BYU’s Meghan Hunter competes in NCAA Championship West Preliminaries in School Station, Texas, Might 29, 2021. A critical automotive accident quickly derailed Hunter’s observe profession, however the gifted Cougar is again higher than ever. Nate Edwards, BYU Photograph
Provo Excessive’s Meghan Hunter wins the 400 meters through the BYU Invitational in Provo on Saturday, Might 4, 2019. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Meghan Hunter was on high of the world as she and her brother Morgan drove up Provo Canyon headed to Park Metropolis. One of many nation’s high younger observe stars, Meghan had simply signed a letter of intent with BYU after making official recruiting visits to trace powerhouses USC and Oregon. She was going to affix her sister Kate on the BYU staff, following within the footsteps of their father, Iain, who additionally had run for the varsity.
She and Morgan have been en path to do volunteer work for a highway race early on the morning of July 4, 2019. It was nonetheless darkish as they got here to a nook within the highway after which out of nowhere a deer darted into the trail of their Toyota Forerunner. Morgan veered to overlook the deer after which wrestled to deliver the automotive again beneath management because it yawed backwards and forwards.
“I assumed he was simply messing round at first,” Meghan says. However then the automotive rolled over — and again and again and over. 4 or 5 instances. She immediately felt ache in her neck and each time the automotive made one other roll she wished it might cease.
“You OK?” Morgan requested Meghan when the SUV lastly got here to relaxation on its aspect in a discipline.
“I believe so,” she stated. “My neck hurts, however I’m high-quality.”
All of the glass was damaged out of the automobile. Morgan climbed out of the sunroof after which pulled his sister out the identical means. After calling their mother and father to inform them what occurred, they waited for his or her arrival on the scene. Meghan, whose neck was more and more stiff and sore, walked round restlessly.
She needed to lie down, however she was uncomfortable and couldn’t deliver herself to do it. Some passersby stopped on the scene. Within the months forward, Meghan would all the time be glad about that. They realized Meghan’s accidents have been extra critical than she realized and known as an ambulance. She was taken to a hospital in Park Metropolis. Docs ordered scans of her neck after which informed her the information: She had a damaged neck.
“My brother got here within the room and so they informed him — the look on his face, that was the toughest,” Meghan says. “He felt so dangerous, despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault.”
Meghan was airlifted to Provo.
Meghan Hunter already had had greater than her share of setbacks between her many triumphs, however nothing of this magnitude. As a sophomore at Provo Excessive, she was ranked third within the state within the 100 meters and first in each the 400 and 800, however she was unable to compete within the finals due to a pulled hamstring.
She rebounded as a junior by claiming 4 particular person state championships within the 100, 200, 400 and 800. It was that form of vary that made her such a scorching commodity within the recruiting sport. That season she additionally set an all-classes state document within the 400 of 52.59, the eighth quickest time within the nation that 12 months, and a time that has been bettered by just one in-state collegian (Utah State’s LaDonna Antoine in 1997, 51.48).
Months later Hunter tore the posterior cruciate ligament in her knee throughout a powder puff soccer sport. By some means she rebounded from that seven months later to win three extra particular person state titles. She was named Gatorade’s Athlete of the 12 months in 2018 and 2019 and posted instances of 11.96 within the 100; 24.20 within the 200; 52.59 within the 400; and a couple of:09.26 within the 800.
Hunter was reared in a household of runners. Iain was a high-quality 800-meter runner for BYU within the ’90s. His son Morgan was an excellent highschool runner and John gained a state championship within the 3,200 meters (he’s at the moment on the BYU farm staff, one that's robust sufficient that it might compete in opposition to many college groups). Each of his daughters turned national-class runners.
Kate was a two-time state cross-country champion at Provo Excessive and gained state championships on the observe at 800, 1,600 and three,200 meters. At BYU she earned All-America honors with a sixth-place end within the mile on the 2021 NCAA indoor championships. Then there was 5-foot-9 Meghan, two years youthful and one inch taller than Kate. Meghan and Kate have been sufficient to win a staff state championship, able to profitable each race from 100 to three,200 meters between them. They have been excited in regards to the prospect of reuniting on the staff at BYU.
Within the ER, medical doctors assessed Meghan’s damage and its restore for the household. The C-5 vertebrae was shattered. The vertebrae from C-3 to C-5 could be fused into one block of bone. The physician, recollects Iain, was not involved that there could be paralysis; he was extra unsure about whether or not the end result would enable a traditional life.
The household then turned the dialogue: would she have the ability to run once more? The physician, unaware of Meghan’s operating exploits, stated it was potential, in a 12 months or two, after which concluded by saying, “Nicely, it’s not like she’s going to run within the Olympics or something.”
