Audubon freshman Riley Fayer burst onto the South Jersey track scene just about five weeks ago with a 3rd-place finish in the 3,200 in the Camden County Championships, where she finished behind only Haddonfield’s Ava Thomas and Helene Usher and ran 11:14.40.
Fayer didn’t run indoors, so that was the first time her name showed up in any results. Talk about an auspicious debut.
Fayer ran 5:18.93 a few days later at the Haddonfield Invitational and then 2:21.43 at Haddonfield Distance Night.
Ten days into her high school track career, she had already shown great range and the ability to race at a high level against some of the best distance runners South Jersey had to offer.
Audubon raced Fayer sparingly, like you should with a freshman. She didn’t double at all until sectionals, where she won the 800 in a PR 2:19.44, placed a close 2nd to Haddon Township senior Meghan Lex in the 1,600 with a PR 5:13.29 and took 2nd in the 3,200 behind Schalick soph Jordan Hadfield.
She scored 26 of Audubon’s 53 points as the Green Wave placed 4th at the Group 1 South Jersey sectionals.
Fayer focused on the 3,200 at states and dropped her PR to 11:03.78, finishing a fraction of a second behind Walkill Valley soph Delana Einreinhofer.
Then it was off to the Meet of Champions, where Fayer was the No. 17 seed. Relegated to an unseeded heat, she was able to run with leaders Olivia Murray of Pingry School and Emma Luo of Marlboro for much of the race before taking off with three laps to go, closing in 82.16 and 75.78 to win the unseeded race by 90 meters with a 10:58.45.
When only seven girls in the seeded heat broke 11 minutes, Fayer had herself eighth place in a Meet of Champions 3,200 five weeks into her high school track career. She placed 3rd among South Jersey runners, behind only Thomas, who won the race in 10:44.34, and Northern soph Liliah Gordon, who was 5th in 10:53.68.
Fayer finished the season with a 2:20.14 in the 800 at West Philly Nationals.
She’ll be the No. 13 returning 3,200 runner in the state and finished as the No. 3 freshman. She was also No. 7 freshman in New Jersey in the 1,600.
Fayer is the first South Jersey freshman to run both sub-2:20 for 800 meters and sub-11 for 3,200 meters since Haddonfield’s Briana Gess in 2014 [2:11.80, 10:45.12]. Before that, Erin Donohue in 2001 [2:13.41, 10:43.14].
Fayer already has the school record in the 3,200 and is closing in on the 800 [2:18.51] and 1,60 [5:09.77], both set in 2014 by Molly Furlong.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 