The road back for Greenwood junior Tatiana Andrade includes two missed track seasons and sitting out another in cross-country.
A broken left femur sustained in December 2015, her freshman year, made Andrade a spectator most of the first half of her high school sports career.
Now she’s back and looking forward to representing her school again.
On May 31, Andrade was medically cleared to begin training for the upcoming cross-country season. The Woodmen open Aug. 14 at the annual Blue River Early Bird Invitational hosted by Triton Central.
“The femur itself is completely fine,” Andrade said. “I do have a flexibility issue, but overall I am a lot better. I’ve been training hard, but I definitely have room to improve.
“I am excited and nervous about this season.”
The 2015 girls cross-country season culminated with Andrade placing 54th individually at the Franklin Sectional in a time of 24:36.31.
Two months later she was injured while playing a kickball game with her weight training class in the Greenwood Community High School gym. Running the bases, Andrade landed incorrectly after leaping to avert the ball after a throw from the outfield. She had surgery the next day.
She could have chosen to end her distance-running career, but Andrade stayed the course.
“That’s a huge testament to her character,” Woodmen cross-country coach Blaine Williams said. “You would be hard-pressed to find a better kid in this building. Even the day she broke her leg she was telling people to tell me she was sorry for having to miss the track season.”
Much has transpired over the past 20 months, though Andrade would like to pick up where she left off.
Her coach said he believes it’s possible.
“It’s going to be interesting to see where Tatiana falls in with the rest of the girls, but she’s got every bit of want-to to put herself in the top seven.”
