An early-season hurdle couldn’t slow down Columbia runner Audrey Fender.
She overcame a knee injury, won three races and led her team to regionals as the fastest runner in the area, dropping her personal-best time by nearly a minute.
Fender saved her best performance for the postseason, topping her best time of 21:23.60 last season to 20:39.00 at the District 1-3A Meet. That was good enough to place 22nd but it was also good enough for the Tigers to place eighth and qualify for regionals as a team despite only having five runners.
No surprises here. For the third straight year, Fender is the LCR’s Girls Runner of the Year.
“I’m blessed to receive this award, especially for three years in a row,” Fender said. “It honestly challenges me to do better each year.”
Her 2021 season got off to a nice start, winning the Coach Miami Classic with a time of 23:54.17. But Fender then hurt her knee while training, sidelining her for the next month.
She feared her season was over, but it was far from it. Her best was yet to come, returning to the course in October to win the Ridgeview Panther Classic and Suwannee County Invitational while getting her times back under 22 minutes.
That set her up for success at districts.
“It was a very rocky beginning because I had a knee injury, but I took a lot of time off to rehab,” Fender said. “Once I started running again I started pushing myself more to make up for that lost time. And near the end I was very happy with where I ended up. I got a PR, which is always a goal. I didn’t think I was going to get my PR this season so I was very excited when I started knocking my time down to almost under 20 minutes.”
Fender nearly set a new PR at the Region 1-3A Meet, running a 20:45.00 to place 38th. Unfortunately, with only five runners, Columbia placed 13th and came up short of the state meet as a team.
With only the top eight teams moving on, Fender needed to be one of the top three runners individually not from those eight to move on. Her 38th-place finish was short as well, leaving short one goal she, and head coach Lawrence Davis, set out at the beginning of the season.
“Taking into consideration that Audrey was injured in the early part of the year, which hurt her training, her progression through the end of the year really picked up,” Columbia head coach Lawrence Davis said. “That early-season injury really did hurt her, I think, and had she not had that particular injury and the amount of time it took for her to fully recover and get back into training condition, I think she would have achieved some of the goals she wanted to achieve. Other than that, it was a very good junior year.”
Fender didn’t know what to expect in her junior season once she suffered the knee injury. She wasn’t even sure if she’d run again, and once she was cleared to she wasn’t sure how fast she’d be.
In fact, when she returned on Oct. 9 at the Bobcat Classic, her goal was to just finish the race in under 25 minutes. She ended up crushing that goal by nearly three minutes, running a 22:01.60 to place 40th.
“After I got that goal I was pretty stoked,” Fender said. “I thought, OK, I can do this and it’s possible for me to do it. It was all mental.”
Nobody was faster than Fender at her next race, winning the Ridgeview Panther Classic with an even lower time of 21:39.00. Columbia also won that meet as a team.
Then came the Suwannee County Invitational, a race she won by nearly a minute. Fender posted a time of 20:49.60, which was almost 54 seconds faster than second place.
“I definitely surprised myself with those two races,” Fender said. “After my injury I definitely wasn’t expecting to win, but I did. It was a blessing to even have the ability to run.”
Fresh off back-to-back victories, Fender was ready for districts. She was ecstatic to set a new PR but also help her team qualify for regionals even though they only had five runners while most teams had seven.
“It was pretty awesome,” Fender said. “The minimum was five and we did it with five. That just meant we had been putting in the work and the work we put in had a great outcome.”
Heading into her senior season there’s just one goal left to achieve — a state berth.
“That has been my goal since freshman year, so I’m going to work extra hard,” Fender said.
ALL-AREA TEAM
Audrey Fender
Columbia, junior
She’s the LCR’s Girls Runner of the Year for a third straight season after a standout junior campaign in the area. Fender won the Suwannee County Invitational (20:49.60), Ridgeview Panther Classic (21:39.00) and the Coach Miami Classic (23:54.17). In the postseason, she placed 22nd at the District 2-3A Meet with a personal-best time of 20:39.00 before finishing 38th at the Region 1-3A Meet (20:45.00).
Abigail Candler
Columbia, sophomore
Ran a season-best 21:25.00 to place 54th at the Region 1-3A Meet after finishing 41st in District 2-3A (21:51.00). She also had top-10 finishes at the Coach Miami Classic (second) and Ridgeview Panther Classic (eighth).
Kenya Daniels
Columbia, freshman
Ran a season-best 21:52.40 to place 75th at the Region 1-3A Meet after placing 45th in District 2-3A (22:00.00). She had top-10 finishes at the Coach Miami Classic (fourth), Suwannee County Invitational (fourth) and Ridgeview Panther Classic (sixth).
Morgan Golden
Columbia, sophomore
Ran a season-best 22:26.60 to place 88th at the Region 1-3A Meet after finishing 59th in District 2-3A (22:40.00). She also had top-10 finishes at the Coach Miami Classic (third), Suwannee County Invitational (fifth) and Ridgeview Panther Classic (10th).
Kyndall Norris
Columbia, freshman
Ran a season-best 23:07.70 to finish 100th at the Region 1-3A Meet after finishing 78th in District 2-3A (23:49.00). She also had a sixth-place finish at the Suwannee County Invitational.
Nellie Lamb
Suwannee, senior
Ran a season-best 23:10.10 to place 65th at the Region 1-2A Meet after finishing a team-best 19th in District 1-2A (23:32.18). She also had top-10 finishes at the Bradford Invitational (seventh) and Suwannee County Invitational (eighth).
Maria Ramirez
Suwannee, junior
Ran a season-best 23:01.40 to place a team-best 62nd at the Region 1-2A Meet after placing 25th in District 1-2A (24:05.87). She had a season-best seventh-place finish at the Suwannee County Invitational.
Lawrence Davis
Coach of the Year, Columbia
Davis did the most with the least this season at Columbia. Despite only having five runners, he saw the Tigers still qualify for regionals as a team thanks to all five placing in the top 78 at districts to finish eighth for the final bid. His team also won the Ridgeview Panther Classic during the regular season.