Higher, faster, younger: Avery Lewis is competing nationally at 9

Avery Lewis' winter training facility isn't much to look at. It consists primarily of a borrowed stretch of tiled hallway on the third floor of the Thurgood Marshall School in Olney, where, on a recent night, a few dozen children, ages 5 to 16, were warming up by jogging laps along lanes separated by trash cans.

But that hasn't slowed her down.

On the contrary, the third grader at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood could be called the fastest 9-year-old girl in the country.

Such titles are tough to pin down among runners that young, but one thing is certain: On her birthday, Dec. 21, Avery broke a U.S. record for the 55-meter dash at the Colgate Women's Games preliminaries at the Armory in New York. (She made the sprint in 7.8 seconds, beating the record she had tied the previous year, as the country's fastest 8-year-old.) She also won the 200-meter race.

Last July, she took gold in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and long jump at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics, breaking the AAU long-jump record for her age.

"I coach high school girls. If she were on my team right now, she'd be my fastest runner. So that's kind of how good she is," said Brandon Shell, who coaches Avery through Infinity Track Club, a nonprofit he founded in 2010.

"Currently, she's the best her age in the nation. She's the real deal."

Avery's father, Terrence Lewis, said she started running almost from the time she could walk.

"We would always tell her when she was 3 or 4 years old, 'Avery, slow down!' " he said.

When she was a toddler, she and her older brother, T.J., now 12, would join their parents for jogs at the St. Joseph's University track, a way for the Lewises to get exercise and the kids to burn off energy.

And when T.J. began running with a track club at their church, Avery wanted in.

It was typical kid-sister behavior.

"We didn't really pay attention to it from the start," Lewis said.

"But after she ran her first race as a 6-year-old, with the 8-and-under group, we were approached by numerous people saying, 'You guys may want to get ready to book your tickets to Houston.' We had no idea what that meant. Later, we found out that the Junior Olympics that year was in Houston. And, sure enough, she qualified."

That year, at a local meet, they met Shell, of Germantown, whose two daughters also are track-and-field standouts. The oldest, Imani, is on the team at Temple University; the youngest, Inara, is a champion sprinter and long-jumper at age 11. (Last year, Inara and teammate Talia Furtick took first and second in the girls' 11-12 long jump at the national indoor championships. "That was my screensaver for a long time," Shell said, pulling up a photo of the girls on the podium.)

Shell started the Infinity club as a way to train Inara, and it grew from there. It now includes five volunteer coaches and 35 young runners from families that range from low-income to upper-middle-class from the Main Line, North Philadelphia, Mount Airy, and New Jersey. In the spring and summer, they practice at the track at Friends' Central; in the winter, it's a scramble to get indoor space where they can.

It is not Shell's goal to provide a fancy training facility; he just wants to make track-and-field training accessible.

"I try to make it so that any kid can do it," he said.

Shell is a former long-jumper and takes pride in his knowledge of the event. Still, Avery has already surpassed his expectations.

"That's pretty astonishing that someone her age could jump 15 feet. There's no one her age in this country who has jumped that far," he said.

Asked how, exactly, she did it, Avery shook her head.

"I didn't," she said. "It was 14 feet, 11 inches."

Shell runs practices four days a week. Most children Avery's age come two or three days, but she tends to come every day.

Her mother, Laedoan, is an assistant coach with Infinity and a kindergarten teacher at Friends' Central. She brings Avery from school to practice each day, before making the long drive back to Parkesburg, Chester County, where the family now lives.

"To see her train, you're like, 'Wow, is she getting paid to train like this?' " Shell said.

Maybe one day. Avery said she hopes to run in high school, college, and, eventually, the Olympics.

Her life goals are "to be a famous track star. And to be a chef and a physical therapist," she said.

Next up are the finals at Colgate, in February, followed by the USA Track and Field indoor championships in March. (Avery had an off weekend at the meet last year and picked up a third- and a fifth-place finish, so she is eager to redeem herself.)

"I feel really confident," she said. "I love it. And I'm prepared."

Terrence Lewis said that as long as Avery loves racing, he'll support it. For now, cross-country runs together are a regular family activity.

And he is trying not to pressure her, or burden her with expectations.

"The sparkle you see in her eye when she gets to jump and gets to a track meet and is preparing during practice - it's a wonderful sight. And it's something we don't want to ruin," he said.

There is at least one downside to being the fastest 9-year-old on the playground: Kids at school generally don't take Avery up on offers to race.

"They say that I would beat them," she said.

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