Sweat rolled down her face and oxygen filled her lungs as she sucked in a deep breath. She focused with tunnel vision on the girl directly in front of her about 100 meters away. As she neared the hand-off, her ears filled with the sound of her teammates screaming for her. Suddenly, the screams were blocked out by a sickening snap, and senior Carmen Sitz realized her high school track career might be over.

Sitz qualified for the state track meet in high jump and the mile relay with her team, but was unable to compete due to an injury during the regional meet. After qualifying for state in high jump, Sitz ran the 100 meter hurdles. Following the race, she noticed a sharp pain in her foot.

“I thought it was a weird pain, and it hurt so bad I couldn’t take off my spikes,” Sitz said. “Coach Baca came over and thought I was upset because I didn’t make it to state in 100 hurdles. He told me it was okay because I had already qualified and had two more events and I said, ‘No dude, I hurt my leg.’”

After taking ibuprofen and applying ice to her injury, Sitz went to warm up for 300 meter hurdles. During warm-ups, however, Sitz said she became worried that if she ran the race and something happened, she would not be able to jump at state. After talking to Coach Ray Baca, Sitz decided to be taken off the relay card as well.

“I went and sat in the tent for a while, and I was thinking about how badly I wanted to run in the relay,” Sitz said. “I didn’t want to let my team down, and if the doctor did tell me that was my last track meet in high school, I knew I wanted to run the mile relay.”

Sitz went to go warm up with the relay team until Coach Baca came to check on her. He added her back on the card and she ran the relay with her team. She said although she felt a little pain during the first 300 meters, she was doing fine until the last 100 when she heard a popping sound and felt a shooting pain in her leg.

“I was exhausted,” Sitz said. “I didn’t want to finish, but I saw Izzy up in front screaming for me and I saw all the other girls to the side. I knew I wanted to do it. So I just ran to Izzy and handed it off to her as soon as possible, and she got out there and went for it.”

After the regional meet, Sitz went with Coach Baca to get her foot x-rayed and found out it was broken. She would not be able to compete in any of the events at the state meet.

“I felt like my whole year I had worked toward that goal to compete,” Sitz said. “When they showed me the x-ray, I started crying. I looked at Baca and he just gave me a hug and told me it was alright and that I had achieved a lot this season.”

Sitz said although she was sad to find out she would not be able to compete at state, she was far more worried about college.

“I had been talking to the University of Arkansas, and they had expressed some interest in wanting me to jump for them next year,” Sitz said. “I was worried something might happen with that. Right after we went to the doctor, Coach Baca called Coach Harter, the head coach at Arkansas, but he was in a meeting. I talked to Baca later and he said Coach Harter said he wanted me to jump for them more now because of the mental toughness it took for me to run that race with a broken foot. He was even more impressed with me.”

The University of Arkansas won the indoor championships this year and is favored to win the national championships coming up. Sitz signed her letter of intent May 18 to high jump there beginning next fall.

“Arkansas is gorgeous, and just going to college there is amazing,” Sitz said. “It’s also the track capital of the world. I never thought I would be able to jump in college at all, but I am so excited to have this amazing opportunity.”