ADM junior hurdler Maggi Bjustrom made it clear in March what her ultimate goal for the 2015 track and field season was: make it back to where she was as a freshman. Anything less would be a disappointment.
That goal has been met, and it’s been a process more than two years in the making.
After running in the 100m hurdles at the 2013 state meet as a freshman, Bjustrom shortly thereafter tore the PCL and both menisci, and blew out the cartilage in her left knee, on the softball diamond. The physical toll of rehab was difficult enough, but for Bjustrom, the results that followed were even more agonizing.
Bjustrom went from a state qualifier her freshmen year to a talented athlete afraid of re-injuring herself, and was therefore unable to push herself as hard physically or mentally as she wanted to last year as a sophomore. Her times were wildly inconsistent and not nearly as fast as in the prior season.
Now fully recovered, Bjustrom is peaking at the right time as a state qualifier in four events this weekend at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
“She’s had a little bit of a comeback year,” said Tigers head coach Bart Mueller. “And I tell the girls in sports, you hear about it all of the time in sports, you can have your down times and you have your down seasons, and it does happen. There’s injury years, going from all levels of sports, it happens. And you’ve got to stick with it. You’ve got to keep working and hang around, and all of a sudden you get healthy and things start to come together because you don’t give up.
“She stuck in there and kept going and now she came back this year and going to state in four events. It really fell into place, so that’s really exciting for her that she stuck with it.”
Bjustrom was the anchor of ADM’s shuttle hurdle relay team that took took 13th place out of 24 teams in preliminaries with a time 1:09.51 on Thursday. She’ll get three more cracks to either qualify for a state final or win a state championship on Friday: individually in the 100m hurdles at 10:10 a.m., which is a preliminary round, and in two relays, the girls distance medley relay at 9 a.m. (a final round) and the 4 x 100 relay at 12:50 p.m. (prelimary round).
Stay tuned to the Raccoon Valley Radio Network throughout the day for live updates from Drake Stadium, and tune in for a full report during our noon and 5 p.m. news hours. Also be sure to check back to raccoonvalleyradio.com for web updates throughout the day.