By Colin Likas, The News-Gazette
clikas@news-gazette.media
Read on News-Gazette.com
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Grace Rogers spent her first two Illinois distance running seasons finding her footing.
She arrived to start her Illini career from Glenbard West High School dealing with a broken rib. Neither she nor her doctors, to this day, are sure how the injury happened.
As she was getting back into the swing of running, she suffered a stress reaction in the cuboid bone of her left foot.
Rogers never redshirted, but she didn't have many college results next to her name entering her junior campaign.
"But I overcame that," Rogers said. "I had a solid junior and senior year. I definitely progressed a lot as a runner.
"I still wish I could've reached that point a little earlier."
Especially since her senior outdoor track and field season was taken away, among the numerous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation. She's had time to process that moment since it happened on March 12, but that didn't necessarily make it easier in coping with it initially.
"I'll look at my planner and see it written in what meet we had that week," Rogers said. "It's sad, but I feel like I was able to move on pretty quickly."
Rogers discovered a level of solace in the fact her final collegiate races weren't wiped off the calendar because of something she or anyone around her did incorrectly.
As she describes the situation, "it was really calming to know it was no one's fault."
Even so, Rogers appeared to be truly hitting her stride during Illinois' 2020 indoor track and field slate.
Back-to-back February meets — the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational at Lincoln, Neb., and the Music City Challenge at Nashville, Tenn. — included Rogers setting "huge" personal bests in two different races.
Rogers first clocked a third-place time of 9 minutes, 44.64 seconds in the 3-kilometer run at the former event before recording a 4:50.37 in the mile during the latter one.
To cap what wound up being the final chapter of Rogers' Illini running tenure, she was the anchor and lone senior on a sixth-place distance medley relay unit at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.
"I never saw myself earning points for the team at the Big Ten meet," Rogers said. "That meant a lot to me, knowing that it could be my last race at Illinois."
Rogers confirmed it will be, as she won't accept an available extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA's Division I Council. Instead, she's pursuing a public relations job in the Chicago area.
She'd prefer to be using the current time to toe the line in the steeplechase. It's an event she desired to run throughout college, but a combination of injuries and lack of preparedness in the wake of them meant it didn't work out during her first three track and field seasons.
"It was disappointing to never get to be able to do that," Rogers said. "I ran a good 3K time for myself (this year) and was doing drills all winter, so I was really excited to see how my 3K time could transfer into a 3K outdoor steeplechase race."
It's a small complaint for Rogers at this stage, however.
Although her running results didn't pan out quite as anticipated once she chose Illinois over Marquette and Butler, Rogers is glad she never shied away from coming back for more.
"I'm so glad I stuck it out and ran all four years," Rogers said. "To see the actual results of all my hard work at the end of my senior year really actually made it all worth it, even though it was only those three races."
