High school student shows perseverance through cross country injury

UNION GROVE, Texas (KETK) — Union Grove student athlete, Landry Harris, showed her perseverance and dedication to her sport by pushing through a potentially season-ending injury. 

“I’ve kind of done sports my whole life,” Harris said. “My family’s very, very into sports. All my brothers did sports. So I’ve been doing them since third grade.” 

She’s played numerous sports throughout the years, but truly found her stride in cross country, even setting a school record her freshman year. But before her season even started this year, she tore her ACL, an injury that can put athletes on the bench for more than 9 months. 

“It’s been an emotional journey because running is my big thing,” Harris said. “I didn’t know if I’d be able to run this season with my team and keep our streaks alive and just be there for my team because that’s what I love doing.” 

Through her recovery process, she said she found out she might be able to compete this season. 

“I got told by my doctors that if I put in the work at physical therapy this summer, that I would be able to get back to running before surgery,” Harris said. 

So that’s what she did, working every week to get better and better to overcome this injury while pushing her team to grow together through a difficult season. 

“In a strange way, the injury has grown us all because as a coaching staff, we’ve been able to see our kids rally around one another, and other kids got stronger and maintained that going into the season,” Girls’ athletic coordinator JB Littlejohn said. 

During this recovery, Harris became an inspiration to her teammates and peers. 

“She was our athlete of the Year last year as a freshman,” Littlejohn said. “Her competitive nature, combined with her work ethic, you put that with the natural talent, that’s why we’re seeing what she’s doing.” 

Through determination and hard work, Landry and her team made it all the way to the state cross country meet. 

“It was very like congratulating, and I felt like my efforts and everything that I went through paid off finally,” Harris said. 

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