Penn Hills junior fights through injury to win national fitness competition

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, August 27, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Previous Next

Jadyn Wright had put the time in and had built his routine around being dedicated to fitness. After a freak injury in rugby practice, the Penn Hills senior still had three Marine Corps National Physical Fitness Championship meets remaining to participate in.

Wright planned to keep an eye on his knee and try to persevere through the pain.

“During rugby practice, I felt something bristle while I was running,” Wright said. “I went to sleep, and later that night, it was swollen. It turns out my meniscus was torn. I didn’t get to squat, deadlift or run for a while.”

Competing with a knee pad, Wright ended up winning all three competitions. The last victory also earned him a $500 reward from the Marines.

Wright became the first Penn Hills boys athlete to finish first nationally, winning the event by scoring 485 points, which is only 15 short of a perfect score.

Due to his knee injury, Wright was rejected from the Marines Military Entrance Processing Stations and will plan to attend college. After attempting to find the sport he most enjoyed participating in, Wright fell in with the fitness team.

The participants competed in five events — crunches, pushups, standing long jump, pullups and 300-yard shuttle run. Unlike other sports, there is a different kind of training pattern involved. The meets are spread out over several months and competitors don’t want to do all of the events every day.

Wright said he approached his training by developing his own timeline.

“Starting the year, I separated everything into routine,’ Wright said. “You have to dig deep, and I can’t even explain that well. You lock everything down, focus up and everything is on the back burner.”

Long-time Penn Hills fitness coach Bob Martini said that Wright winning at nationals wasn’t an easy task. The conditions in Little Rock, Ark., were sweltering and Wright had to outperform 284 other competitors.

“The outside temperature was 93 degrees, but on the field, the thermometer registered 101 degrees,” Martini said. “Jadyn did all this with a meniscus tear in his right leg, which we kept an eye on this year.”

Wright will be excited to have another chance to pull off the sweep again as a senior. Jadyn’s brother, Jacen, also medaled at nationals in 2023. The idea of living a military lifestyle with the workouts that were demanded of them is something that always appealed to Jadyn.

“The lifestyle, I’m in love with it,” Jadyn said. “When you wake up every day and there are missions and objectives to complete. When you complete something, you can think about it in retrospect and improve on it.”

Tags: Penn Hills