Colette Lindley hopes to one day be an influential woman all around the world. That dream could come via a future college degree in World Affairs at Loyola University.
With that prospect stewing on the back burner, Lindley’s current focus is enjoying her senior year at Woodrow Wilson and capping off a stellar running career with another trip to the state cross country meet.
Over her first three high school seasons, Lindley has already stacked up some major hardware. Her resume includes numerous Class AAA Region 3 track championships in the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs. She was also the top runner at the Region 3 cross country meet last year and came home second in 2019.
As a senior, Lindley is now ranked as one of the top 20 girls cross country runners statewide and is the top runner in southern West Virginia.
“Colette has done really well this year and she has been consistent. All of her training sessions are strong, and she completes them all,” Woodrow Wilson head coach George Barbera said. “She kinda bounces around afterwards, so it’s not like she is depleted. She has a great positive attitude, and she looks forward to each race. She doesn’t have any fear of failure.”
While fear has never been part of her running equation, courage, dedication and hard work, have always been on full display over her career.
Lindley started running in third grade, doing 5K runs with her mother, and picked up cross-country in middle school.
“My mom definitely got me into it. I have a very athletic family and we like to do all kinds of stuff together,” Lindley said.
According to Barbera, Lindley ran well during her middle school days at St. Francis De Sales. However, the question became, how would Lindley adjust to competing and attending a school as big as Woodrow Wilson?
“St. Francis is small and I had a very closed view of the world,” Lindley said, smiling. “High school was different, but I would say being able to join this team at Woodrow right away was such a positive experience. Everyone is super close-knit, and everyone has positive attitudes. They are very hard workers.”
While a new environment looked to be the biggest hurdle for the young runner to cross, it paled in comparison to what was ahead.
“When she came on board as a freshman, she was pushing for the No. 1 spot when she broke her ankle in the woods,” Barbera explained. “She was shut down for the whole cross country season and it was really crushing.”
“I was feeling really good my freshman year. I was doing all my all my workouts with the No. 1 girl on the team and I was really getting into racing,” Lindley recalled. “I only got to run one race and I think I placed second or third that day. About a week later I was on a run out on the trails at the YMCA Complex and I fell on a rock or something and broke my ankle.”
Unsure of just how bad she was hurt, Lindley was under the impression that her fall was just a temporary setback.
“I felt like I would be back by the next race. When I found out my leg was broken and I wasn’t going to be able to race, I was absolutely devastated,” Lindley said.
In the career defining moment, Lindley displayed a high level of courage for a young athlete.
“Whenever something knocks me down, I fight back. A lot of that comes from Coach Barbera. He encourages us to never lose our focus,” Lindley said. “That was really a rough time, but I came out of it stronger and more determined to have a really good track season and I did.”
In a boot the remainder of the cross-country season, Lindley would not run again until winter. Her first big test after the injury came at the Region 3 track meet the following spring.
“Coming home first in the 3200 and then first again in a very close race in the 1600, I was elated. I was on top of the world, and it was the best feeling ever,” Lindley said.
Lindley has also found success at the state cross-country meet finishing 25th as a sophomore in as field of over 80 runners. Her 23rd place finish last year also helped lead Woodrow Wilson to a third-place team finish.
“The state events are on another level and you kinda get humbled. The energy in the air is unmatched. It is so cool to be there with all of those talented people,” Lindley said. “It was one of the main reasons I love cross-country. You have so many people that are so passionate about running. Everybody is running so hard, and it make you run 10 times faster.”
Coming off her best finish of the season at the Concord Invitational just over a week ago, Lindley is hoping to carry that momentum into Thursday’s Region 3 meet Thursday.
“I have loved running cross-country. It has been a very big part of my high school experience. I have made so many friends that I am sure I will have the rest of my life,” Lindley said. “To be honest, I live for the competition. I love the feeling of the adrenaline and getting to run it out.”
“I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself at the beginning of the season, but I have felt good throughout all of the workouts and the races. When I crossed the line at Pipestem I really felt like I had progressed to where I wanted to be.”
“It is hard to believe she is already a senior, Barbera said. “She has quietly become one our school’s best runners. Her personal record in the 5K is 20-minutes flat. There are probably not three girls in the history of the school that have broken 20 minutes.”
