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HUGHESVILLE -- The strides were long and fluid, almost as if Kenna Ammar-Khodja was floating across the all-weather surface of Hughesville's track. With every step, the Spartans' senior powerfully and gracefully covered meter upon meter.
She ran without fear. She ran without concern for a surgically repaired knee. She ran with the fervent focus of an athlete who wants to make the most of a season she never expected to have.
As she passed the 200-meter mark in her 400-meter leg of the 1,600 relay at last weekend's PHAC North Section meet, Hughesville coach Rick Glenwright looked at his watch and saw 28 seconds. It was right near the time he wanted Ammar-Khodja to be halfway through her lap. She handed off the baton about 32 seconds later, running a minute-flat second-leg split.
Ammar-Khodja and her Hughesville teammates -- Cierra Getz, Alainya Sherwood and Elizabeth Fortin -- ran the fourth-fastest time in school history Saturday. Ammar-Khodja was running the event for the first time this season and the first time since tearing her ACL during soccer season in September.
Glenwright never expected to have his versatile senior for the track season. Ammar-Khodja is just happy to be able to compete. And she'll compete today for the Spartans on the first day of the District 4 Track and Field Championships at Williamsport.
"I just used track as my motivation," Ammar-Khodja said. "Everyone told me I wouldn't be back for track, it was out of the picture, and I wouldn't get my senior year. So through rehab and everything, I was thinking track, track, track and I had to get back. And I made it."
The only trepidation about Ammar-Khodja running has come from Glenwright. When he heard Ammar-Khodja suffered her knee injury in September and subsequently had surgery in October, he wrote off the track season entirely. In nearly three decades of coaching , Glenwright has come to understand athletics are secondary to living a fruitful life when it comes to dealing with injuries. So he never wanted to push Ammar-Khodja to a point where she could potentially hurt the knee again.
"Her surgeon said from the get-go she could come back by March," Glenwright said. "And I said sure, that's nice. I'd like to be able to dunk a basketball, but I can't do that either."
Glenwright and Ammar-Khodja have eased into the season. She had to give up her spot in the jumping events entirely. She initially was allowed to do just one event during meets. It was a plan Ammar-Khodja was on board with because she knew following the plan would eventually get her back to the track faster.
She started running in the 400 relay before slowly working into what has become her primary event this year, the 200 meters. In fact, in her first 200 race of the season she set a personal best in the event with a time which has her as the third seed for this weekend's District 4 meet. In between then and now, she finished on the podium at the Purple and White Invitational at Shamokin. She took second place in the 200 at last week's PHAC North meet.
Never has Ammar-Khodja hesitated to run her best. She trusted the surgery and the work she's put in to allow her to open up the silky-smooth stride which made her such a force in the 1,600 relay last weekend. She doesn't wear a brace on her knee when she runs, primarily because she's running in a straight line for the most part, so she doesn't need it.
"I trust myself. I trust my knee," Ammar-Khodja said. "I'm so thankful and glad that it does feel the same as it did before I got hurt."
"We brought her along as slowly as we could. But we've been trying to chip away at it as we could by having her warm-up with the four-by-one people," Glenwright said. "We tried to acclimatize her to the events before she ran them. She's done a remarkable job and I'm really, really proud of her for what she's done. There's millions and millions of people who have that surgery and you don't see million and millions of people coming back like she has."
The only thing left for Ammar-Khodja to try was to get back into the 1,600 relay. Glenwright prepared her for the event and tested her to make sure she could handle it in the days leading up to the PHAC meet.
During one particular practice, he timed Ammar-Khodja at 1:06 for a 400 run. When he put her on the team with Getz, Sherwood and Fortin for the league meet, he told Hughesville boys coach Griffin Molino he was either going to look like a genius or a sadist for doing so.
After the first two legs of the event, his Spartans had the lead. He looked at his watch as Ammar-Khodja made the second baton pass and through he had misclicked on his stopwatch because it read two minutes, which was far faster than he was expecting. But as he continued to look at the watch, the time released and again began counting and he realized the team was on pace for a blistering time.
The team's time of 4:08.72 marked the fourth-best time in school history. It was the second-best time run in District 4 this year, and the fifth-best time in the state by a Class AA team.
"It was my first time running it in like two years," Ammar-Khodja said. "My coach told me to trust myself, trust the recovery and just go for it. So that's what I did. I just went for it. We didn't expect that kind of time. We were thinking it would be something like 5 seconds slower."
The next step in Ammar-Khodja's recovery is participating this weekend in the district tournament. But after the time the Spartans threw down last week, there is a real possibility Ammar-Khodja could find herself among her teammates in Shippensburg next weekend for the state meet.
That thought is something Glenwright has considered but never thought was possible. Throughout this process, though, Ammar-Khodja has made a point of exceeding his expectations.
"At the beginning of this year I said whatever you do is gravy," Glenwright said. "We just want you to have a normal life after this. But she's taken the challenge of this very well and I think she surprised even herself a little bit."