Harper Russell clears her latest hurdle, an injury, well enough to extend her junior track season by a week to train and compete at today's Portage regional with a graduating friend

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Her shins caused Harper Russell so much pain that she was staring at the very real possibility that her junior
track season would end before the postseason, and that would have left her with an empty feeling.
She took a late-season week of rest and healed well enough to compete well enough at sectionals, placing second in the 100-meter hurdles, to extend her postseason by a week.
“I'm looking forward to it a pretty decent amount because I really don't have anything much to lose,” Russell said. “I don’t think I'm going to make it to state this year, but I'm OK with that, and I’m OK with my time, because I'm recovering from an injury.”
And Harper is more than OK with who else made it to today’s meet, graduating senior Lux Mountford. She did not earn an automatic qualifying spot in either hurdles race, but received callbacks in both races.
“I’m so happy she got a callback in both because she’s like my best friend and I would have been the only hurdler here practicing for the 100-meter hurdles but now I get to see her run the 300-meter hurdles and she also practices with me for the 100-meter hurdles,” Russell said.
Half the field from two heats of eight runners advances to the final, and then the top three placers in the final earn automatic qualifiers to the state meet. Since Russell is seeded eighth, that makes qualifying for the finals a natural and attainable goal.
At this point, anything she gets to do is a bonus, considering her season nearly ended prematurely.
“I’m just there to run and be happy,” Russell said. “Mostly my left shin was preventing me from hurdling to my full capacity, so I had to take about a full week off and do nothing but go on the bike and watch everyone else run and hurdle. I was really happy to get back. There was really no pain when I got back and I was just as good as I was before I took a week off, and it was really reassuring just to be out there again.”
She said she is “still recovering from it but it wasn’t as bad. It’s not as crippling as it was. And I was able to run, not to my full capacity but enough to satisfy me and run at sectionals and get to regionals now. I was really happy that I made it to regionals and I’m predicted to make it to the finals.”
Mountford is seeded 14th in Russell’s race and 13th in the 300 hurdles.