MARINE CITY — Upon learning the diagnosis, Stella Behnan was overcome with uncertainty.
Last summer, before the MHSAA girls cross country season, the Cardinal Mooney High School senior suffered a sacral fracture at the base of her spine that put her athletic career in jeopardy.
“I was out the whole season,” Behnan said. “It’s really crazy. Because you don’t expect — that’s a very unusual place to get a fracture. It was definitely serious. I had to take three months off.”
Those months were some of the longest for Behnan, as doubt regularly entered her mind.
Would she also miss the upcoming track and field season? There were school records she wanted to break.
“She didn’t know if she was even going to be able to compete again,” Cardinal Mooney coach Matt Zammit said. “She had some hard moments. … We’d talk and I’d say, ‘Let’s not worry about that. Let’s take each day at a time. You can’t predict what’s going to happen next. Don’t look too far ahead, look right now at what’s in front of you.’ “
With Zammit’s help, Behnan gradually put every day of recovery behind her and returned to the track. Then, on May 6, came a day she’ll never forget.
That afternoon, at the CHSL Ste. Anne Championship, Behnan set the program record in the girls 1,600 meters with a time of 5:39.76.
She beat the previous record, which had stood since 2010, by four seconds.
“It felt great, I didn’t expect to do it,” Behnan said. “Because I’ve been running (around 5:50) through the season. But I had some girls there that pushed me. I was just trying to stay with the group and then I ended up breaking the record.”
Fittingly, it was Zammit who first informed her of the milestone.
“I was ecstatic,” Zammit said. “I just had to give her a big hug. I was so happy for her. … I know, deep down, she wanted it. I wanted to see her get it more than anything else. She was so close (before the fracture) and thought she was away from it now because she was injured … but she’s grown so much. Her mindset has always been very keen and very determined. She’s very well driven.”
That drive will take her to the Division 4 track & field state finals on May 30, as Behnan qualified in the 1,600 meters with a second-place finish — and a new record of 5:39.30 — at regionals. She also clinched a state finals berth in the 3,200 meters with a time of 12:38.03.
“It’s great to see that what I did over the winter is working and that (the injury) didn’t permanently set me back,” Behnan said. “I went through a lot of rough patches … I had to train my way through the winter to and try to get back to where I was. It was definitely difficult. I had a lot of setbacks … so it’s great to see those results in numerical form.”
Contact Brenden Welper at bwelper@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @BrendenWelper.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: After spinal injury, Cardinal Mooney runner Stella Behnan breaks school record
Reporting by Brenden Welper, Port Huron Times Herald / Port Huron Times Herald
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