photo by Ty Smith
Taelor Fowler, a senior sprinter from Penn Hills, runs in the 200-meter dash at the Kent State Tune Up in Kent, Ohio on Feb. 21. This is Fowler’s first time competing in track in six years.
At age 25, Taelor Fowler is not your average Pioneer track and field athlete.
The sprinter from Penn Hills has returned from a six-year, injury-fueled hiatus to earn a role as a leader and top performer during the first indoor season.
And if her performance is any indication, the senior forensic science major, who has set three school records for the University in various events, is well on her way to the form that helped her enter state championships in high school and a NCAA Division I scholarship.
She said that returning to running track after a layoff has been amazing.
“After six years of not running and coming off an injury, I’m back out here doing what I love to do and that is to run,” Fowler said. “The courage for me to actually be out here amazes me.”
Head track and field coach Kelly Parsley said that Fowler continues to improve every week, “Taelor is a leader by example,” Parsley said in an email interview. “She is always positive. Her improvement over the season has been inspiring.”
As a child, Fowler played soccer until her mother noticed she was very fast on her feet and put her in track programs. She later began running track for Penn Hills Eagles, a local track club in her hometown, when she was 10 years old. She also ran for Steel City Express, another track club based in the Penn Hills area.
At Penn Hills High School, she ran indoor and outdoor track and went to state championships all four years. She ran multiple events in high school, including the 4×400-meter relay, 200-meter dash and 60-meter dash. Some of her personal records in high school are 25.03 seconds in the 200-meter dash, 7.24 in the 55-meter dash and 7.91 in the 60-meter dash.
Her high school performance earned her a scholarship to the University of Akron, but she was immediately and repeatedly struck with injuries. A stress fracture in her left ankle in December 2008 caused her to be redshirted, then a torn ACL prevented her from being able to compete in the April 2009 season.
She’ll never forget the knee injury. She said she was working hard while at practice and landed on her right knee, resulting in a subluxation in which her knee popped out and back in.
“I didn’t know what happened, so I tried to keep going. I was in so much pain,” Fowler said. “I didn’t want the other athletes to know, but I eventually had to stop because my knee swelled up like a melon.”
The injuries forced Fowler to take a break from track and eventually leave Akron. Her mother, grandmother, aunt and high school track coach Carlson Christian were key supporters throughout the six-month recovery process.
“I got discouraged and was depressed. Going to physical therapy every day and doctor’s appointments once a month was very tiring,” Fowler said. “Teaching myself to run again without a limp was hard, so I would stop and give up and cried.”
She went on to take classes at Penn State Greater Allegheny before transferring to Point Park to complete her degree in the fall of 2013. According to Fowler, she did not really work out between colleges because she did not feel motivated, and she was not in the shape she was prior to the injury.
Point Park’s Athletics department announced in November 2013 that the University would start a track and field program in the following school year and sent an email blast to all students. Fowler received that email and thought she might have a second chance to compete at the collegiate level.
“I thought to myself, ‘Why not go for it?’” Fowler said. “When I knew I was running again, I started training in the beginning of July 2014 with my high school coach.”
One of her goals for the upcoming outdoor season at Point Park is to continue to get as fast as she was in the past, and she is not far off.
“Seeing myself getting back to how fast I was in high school really just excites me,” Fowler said.
Fowler now holds the Point Park record in the 55- and 60- meter dashes with timings of 7.60 and 8.23 seconds, respectively. She was also a part of the first winning track and field event in the history of the University, running second leg in the women’s 4×200-meter relay team last month at the Mt. Union meet with a time of 1:48.98 seconds.
Parsley said he believes Fowler will become a national qualifier once the outdoor season begins.
“I strongly believe that she will have a chance to qualify for the national meet in the 100- and the 200-meter. [She] also has a chance in the 4×100-meter relay,” Parsley said.
Freshmen sprinter Chereese Langley, who runs with Fowler in the 4×200- and 4×400-meter relays said that her determination makes her stand out as an athlete.
“Taelor works very hard. She’s always dedicated,” Langley said. “She definitely deserves anything she has gotten or worked for.”
After college Fowler still hopes to be involved in track and field, depending on job opportunities. She said that she is not ready to retire her spikes.
“My dream was and still is to go to the Olympics,” Fowler said. “My heart is still with track. Maybe I’ll be a track coach.”
Fowler will compete in her first outdoor meet in six years this Saturday at the California (Pa.) Early Bird invitational. This will be the first outdoor meet in the history of the men’s and women’s track and field teams.
