THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Abrupt end in Weishaar’s comeback year

As a senior at Timberlake High, Jamey Weishaar earned a medal by finishing 14th in the state 3A cross country meet at Farragut State Park on Oct. 31, 2015, a day that was filled with rain, mud and a lengthy delay.

Chances are, she’d love a day like that compared to how her senior year in track and field finished at NAIA Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

LEWIS-CLARK State was scheduled to open this year’s outdoor season on March 19 at Whitworth University in Spokane. The coronavirus pandemic canceled that meet.

Before the spring sports season was canceled by the NAIA on March 16, the team continued to meet.

“Lewis-Clark State didn’t allow scheduled team practices the week prior to the suspension,” Weishaar said. “But to keep spirits up, as athletes, the distance track crew still met as a team to do workouts until we knew for sure what the plan was moving forward.”

Weishaar was seeking her first appearance at nationals.

“For indoor, the team had multiple qualifiers and All-Americans that were also hoping to qualify for outdoors and earn more All-American honors,” Weishaar said.

Weishaar was sidelined due to injury for her junior year in 2018-19. While sidelined, Weishaar was named a NAIA Scholar-Athlete after posting a 3.5 grade-point average.

“It took a long time to figure out what was wrong,” Weishaar said. “My hip was bothering me in early 2018, and I last competed in indoor track in February of 2018.”

Weishaar said an MRI that fall discovered the issue.

“We found out I have fraying of the labrum in my hip joint, and it was inflamed and irritated,” Weishaar said. “We decided to get a cortisone injection in the bursa and hip joint itself. With these injections, after a couple of months I was able to slowly get back into running, which was mid-spring 2019. I didn’t feel ready enough to compete in outdoor track, meaning no competing for all three seasons (cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field). So I continued training into summer and competed again last fall.”

“Learning that my senior track season was cut short made me mad more than anything,” Weishaar said. “I’d finally got back to running last summer and was eager to run all three seasons of my last year and hopefully run some personal bests.”

DURING THE Boise State Challenge on Feb. 8 at the Ford Idaho Center Indoor Track in Nampa, Weishaar finished 16th in the 3,000-meter run in 11 minutes, 28.74 seconds.

“My indoor season didn’t end the way I wanted, so I was excited and ready to compete in outdoors,” Weishaar said.

Unfortunately, she — like many others around the nation — didn’t get the chance.

“It made me sad,” Weishaar said. “I was sad because this team is like a family and with this pandemic, everything was cut short. The early morning runs were done, team dinners were done, my college career was done, everything was done, and it was all out of my control. Most of my team went back home and I had to say goodbye to them sooner than I had ever thought.”

The NAIA previously announced that spring sports athletes will not be charged a year of eligibility due to the pandemic, allowing Weishaar another season of outdoor track and field.

But she says she’s done running.

“Even if I have the opportunity, I’m still planning on moving forward to my plans after graduation,” said Weishaar, an exercise science major. “I’m going to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations, which is required for schools in the United States and Canada) and start applying for grad schools.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.