After a string of devastating injuries, Chandler's Sophia Noriega is back on the track
For the first three years of high school, Chandler senior Sophia Noriega had to sit on the sidelines and watch her teammates run. With a walking boot and crutches at times, Noriega yearned to be with them.
Noriega suffered a string of devastating injuries. Each one that could have easily ended her running career. A broken back. A broken pelvis. A broken femur. Trips to the Boston Children’s Hospital. Bone density issues, which led to stress fractures, left Noriega feeling hopeless at times.
“I was struggling. Everybody told me, ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea to run.’ Doctors too,” Noriega said.
It was a common sight to see Noriega at a meet with a clipboard in hand, just trying to keep the connection to the sport she loved most.
But she never wavered. She had faith that one day she might be able to come back.
That resiliency is beginning to pay off as not only has Noriega returned to the sport of track and field for the first time since the eighth grade, but she is also running at an all-state level.
Noriega won the 1,600 meters at the Chandler City Meet on April 17, recording a personal best time of 5:07.90. That time is currently ranked fifth in the state of Arizona.
“A lot of perseverance,” Chandler girls track and field coach Eric Richardson said about Noriega. “A lesser person would have packed it in by now. At no point in the four-year period of time have I ever heard her say, ‘I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.’ She’s religious on a stationary bicycle. She goes to the pool, does everything necessary to get back to this point. You have to commend somebody like that. All those injuries? I’ve seen a lot bigger, stronger physical people who pack it in. Her intestinal fortitude is second to none.”
In other words, she’s got guts.
Noriega — one of six siblings — started her career at a very young age. It started in kindergarten, beginning with a running club at Tarawater Elementary School under Jennifer Traficano. She flashed potential right away and eventually became one of the top middle school runners in the state while competing for the Arizona Cheetahs Track Club, and running at the Junior Olympic Championships.
Noriega finding success early on
As a seventh grader in 2019, she got down to 2:23.13 in the 800 meters – that would have qualified her for the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division I State Championships that season and placed her 12th overall.
Matt Lincoln, a former sub-four minute miler for Nike and the Canadian national team, who was the head coach of cross-country and track and field at Chandler at the time, had very high hopes for Noriega. Lincoln had just finished coaching Morgan Foster, his star athlete who set the Arizona state record in the 800 meters in 2019 at Chandler (before it was broken later that season) and went on to compete at Stanford.
“I thought she was going to run 4:50 in the mile as a freshman,” Lincoln said. “Aerobically, Sophia is the most gifted I’ve ever seen. It’s insane what she’s able to do.”
Then injuries got in the way.
Noriega said the bone density issues she suffered from stemmed from under-fueling. She wasn’t taught early on the importance of eating in track and field. Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is the official name of it. There’s eating enough for a normal 13-year-old, and then there’s eating enough for an athlete who is running at an intense level on a weekly basis. Noriega wasn’t eating enough to match her caloric output, and the effects were beginning to take their toll.
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“I don’t know if I ever knew the importance of fueling yourself,” Noriega said. “That was tricky because it went under the radar for a really long time. And it only started to catch up to me once I got to high school. No one really realized. It’s so common, people associate it with the sport. When you realize, it’s always too late.”
In total, Noriega suffered consecutive stress fractures to her sacrum (a bone in the lower back), pelvis and femur. It was a string of injuries that wrecked Noriega.
The last injury, to her femur, which is the largest bone in the human body, felt like the final blow.
“I was told I needed to be done at that point. We were all that point, your health needs to take priority. That was devastating,” Noriega said. “It also gave me the time to reevaluate, ‘Are you in this for the right reasons?’ I took time even away from the team, a month or so. I knew once I was with the team, that it was worth the fight.”
Noriega slowly worked her way back, pedaling away on the stationary bike that is now tucked tightly into the concession stands as the turf at Austin Field gets replaced. She changed her approach to training, not totaling more than 12 to 13 miles in a week.
Noriega serving as inspiration at a young age
For her coaches, watching Noriega return to the track has been awe-inspiring. It’s the type of stuff you see in a movie.
“I try to be a nonemotional person. I try to keep all my emotions off to the side,” Richardson said. “But it’s hard not to – I’m getting chills just talking about her. Somebody like that, it’s hard not to cheer for them, hurt for them, cry for them.”
Lincoln, who saw greatness in Noriega all those years ago and still is coaching her this last season, is just happy that she is doing what she loves the most.
“That kid does not give up. Her drive and desire to be good at it – I wish that all kids that came through the program had half what she has in that respect,” he said.
Noriega has also become an advocate for making sure track and field athletes are properly taught about nutrition. “That’s been important to me, talking to younger athletes, telling them to take care of themselves. I do feel like I owe to athletes of any age to share what I know,” Noriega said.
Although she has barely competed during her high school career, a total of five cross-country races and five track races, Noriega makes for an interesting prospect at the next level. Running 5:07 in the 1,600 meters following a four-year break from the sport is hard to do. There’s untapped potential.
Bernie Montoya has taken over the reins as coach from Lincoln at Chandler since Lincoln stepped down after the 2023 cross-country season.
Montoya is well respected in the state as he was a legendary prep athlete here while attending Yuma Cibola, where he developed into a high-profile national recruit before moving on to ASU. He set the Arizona state record in the 3,200 meters in 2012 when he ran 8:47.07. Montoya is also the former state record holder in the 800 meters and is third all-time in state history for the 1,600 meters.
Noriega could be a diamond in the rough.
“If she stays healthy, she’s a steal for a recruit,” Montoya said. “There are certain things you can’t coach. It’s that grit. That competitiveness. That will. That fire. You either have it, or you don’t. And she has it. It’s shown in her training and her workouts. If she goes to the next level, (she’s) definitely going to go a long way because she’s ready.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chandler's Sophia Noriega is back on the track against all odds
