(Saginaw, Mich.) Last March, freshman, Kaylee Carew called coach Rod Wortley from her hotel room at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships saying she wanted to talk. They met in the hallway at the Quail Hollow Resort and Carew said, "I want to have the surgery."

A ligament in her left ankle, strained the first week of the cross country season in September had not healed well and the subsequent scar tissue made it impossible to run without severe pain. Months of physical therapy had been ineffective and the remaining options were to stop running or surgically remove the scar tissue by severing the ligament, patching it back together then waiting up to a year to see if range of motion would return and allow for pain free running.

"Kaylee likes to run, but she loves to compete," said Wortley. "The prospect of not being able to race again was almost as bad as having to wait a year to find out if that would ever be possible. Those are not the kinds of choices college freshmen expect to face."