Shannon Malone prepares for her sixth season after battling injuries

Shannon Malone couldn’t believe it was happening again.

The weekend before her redshirt senior season debut at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational, her stride became a hobble. She felt a weird tweak.

Malone thought back to the minor hip issues she had that spring. And a sacrum injury from her junior year. And the problems with both of her feet. For 48 hours, she didn’t know if she would lose her sixth and final cross country season to another injury — she couldn’t waste another year because this time there wouldn’t be another.

“I got irrationally scared,” Malone said. “Like ‘Oh my gosh, my whole leg is broken in half. Not again.’”

With a minor diagnosis, Malone shuffled back into her top spot in front of SU’s pack a month later. She eyed a return, but with her history of injuries, Malone couldn’t rush back like before. She trusted the depth of No. 25 Syracuse, but knew her skills could be a “secret weapon” for a team eyeing the NCAA Championships. Recovering from injuries has set her back her entire career, but this season Malone developed back to form through careful consideration of her body’s limitations. Now, near 100 percent, Malone will debut on Friday at the ACC Championships in Boston, trying to emulate the speed that almost propelled her to All-American honors the season prior.

“I’ve gotten a lot smarter in that I need to stop,” Malone said. “Although that seems like the tough thing to do, it’s a lot harder.”

The spiral began seven years ago. Before the biggest meet of her high school career against North Allegheny (Pa.) High School, Malone, a then-junior at North Hills (Pa.) High School, was nursing a foot injury. She hid her pain from then-head coach John Wilkie, tying her ankle tight with white medical tape.

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To win, they would need to take the top three spots, he thought. Malone’s two sisters, Mary and Margo, were pegged one and two. Malone would need to get third.

About a mile into the race, Malone’s wrapped-up foot twisted horizontally. She kept pointing to her foot, but Wilkie pleaded with her to continue, stressing the importance of the race. With 500 meters left, Malone hovered in fifth place.

Wanting to clinch the race, Malone brushed past one North Allegheny runner. And on the straight-away, she hobbled past now-teammate at SU Madeleine Davison at the finish line to pull into third. Davison, in shock, dropped to the ground in tears.

“Are you OK, Shannon?” Margo remembered saying to her after she finished.

“I think I broke my foot,” Malone said, smiling as she tried to catch her breath, “but I’m pretty sure we won.”

Malone lost the rest of her season. A couple of days later, she went on a recruiting trip to Syracuse, staggering around Manley Field House with a boot on her foot. The limp distracted her from her visit, leaving a “bad taste in her mouth,” her father, Paul, said. She opted to go elsewhere, choosing to run at Virginia.

But her injuries worsened in her first two years. She battled with a sore sacrum, a triangular bone in the lower back, and struggled in her redshirt season. After running in the NCAA championships, she called Margo and asked about transferring to run with her and Mary. Then-head coach Chris Fox bought into the idea, and Malone joined her sisters on the SU roster.

She sat out her first year due to NCAA transfer rules and, with no race in sight, kept running daily. She thought the change of scenery would help her, but the injuries didn’t stop. At her “darkest time,” she said she questioned her commitment to running.

She called Paul and her mother, Madeline, who would support whatever decision she would make. Margo and Mary said the same. But she sat down with then-assistant coach Adam Smith, and the two talked about what it would take for her to return. After, she decided she was going “all in.”

“I really didn’t know what to do. I was back-and-forth,” Malone said. “But staying at this meant being consistent — not necessarily having the highest mileage, but slowly doing the work.”

So, Malone slowed down. She took her time running, and when she felt discomfort, she didn’t test it like before. Her penchant to push through didn’t persist, but for the first time in her career, the development came organically.

A 2017 Syracuse campaign highlighted by Paige Stoner’s record-breaking final season overshadowed Malone’s first “breakout year,” Fox said last November. Before, Malone’s other appearances in national races were based on her team’s success. With SU not guaranteed a spot at NCAA Championships in 2017, Malone, like in high school, needed to place in the top three.

New Hampshire’s Elinor Purrier and Stoner were locked for the top two spots, and the last automatic qualifier was wide-open. Malone jumped from the meet’s third pack to the first midway through the 6-kilometer race and held her own with Purrier and Stoner until they advanced further. But in the final stretch, Malone wasn’t outkicked by two trailing Providence runners.

“It was exhilarating to watch something you knew she had the potential to do,” Paul said. “But each year something would keep her from having an opportunity.”

On a muddy day at nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, Malone’s legs caught up to her, Paul said, and she didn’t run to her standards. A weak Malone battled to 73rd, 33 spots from All-American honors.

This season was supposed to be Malone’s year to step up. Before, during practices, she let runners such as Davison and Laura Dickinson go at their own pace. After they slowed, head coach Brien Bell told Malone to “fly off” and finish at her own pace, Davison said. A healthy Malone could’ve mimicked the dominance Stoner had on the team, but she was hurt.

Usually lively, but with a pending MRI to tell her fate, she spent those two days blank-faced, Mary said. Every plea from Mary to console her was shot down. Malone didn’t want to worry her family and kept quiet to her friends. She didn’t want them to know how bad it could be.

In September, Malone isolated herself from the sport for three weeks. Malone’s hip had no structural damage, but she ran less. She grappled with not trying to rush her recovery while itching to return back. Bell kept telling her to “rest it, not test it.”

Slowly, she recovered with underwater treadmills and recumbent bikes. Her pain was still there, she said, but the cross-training kept her mind off of it. Soon, her limp blossomed to a fluid running motion. By the beginning of November, Malone said she believes she’ll be back to her top speed.

In previous years, she had more years of eligibility to “live up to her talent,” Paul said. Coming off a season with some of her fastest times, Malone’s injury bug almost finished the same way it started: ending another season.

But this time, she’s back.

“I have more belief in myself,” Malone said. “And now this is it.”