I don’t think what happened to me just happened to me. They were there and understand the mental side of what happened to us. “We kind of bonded over what happened to us. We are very good friends now and go out and do things together on the weekends. “Her character shines through everything she does. “The girl that helped me, (Ella) is just a fantastic representative of what this sport is all about,” Mann said. DesJean was the eventual winner of the race. Much of it has come from her toughest competitors.įranklin Central’s Ella DesJean and some of her teammates helped Mann on the Mt. Mann has had great support throughout all of this, too. It was very heartbreaking not allowing her to run, but she was there every day at practice supporting her teammates.” I feel she definitely could have moved on (to state). “Even that day she was winning by 25-30 seconds when she went down. I felt like I was continuing to get in shape and had my eyes set on state.” “I was working hard, but I felt nothing was holding me back. “The week leading up to the sectional I was having great workouts with my team and I was hitting my paces. She ran an identical time a week prior to that in winning the Golden Bear Invitational in Shelbyville. She ran a 19 minutes, 27 seconds in her runner-up finish at the HHC meet, hosted by Delta, the previous week. Mann had been running her best at the right time of the season. “Faith has kept me going through this entire thing, knowing God has a plan for everything that is happening in my life right now whether I can see it or not.”
It was definitely disappointing, but there was a lot of gratitude in that. “I was not going to be able to finish out the season. “When they initially told me, it was kind of shocking,” Mann said. A promising senior season with hopes of running in the IHSAA girls cross country state finals had come to an abrupt end. When they got to the hospital and they wanted to transport her downtown to Riley I suspected it was something a little more serious than that.”ĭue to the condition of her heart, Mann, though she had qualified, was unable to get cleared to compete the following week in the Rushville Regional. “At first I just thought it might be dehydration. “It was a pretty scary moment with she’s laying there at the sectional and was pretty well out of it,” New Palestine coach Chuck Myers said. That wasn’t her case.ĭoctors later found that the culprit to her fall was Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle. Mann said she’s seen runners fall before in distance races, and the majority of the time it is related to dehydration. “When something like that happens to you and you’re not in control of your own body, it’s confusing and very scary.”
“I remember the ambulance ride a little bit,” she said. She said she fell a couple more times, but doesn’t remember it. About 20-40 meters from the finish she fell. Vernon course, Mann couldn’t feel her legs hitting the ground. With about 400 meters remaining, just leaving the woods on the Mt. I was going to finish it out and take care of it after, which is not exactly how that went.” It was only a 5K, so there wasn’t that much to go. This was different I knew I had hydrated all the days before and done what I was supposed to do. It wasn’t normal fatiguing that I have felt before around the 3.5K or 4K mark. Around the 2K mark (of the 5K race) I started feeling strange. There was a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement,” Mann said. “Going into the sectional, it was definitely nerve-racking with it being my senior year. Somehow, she was able to recover to get fourth place, but there was something wrong. Vernon Sectional, she collapsed on the course. Leading by close to 30 seconds at the Mt. Winner of the Hancock County meet and runner-up in the Hoosier Heritage Conference race, Mann was well on her way to adding sectional champion to the list of her great accomplishments. New Palestine’s Emma Mann, the 2021 Daily Reporter Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year, had her brilliant senior season come to a terrible end. NEW PALESTINE - The support she’s given to those in need is being returned. Vernon IHSAA Girls Cross Country Sectional at Mt.
Franklin Central’s Ella DesJean (267) stops to helps New Palestine’s Emma Mann (378) who had collapsed while leading the race and was just yards from winning the Mt.