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Gabe Fendel a rising talent in Indiana - Bryan Sweitzer - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Oct 13th 2015, 10:31pm
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Gabe Fendel's star is rising in Indiana

 

By Bryan Sweitzer for DyeStat

 

Gabe Fendel was mainly a soccer player in elementary school, but in the sixth grade he decided to give competitive running a try and qualified for the USATF Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships.

 

That's when he surprised himself. A lot.

 

“I was really excited and I would have been happy with a top 100 performance, and I ended up getting third (in my age group),” Fendel said.

 

Fendel decided to keep running, and four years later he’s still among nation’s best for his class. The Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers, Ind.) sophomore has run 15:17 for 5K this season and has emerged as the top sophomore in Indiana. As a freshman, Fendel advanced to the state finals of the 3,200 meters and finished 16th in 9:33.

 

Running is in his DNA. His father, David Fendel, was the 1991 Indiana state cross country runner-up, and his mother, Solange, is an Olympian. She ran in the women’s marathon for her native Brazil (back then she was Solange de Souza) at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

 

“They’ve helped me throughout my career just by encouraging me to be the best I can be and to just have fun with the sport,” Fendel said of his parents.

 

Although Fendel was born in Indiana, he moved to the Seattle area at age 5 and got his first taste of distance running there. When he moved back to Indiana right before his freshman year, Fendel settled into a competitive distance program at Hamilton Southeastern, a suburban high school 28 miles northeast of Indianapolis. He averages 40 miles a week during the season, normally with one tempo or interval workout. He put in extra base mileage over the summer. His weekly total is a few miles lower than his teammates, mostly just to stay fresh for races and guard against injury.

 

Fendel has bonded well with his teammates since moving back to Indiana.

 

"We get along very well. We are always together on the weekends,” he said.

 

With individual wins at the Hamilton County Championship, Wildcat Invitational, and Hoosier Crossroads Conference meet, as well as a fourth place finish at the highly competitive FlashRock Invitational, Fendel had a successful regular season, but has tried to clear out anything that might lead to a big head.

 

“I usually don’t look at the rankings and articles that often,” he said.

 

For the upcoming Indiana cross country championship (Oct. 31), he already has his eyes on the podium. On Saturday, he placed second behind to US#4 Ben Veatch of Carmel at the Noblesville sectional.

 

Fendel still has to get through challenging regional and semi-state meets. The semi-state meet field will include Veatch again, plus Curtis Eckstein of Oldenburg Academy, who ran 15:06 at his sectional race on Saturday.

 

“Hopefully, I want to get top 10, maybe even top five (at state),” Fendel said. “There’s a very tight pack behind (Ben) Veatch. It could be anyone’s race after Veatch.”

 

Beyond the Indiana postseason, Fendel hopes for his team to qualify for Nike Cross Country Nationals and for himself to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals. In the future Fendel hopes to be an Indiana state champion in track and cross country, and he also wants to break his high school’s 1,600 and 3,200 meters school records. Fendel believes he has the support system at home and from his team to reach those goals.

 

 

“They’ve encouraged me to do my best so I can do the best for them, so we can try to win as a team at every meet we go to,” he said. “I feel like we have one of best programs in the state.

 

Note: Bryan Sweitzer is a high school freshman from Muncie Burris in Indiana. He placed 19th in the varsity race at the Delta sectional on Saturday.



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