It has taken Jacquelyne Gallegos a full year to recover from a severe car crash last September. This weekend she will compete in the Lobo Invitational, the team's first cross country meet of the year.
Gallegos, who is from Pojoaque, N.M., started her running career when she was in fifth grade. She didn't start officially competing until the eighth grade when she ran for a high school team.
UNM head coach Matt Henry recognized Gallegos' potential early on.
"We recruited her out of high school," he said. "We thought she could be one of the best UNM has ever had. I still believe that."
In her first year as a Lobo, Gallegos qualified for the NCAA tournament after finishing 19th at the Mountain Regional Championships, becoming one of the youngest UNM athletes to compete at the national level.
Gallegos' sophomore year got off to an even better start. She led the women's team with a pair of top five finishes in the 6K races at the team's first two meets.
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Gallegos set a personal record while at the 2002 Lobo Invitational, posting a 22:45 and earning 2nd place.
But the season that started off on such a positive note ended early, and in disaster when a truck ran a red light and struck the vehicle Gallegos was driving.
Gallegos was rushed to the hospital, suffering from a broken back and a punctured lung.
"They didn't know I had a punctured lung," she said. "They took x-rays and said they didn't see anything and that I was fine. Two days later I got a call from the hospital and I had to go in for more x-rays."
Coach Henry said news of the accident affected him personally.
"It made me realize that Jackie's running is not important," he said. "Jackie is still with us, and that's a blessing."
Henry said every member of the cross country team was at the hospital that night.
"It brought our team together," he said. "Something good came out of something bad."
Gallegos said she saw her doctor only three times and did rehabilitation on her own. She was medically released in December, three months after the accident. At that time she was still enduring a significant amount of pain.
"It wasn't just my back, it was everything," she said. "I didn't know if it would ever stop hurting."
Despite the pain, Gallegos kept pushing herself to get better. She worked hard to regain her strength and Henry said she was an inspiration to the entire team.
"She has never missed one practice with me," he said. "Even when she was on crutches. She wasn't running, but she was there. That is extremely rare."
Gallegos worked to compete in an indoor meet last spring. She took 3rd place in the 1,500-meter race at the UTEP Springtime Invitational. Although she finished strong in her first competition since the accident, her time had increased by minutes and Gallegos was disappointed with her performance.
"I raced, but it didn't feel like I raced," she said.
Out of concern for her health, Henry did not allow Gallegos to compete the remainder of the year. He said she was upset with him, and he realized it was hard for her to be on the sidelines.
But Gallegos was determined and she continued to train on her own over the summer.
She admits at times she had to sit back and ask herself, "Why am I doing this?" However, Gallegos said it never crossed her mind to give up.
"It would be weird if I stopped," she said. "It's who I am. It's something that I've done for so long."
Today Gallegos is fully recovered from her injuries. Henry said she could come back this year in better condition than ever before.
Gallegos does not know what the upcoming season has in store for her.
"I just want to do my best," she said. "I don't know what my best is anymore, but I want to do well for the team. Everybody on the team is working so hard and I don't want to let them down."
