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Indie Wallace-Persaud didn’t anticipate winning her first collegiate race. She wasn’t sure she could compete with experienced Division I athletes. Yet, on Dec. 6, 2025, the Syracuse freshman won the Greg Page Relays 60-meter dash in 7.42 seconds, defeating upperclassmen from Toronto, Cornell and Binghamton.

Wallace-Persaud carried that momentum into the Nittany Lion Challenge on Jan. 17, finishing first in the preliminaries and finals.

“When I saw that I can actually compete with these girls, that made my confidence go up,” Wallace-Persaud said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m here because I deserve to be here.’”

The feeling didn’t last long. As Atlantic Coast Conference meets began in late January and February, Wallace-Persaud’s win streak ended. She briefly fell behind. She realized college track wasn’t as easy as it appeared.

Wallace-Persaud spent the next few months grappling with difficulties of college-level competition. She was no longer the best runner in every race like she was at Jackson-Reed High School (Washington, D.C.). But after turning to her high school coaches for guidance during an indoor slump, Wallace-Persaud became one of Syracuse’s most promising sprinters as a freshman. She steadily improved each weekend before a personal-best 11.38-second 100-meter dash at the ACC Outdoor Championships from May 14-16.

“It’s not always about winning to me,” Wallace-Persaud said. “It’s mainly about getting faster and trying to perform to my very best. It’s been fun, and it’s been really rewarding.”

Indie Wallace-Persaud bounces off the starting block at the ACC Indoor Championships in late February. Wallace-Persaud emerged as one of Syracuse’s top freshman sprinters this season. Courtesy of SU Athletics

Midway through the indoor season, as Wallace-Persaud struggled adjusting to college, she sought out Dominick Hogans, who coached her at Jackson-Reed and ran Division III at Penn State Harrisburg. He assured her that slow progress was expected, and the transition takes time.

“It’s all going to come through,” Hogans told Wallace-Persaud. “Just have fun and stay healthy.”

Hogans’ words shifted Wallace-Persaud’s mindset. After her midseason rut, she finished on the podium three more times, including a UAlbany Spring Classic win, and was a few hundredths of a second short of an NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance.

This wasn’t the first time Hogans instilled confidence in Wallace-Persaud. They met in 2022 when Wallace-Persaud was a freshman at Jackson-Reed. In three years together, Wallace-Persaud amassed 15 wins; eight were District of Columbia championships.

“Indie was one of the ones where I was like, ‘OK, we’re passing the torch on to her,’” said Hogans, who previously ran at Jackson-Reed.

Before Wallace-Persaud’s senior year, Hogans left Jackson-Reed for LaSalle University. The coaching change didn’t affect Wallace-Persaud, who earned 10 gold medals that season.

Wallace-Persaud’s confidence was high entering Syracuse, and her first few collegiate meets only increased it. But she returned to Earth against Power Four runners.

After the Nittany Lion Challenge, Wallace-Persaud didn’t finish on the podium for the rest of the indoor season. Her struggles reached their peak in February when she couldn’t advance past the preliminary round in two ACC Indoor Championships events. She was disqualified for the only time this season in the 200-meter for stepping out of her lane.

Wallace-Persaud turned to another friendly face, Tia Clemmons, her Jackson-Reed head coach. Clemmons told Wallace-Persaud she was experiencing “growing pains,” and they wouldn’t last forever.

“It may be tough, but she still understands that she’s got a lot of years left in college,” Clemmons said. “She’s not going to make the podium every day, but that doesn’t mean that she’s not progressing.”

Hogans and Clemmons both told Wallace-Persaud to take each opportunity as its own and work on improving each day. That started with recovery, which Wallace-Persaud said she rushed in high school. At Syracuse, she understands work on non-race days translates to getting faster.

“I know that we’re competing on a higher platform, so my body is still adjusting to compete at my fullest,” Wallace-Persaud said.

An organized recovery process helped Wallace-Persaud seamlessly balance school and training. It also enabled her to build relationships with teammates off the track by studying, eating meals and learning to cook together.

“We’re a smaller team than most, but we stick together,” Wallace-Persaud said. “We make sure that we’re good.”

When the outdoor season began in March, Wallace-Persaud regained her momentum from January. Her 100-meter time consistently dropped, and she earned her first podium finish since January at the Duke Invitational from April 10-11. She was on the podium twice more the next week in Albany, including her third win of the year — the most among SU freshmen — in the 200-meter.

The ACC Outdoor Championships was Wallace-Persaud’s masterpiece. She didn’t win nor qualify for the 100-meter finals. But her time dropped from 11.64 seconds to 11.38, an improvement 0.02 seconds away from the school record that almost sent her to NCAAs.

Although Wallace-Persaud was happy with the performance, she was upset she finished short of both those marks. But if her freshman year said anything, she’ll build on those results heading into next season.

“She set the goals that she wants next year,” Hogans said. “That’s what we’ll be using this summer to keep her motivation and keep her drive going.”

Published on June 2, 2026 at 10:16 pm
Contact Jamie: jquinn13@syr.edu