Perseverance pays off for No. Lehigh’s Pender

Even in her moments of doubt, Reagan Pender always pushed forward.

The Northern Lehigh senior’s drive has set her apart from her peers, while her perseverance has played a large role in her success.

As a junior, Pender notched her first state medal, while also collecting Colonial League and District 11 titles.

She maintained that momentum this past fall, posting a top-five finish at the PIAA Cross Country Championships after winning her second league and district crowns.

The accomplishments capped a stellar career for Pender — one that began with far more uncertainty.

“Freshman year, I remember I didn’t run a lot,” Pender recalled. “I was injured a lot of the time, and starting to grow and stuff like that. I was so done; I didn’t want to run the next year. I was ready to do soccer or something else.

“I had track season that year, and it was one of the first races I did well in, and from there the fire started.”

It’s a passion that has powered Pender’s steady rise to the top, and secured her second consecutive Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Female Cross Country Athlete of the Year award.

After not finishing her freshman cross-country campaign, Pender took the fuel from her success in the spring track season and used it as a launchpad for what would become an outstanding three-year run.

“I think the most impressive thing is just her dedication,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Dave Oertner. “She’s really focused on trying to make herself a better runner, and just continuing to improve. She sticks to it, day in and day out. You don’t always feel like running or working out, but that’s the impressive part about her — is that she does do what she needs to do on a daily basis.”

Pender’s progression led to a third-place result at districts, and a fifth-place finish at leagues during her sophomore year. The season ended with her first trip to the state meet in Hershey, and a 48th-place finish.

The result left her with a clear focus as she prepared for her sophomore season, which ended with league and district titles, before she claimed her first state medal with a sixth-place finish in the Class A race at the state meet.

“That year was just phenomenal,” Pender said. “I wanted to get top-50 when I went to states that year, and I did. And the next year, we went down to Class A, and I knew there was more of a chance (to medal), so that just motivated me even more.”

After breaking through for her first state medal, Pender repeated her league and district titles this season, before claiming a fifth-place finish in Hershey.

As Pender’s results improved, her relationship with Oertner began to transform as well.

“We got a lot closer,” said Pender, who will continue her track and field and cross-country careers at West Chester University. “He was very intentional with what I was running — he made me work when I had to work, knew when I needed to rest — and he trusted me, which was the biggest part. He trusted me that I knew my body, and that I knew what I could run, and he was just going to support me no matter what.”

As Pender piled up the wins, she maintained a level of consistency — and improvement — in her times regardless of the meet, conditions or competition.

Her 19:55 at the state meet was an improvement on the 20:21 she ran in 2018.

At leagues, Pender won the girls race with a time of 19:28, nearly a minute ahead of runner-up Jenna Groeber of Southern Lehigh (20:25), a performance that also easily eclipsed last year’s winning time of 19:57.

She put on an even more impressive performance in her return to the course at DeSales University, winning the District 11 Class A girls race in 19:25 ahead of Notre Dame’s Grace Medei (20:52).

Pender’s personal best time was an 18:30 in the regular season finale at Northwestern.

While she put together some of her best races in the biggest meets, Pender’s passion for the sport extends beyond the days when she is competing.

“I just love to run. That’s motivation enough,” she said. “Running is kind of like a window of escape from different emotions; if I have an off day, I’ll go and run. It doesn’t matter how much I run — it’s just a nice escape from craziness.”

Even when she thought about leaving it behind, running always kept Pender moving forward.

“I definitely leaned on my family a lot,” Pender said. “Most of my close friends did do cross-country, so I knew if I talked to them about it, they would want me to stay and just run.

“But it was important to have support from my parents and my sister. I think they believed in me before I believed in myself, and that helped me to stay with it.”