and work with what I had, so I could be the best I could be.”
Together, they put in the time, practicing after Dragons practice at Shelbyville where he formerly coached wrestling and served as an administrator before heading to Indianapolis Public Schools.
They would talk mechanics and life, but he wasn’t the only voice fueling Lumbley, who set personal records at 39 feet, 8 inches in the shot and 113-05 in discus.
New Palestine football coach Kyle Ralph drove her to commit to weightlifting and conditioning, but Sturgeon was the soother when her mind would travel farther than her throws ever could.
“He would show up to my track meets my sophomore year because (his son) Ethan is a grade below me, and he would always pull me over to the side after I threw, and he would give me tips and tell me I was doing amazing,” Lumbley reminisced. “He would say, ‘Don’t get in your head about it. You got it.’ That really meant a lot to me.”
When Sturgeon, who competed as a wrestler and track competitor at UIndy, passed away at the age of 48 on Nov. 12, 2018, Lumbley found her strength through connections.
Already close to Sturgeon’s children, Ethan and Rylie, she admired Todd’s wife, Kim, and kept her mentor in her heart as she regrouped from the loss.
“Especially, in the last year, since I’ve committed, (his mentorship and advice) really stuck with me because I know he’s definitely proud of me,” Lumbley said.
The key for Lumbley was facing each adversity by incorporating a new task to overcome.
For example, her stature.
At 5-7, she left volleyball behind prior to her sophomore year, and as a result of her father’s coaxing and Ralph’s invitation, she started working out with the Dragons football team in the offseason.
“My junior year, I was pushing myself more, especially in the fall, because I didn’t have another sport,” Lumbley said. “When Todd passed away, that’s when it really clicked for me that I needed to get my stuff in gear.”
It took some adjustment for the formerly 130-pound underclassman, who tossed the shot at 30 feet in her first season.
“I go into the weight room, and I’m really the only girl there. So at that point, I’m like, this is going to be embarrassing until I started lifting a lot more, and the boys started pushing me a lot,” Lumbley said.
“I was a manager for the football team, eventually, because I got so close to them during lifting. They helped me out a lot, and I have pretty good numbers because of a lot of the boys in there because I always wanted to be stronger than them.”
According to the school record board, she remains the strongest female at New Palestine with a 185-pound power clean max lift. She can squat 300 pounds and bench 155.
Her strength paid dividends her sophomore year in 2018 as she took third at sectional with a 35-06 in shot. Her junior year, she won her first sectional title in shot with a throw of 38-07 and was third in discus at 113-05.
Regional, however, was her Achilles Heal. A self-proclaimed over thinker, she tussled with doubt on occasion, though she never fell short on support.
“All my friends would say, I got the yips at regional,” Lumbley laughed. “If I had to explain the yips, it’s you lose all sense of your technique. At my junior regional, I think my best throw was 33-07, so it’s a little bit of a humbling moment, you can say.”
No matter what, though, Lumbley knew she could turn to her support system in times of need, especially Ralph, who helped her through a rough stretch last spring as her family contended with a difficult time.
“I always joke that (Kyle Ralph) has been like a second dad to me. Whenever I need advice, I usually go to him,” Lumbley said. “I would go to Ralph for advice about pretty much anything. He would always be there as a shoulder to cry on, someone to talk to, someone to humble me when I needed it, especially in lifting. He really helped me out.”
UIndy head football coach Chris Keevers was the catalyst behind her recruitment. A friend of the family, Keevers advised Lumbley to reach out to colleges, including Dayton, and it netted a visit to Ohio this past January.
After a few weeks, Lumbley committed to the Flyers. It was perfect fit, much like a pregame shoulder bump with Ralph on a Friday night.
Her mental game still requires some minor tweaking, though.
Often struck my nerves before any competition, Lumbley sharpens her focus with a steady playlist of hard rock and a White Monster energy drink.
When she needs to find her center, she relies on routine and muscle memory and her younger sister, Quin, a sophomore thrower at New Palestine.
“I have a little sister, and she looks up to me. I admire that a lot, even though we annoys me all the time,” Lumbley joked. “I think always having someone look up to you really pushes you even more.”
Once her name is called to throw, she powers herself step-by-step.
“It helps me regain a sense of control because you never know how you’re going to compete until you compete,” Lumbley said. “Having my mind wonder that really didn’t sit well with me, so I started picking up a routine before I threw and during my throws.”
When she steps up to throw, she taps the toe board twice, lifts the shot up, then back on her neck before letting it fly.
“Before I throw, I always take a super deep breath, and I just let go of everything in head and just focus in on the moment,” Lumbley said. “My grounding point is when rotate over and put my right foot in the middle. That’s how I know, the throw is going to be fine.”
Like the portraits of The Notorious B.I.G. and Lady Gaga, which she painted and has displayed in her home, Lumbley creates her future at every turn.
Mind over matter because all that matters to Lumbley is bucking the odds.
“It’s important to be confident in that and not look at your competition and think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get my (tail) kicked.’ I kind of have to have that cockiness at times,” Lumbley said.
“I think even more than my physical limitations, I think I have more mental limitations because I create really high expectations for myself whenever I compete. That’s really been my only setback. I think next year, I’ll be able to work on that a lot.”
