Friday, October 21, 2011
By matthew peaslee
austintown
Around 8 a.m. on September 20, Carissa Jenkins was just getting into her first period class. It seemed like a normal morning until she simply put her books under the desk.
“All I did was bend over slightly and I kind of twisted my ankle,” she said. “Then I had shooting pain. I couldn’t really walk the rest of the day because it hurt so much. I was just limping.”
The Fitch sophomore had just one thought at the time.
“How am I going to get on the bus for the meet?” she pondered.
Well, she did eventually make it to the Canfield Fairgrounds that afternoon for the Suburban League Championship, but she did not compete. Many were looking forward to it as Jenkins’ encore performance from the previous Saturday’s Spartan Invitational in Boardman where she ran a day’s best girls time of 18:40 to win the Division I race. Two races before that, she ran a 19:38, setting a new course record at the East Palestine Invite.
But all Jenkins had to look forward to from that fateful Tuesday on was a couple of weeks on crutches. She suffered from an ankle sprain that shot to her knee causing it to bruise. Also, her other knee was found to be out of place.
It wouldn’t be the first time she was faced with a setback, though.
“Freshman year … I became anemic,” Jenkins said.
Anemia develops when the blood lacks healthy red blood cells and affects nearly 3.5 million Americans. In Jenkins’ case, her cause was an iron deficiency.
“It takes your energy away from you,” said Fitch coach Amy Diefenderfer. “You need that iron in your blood to get oxygen and make sure everything is running to get you going.”
Jenkins continued to run after the diagnosis, but found she lost energy, while gaining minutes on her race times. She began taking iron supplements and changed her diet to include foods such as broccoli, fish and potatoes, as well as adding a hearty breakfast to her routine.
“I never used to eat breakfast,” she said. “I’m so glad that I do now.”
During her recovery from this season’s injuries, Jenkins had the opportunity to see a new side of races. Sitting on the sidelines, she became the Falcons’ biggest cheerleader.
“I felt like I was more into the team,” she admitted. “When I ran the entire season, I was a little more focused on myself. But when I was watching, a lot of the girls did very well, some got PRs, and it felt ten times better than winning a race.”
Nonetheless, her teammates are glad she’s back.
“She’s the leader of the team,” Diefenderfer said.”When Carissa is out the whole team is kind of like worried about who is going to lead us. Having her back is a boost to all of us.”
Jenkins made quite a comeback at the Wadsworth Invitational with a 20:02, then followed that up by winning the All-American Conference championship.
There’s still one hurdle she wants to jump, fairly soon.
“She wants to break my school record,” Diefenderfer, who set the Fitch record of 18:08, 11 years ago. “I definitely want her to get it. She still has two years left and I know she’ll get there.”