Picture and Caption "The Plague of injuries"

Mortiz Mittendorfer ‘24, DeShannon Reed ‘27, and Nate Bonds ‘25 prepare to get treatment from NCS’ beloved Athletic Trainer, Holly Marshall. 
With many injuries plaguing athletes, they limit the team from having a fully healthy season. Most of these inconvenient injuries are due to either hamstring pulls or just hamstring tweaks in general. According to- -Marshall there have been three hamstring injuries in just the spring alone to runners such as Nate Bonds, DeShannon Reed ‘, and most recently newcomer, Jiale Qin ‘26. Some such as Bonds and Reed have carried these burdened hamstrings since the indoor season. “It delayed me a little bit,” said Bonds./ “It set me back but taught me to stretch more.” 
To truly show how much injuries affected the track team, runners are the first ones in Marshall's room before and sometimes the last ones to leave after practice. 
“Before practice I probably see about six and after about four,” Marshall said. Most people in the room are getting ice, helping stretching, or just even checking in with her about past injuries that may still need to be shown attention. Which is more than needed while going through an injury.
“Holly checks my progress and where I am compared to where I was,” Reed said, “and then she evaluates what stretches I can do and how hard I should go in practice.”
While coaches don’t like the time spent in Holly’s room before practice, it is important to the performance during practice. Practicing while  hurt there will be more chances of  performing at a lower level than at a healthy level. Also there are more chances of reinjuring that spot. 
“She [Holly] asked me to come before practice to check up on it. She knows how to help me do better during the practice and hold me from harder practices so I can work on it and let it heal,” Qin said, ”It will help me work on it without hurting it again or making it worse.” 
For the runners who were suffering from an injury earlier in indoor season and even tweaks this outdoor season are now back to running. For instance Bonds and Reed are now back to running the 4x100 relay and 100meter dash. For the more recent injuries, Qin, who is suffering from a pulled hamstring, is on the verge of returning to practice and is excited to run in his first meet. 
“I’m feeling better and ready to go for the next meet hopefully,” Qin said.

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