Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Ender Buchanan

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior pole vaulter Ender Buchanan. On Friday, Buchanan won the 3A State Championship in the pole vault at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Buchanan cleared 14 feet, beating out Croatan’s Logan Carlson for the championship. Buchanan started as a pole vaulter just two years ago after competing as a distance runner in middle school. At the end of his freshman year, he began working with Coach Thomas Fowlkes, the father of Cedar Ridge’s last state champion in track and field, Carolina Fowlkes. One day while Buchanan was practicing for the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in track & field, he got curious about the workouts that Coach Fowlkes conducted and checked it out. Since then, he has been immersed in pole vaulting. Even before he started as a pole vaulter, he was enamoured with the sport watching the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In February, Buchanan finished 2nd in the 3A State Indoor Championships at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, his best-ever showing up until Friday. Last week, Buchanan won the Mideast Regional championship at UNC Pembroke by clearing 13-feet. Buchanan is the tenth men’s track and field state champion in Cedar Ridge history and the first since 2013. He is the first man to win a state championship at the 3A level in school history and will probably be the last one since the North Carolina High School Athletic Association is expanding to eight classifications.