“And naturally we’re pondering, nicely truly, that’s one of many potentialities,” says Iain.
Diljeet Taylor, the BYU observe and cross-country coach, was with the household within the room and heard the physician’s remark. When the household left the room to verify on Morgan (he escaped with out damage, it might prove), Taylor returned to the physician to inform him about Meghan’s burgeoning operating profession.
Later, the physician watched movies on-line of Meghan in motion. Within the course of, he additionally seen — like many others earlier than him — that Meghan had a unusual behavior of bobbing her head aspect to aspect when she ran and that it tended to lean to the left aspect. Then he recalled that he had seen one thing on her CT scan. The C-1 vertebrae — which helps the load of the top — had an anomaly. It was not absolutely fashioned; the place there ought to have been an entire full circle, there was an area on one aspect. The physician stated Meghan had both damaged her neck at that spot when she was very younger or it had by no means absolutely fashioned within the first place.
Provo Excessive’s Meghan Hunter wins the 400 meters through the BYU Invitational in Provo on Saturday, Might 4, 2019.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
“Perhaps that’s why her head wobbles to 1 aspect,” he concluded. “That’s her physique defending itself.”
Shortly earlier than placing Meghan beneath anesthesia to start the surgical procedure to restore her neck, the physician stated to her, “Fifty-two 5, proper?” He was referring to her state-record 400 time.
“He had finished some analysis,” says Meghan. “That was comforting. I knew then that he cared about me.”
The surgical procedure required 6 ½ hours. The shattered C-5 vertebrae was grinded right into a powder and used as filler for the graft. The C-3 by means of C-5 vertebrae have been fused and wrapped with a steel cage on which the bone might develop, like concrete round rebar. Meghan spent seven days within the hospital. She wore a neck brace 24/7 for a number of months after which she was weaned off it, 10 minutes at a time. For a 12 months she wore one at any time when she was in a automotive.
The surgeon informed her she may have the ability to begin operating in a 12 months or two. Different surgeons agreed. Six months later, on Jan. 1, the identical surgeon cleared her to run on a treadmill in a pool. Just a few weeks later she was in a position to run just a few laps on BYU’s indoor observe. In April — 9 months after the accident — she was cleared to do observe exercises.
Taylor had deliberate all alongside to transform Hunter into an 800-meter runner in school, however, as destiny would have it, the 2020 season was canceled by the pandemic. In 2021, Meghan competed in solely a handful of meets due to mono — yet one more setback — however in Might she nonetheless managed to run a formidable 2:04.27 for 800 meters.
This winter she gained the Mountain States Federation championship at 800 meters with a time of two:04.08 — the sixth quickest indoor time ever at BYU, a college that has produced 5 NCAA champions and two runners-up at that distance. She is also progressively regaining the velocity she used to set the Utah state prep 400-meter document, splitting a 53-second 400 on BYU’s distance medley relay.
“She has actually had a miraculous comeback,” says Taylor. “We weren’t positive she’d ever run once more. She has fought for each second she has gotten on the observe. She has fought with a tremendous quantity of grit simply to get again on the observe. Her exercises are very promising. She shall be the most effective runners within the NCAA, I've little doubt. She’s tremendous gifted. She’s going to be one to observe over the following few years.”
“She is getting significantly better than she ever was within the 800 and getting shut within the 400,” says Iain.
BYU is making a documentary about Hunter’s accident and comeback.
“Her story is a tremendous certainly one of grit and willpower,” says Ed Eyestone, the director of observe and discipline at BYU. “She’s been by means of a traumatic expertise. She got here inside a millimeter of (paralysis). Sadly, there’s nonetheless some trauma she’s coping with. She’s needed to be strong-willed.”
Hunter has skilled different signs in addition to a stiff neck from the violent accident. As she tells it, “I used to be high-quality at first. However a 12 months in the past, I began to expertise PTSD. It’s an enormous a part of my journey. I panicked once I was in a automotive. There are triggers, like driving in rain, driving by means of the canyon, visitors situations. I’m nonetheless engaged on it. Typically I’m actually anxious and generally I panic.”
Hunter after all is relieved to return to the game she has embraced for years. Hunter’s neck stays sore, however she doesn’t discover it when she runs. “It doesn’t have an effect on my operating a lot,” she says. “It’s form of a miracle. My vary of movement was affected somewhat bit. Largely what bothers me is sitting too lengthy with out a backrest or sporting a backpack too lengthy or lifting heavy issues.”
“We’re simply so glad she’s alive,” says her father.