Monique Harris wakes up, her knee aching and throbbing with pain. She does not want to go to training today. She looks over to a paper taped up on her wall at home. Covered with goals she has set for herself, she knows to accomplish them she has to ignore the pain and train to get better.
After suffering a devastating knee injury in high school, Harris thought she would never be able to compete in track again. However, with her determination and hard work, she has battled her way to several individual championships and is helping resurrect the UNM track and field program.
This spring, Harris captured two conference individual championships in the triple jump. She won her first Mountain West Conference indoor title in February and captured her second straight MWC outdoor triple jump championship. She won the title with a conference record-setting leap of 41-feet, seven inches.
“I was very excited,” Harris said. “I went into the meet scared. “There was so much adrenaline I had, I just jumped. It was one of the goals I set.”
Her performance helped catapult the Lobo women’s track and field team to a fifth place finish in the conference meet, its best finish in 10 years.
With her three individual titles, she became the first Lobo to win three championships since Laverne Clark won four Western Athletic Conference titles in 1990-91.
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Her impressive season was not limited to her conference performance — as she had seven top-three finishes in the long jump and triple jump.
“I just work hard and don’t underestimate my opponents,” Harris said. “I feel happy and satisfied about my season. The hard work paid off.”
Harris also qualified for the NCAA provisional with a personal best jump of 42 feet, two inches in the triple jump in a meet in April. Picked by rankings and personal jumps, Harris was not chosen to compete in the provisionals.
“One of our goals is to get her to the NCAAs next year,” associate head coach Mark Henry said. “She has a good work ethic. She has the capability of making it into the NCAA track meet, which is one of the top three meets in the world.”
With all of her success, the junior still hasn’t forgotten how much pain and adversity she had to go through to come back from a knee injury.
The California native was a heralded track athlete at Cerritos High School, winning conference titles in the 200-meters, 400-meters and the long jump her freshman and sophomore year. Then after her sophomore year in 1996, Harris competed in the Junior Olympics when disaster struck. Harris tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in her left knee competing in an event.
“I was angry and scared when I tore my knee,” Harris said. “Then, when I went to see a doctor who told me to quit track and that if I chose to continue running that I would not be as good, I started crying.”
Not satisfied with the doctor’s assessment, Harris got a second opinion and was told she would be out for six months. Harris said the long, hard process of therapy took a toll on her and was very painful.
“I could not walk,” she said. “I lost all the muscle in my leg. I had to learn to walk again and run. It was very depressing.”
Her first meet back in 1997 she tried to run and her left leg gave out. The motivation of seeing her opponents run past her helped Harris, as she responded her senior year by regaining her titles in the 400-meters and the long jump.
“I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I learned to work hard, put my time in and dedicate myself. I can accomplish anything.”
Even though she showed that she had come back from the injury, colleges were still scared off, so she did not receive many scholarship offers. However, UNM and then-head coach Mike MacEachen believed in Harris and gave her a scholarship.
“They knew I was a good athlete even though I had this injury, ”Harris said. “They had faith in me and were positive about me. I owe them a lot. I am real proud of the school and track team.”
Harris came to the school as a long jumper and sprinter. However, MacEachen asked her to try the triple jump. She quickly caught on and improved. Although she is more successful at the triple jump, it is not her favorite event.
“”I love the long jump,” she said. “I put more pressure on myself in the long jump than I do in the triple jump. I’m still learning in the triple jump.”
Harris gives a lot of credit for her success to assistant coach Katerina Zuber, who coaches the long and triple jumpers.
Harris said she has been relaxing back home in California for most of the summer, but plans to return to Albuquerque in mid-July to start training again.
Harris still struggles occasionally with pain and soreness in her knee. However, she said she then looks at her goals and remembers all the opponents who are trying to catch her.
“I have been through worse things than most people, so I can accomplish anything,” she said.
