Before sectionals, Riley Fayer’s entire track career consisted of a 3,200 at the Camden County Championships, a 1,600 at the Haddonfield Invitational and an 800 at Haddonfield Distance Night.
On Friday – 11 days after her first lifetime 800 – she became a sectional champ.
Fayer, a freshman at Audubon, not only won the South Jersey Group 1 800 in 2:19.44, she earned the No. 1 seed in the state Group 1 meet. The top four seeds are all out of the South Jersey Group 1 race, with Haddon Township senior Sara Weideman [2:21.47], Woodstown senior Katelyn Deal [2:21.74] and Salem junior Anna Buzby [2:22.06] also in the mix.
Fayer is the 3rd Audubon girl to win a South Jersey Group 1 title at 800 meters in the last decade. Molly Furlong won in 2:18.51 in 2014 and Alexis Staib in 2017 in 2:20.30.
Fayer didn’t run indoors – she played hoops for the Green Wave – so other than possible dual meets, her first lifetime track meet was the Camden County Championships at Haddon Township, where she ran 11:14.40 and placed 3rd behind Haddonfield’s Ava Thomas and Helene Usher.
She ran 5:18.93 in her 1,600 debut May 17 at Haddonfield, placing 4th behind Meghan Lex of Haddon Township, Haddonfield’s Riley Slootsky and Bishop Eustace’s Elena Cicchini.
And then on May 22 came her first-ever 800 back at Haddonfield and she took 5th, behind two girls from Wilberforce School in Princeton, West Deptford soph Talia Thomasson and Holy Cross junior Sara Sherlock.
That’s it.
Three races and then off to Group 1 sectionals at Pennsauken, where she won the 800; ran 5:13.29 for 2nd in the 1,600, just behind Lex, who ran 5:12.95; and took 2nd to Schalick sophomore Jordan Hadfield in the 3,200 with 11:39.22.
She scored 26 of 4th-place Audubon’s 53 points in SJ-1.
At the state Group 1 meet this weekend at Franklin High, Fayer will be the top seed in the 800, No. 2 in the 1,600 – behind Lex obviously – and No. 5 seed in the 3,200 with her 11:37.91.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 