ALL-CVA CROSS COUNTRY: Barclay battled injuries to lead Pats

During her junior campaign, Liz Barclay battled through anemia and was still able to qualify for the Group AAA championship as an individual by placing in the top ten at the Northwest Region championship.

As a senior, Barclay’s goal was to return to the state championship — but this time, she wanted to have her whole team running with her.

“We just really wanted to get to states,” said Barclay, The Daily Progress’ All-Central Virginia girls runner of the year. “We came so close last year and we really wanted to work on that.”

But a few weeks into the season, those goals were put on hiatus when another injury began to plague Barclay.

“I sprained my ankle the day before the Ragged Mountain Cup,” Barclay said. “But I’ve sprained my ankle before — it wasn’t a huge deal. I got it taped and then I was able to run. But then I turned it again at the [Commonwealth] District preview meet.”

This time, Barclay had more than just tweaked her ankle, which would keep her out only three or four weeks. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. This time, she had done serious damage.

“The swelling wouldn’t go down for about two weeks,” Barclay said. “So I got an MRI and then [the doctors] realized that I had completely torn one ligament and partially torn two others.”

So for the next two months, before she went to school, Barclay spend her Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings running in a pool to try and stay in shape and avoid muscle atrophy.

Meanwhile, the Patriots continued without her, hoping that they could hold their own and get along far enough in the post season that Barclay could return and lead them to the VHSL championship.

They did. In the Commonwealth District championships, the Patriots managed to place second behind Mountain View thanks to some of its youngest runners, such as sophomore Elizabeth Sinclair, who finished third overall, and freshman Lauren Brady, who came in fourth.

“Watching them in that race was probably one of the best moments of the year,” Barclay said. “It was really exciting for me see them step up the way they did.”

The strong showing gave Barclay one more week to get healthy. While not yet 100 percent, she felt her ankle was strong enough, and was also comforted by the fact that she would race on her home track at Panorama Farms.

“At 80 percent, she’s better than most at 100 percent,” said Patriots coach Lance Weisend. “And Panorama is like running on a golf course.”

Barclay finished ninth when all was said and done. With Sinclair just a few steps behind her in 10th and Brady coming in at 13th, Albemarle was heading to the state championship as a team.

“We had finally reached our goal,” Barclay said. “I don’t even know how to describe it, it was just great. When we got there we were standing at the line were just wowed. There was nothing else to do but just run.”

Barclay, who plans to run for William and Mary in the fall, finished in the top 20 in the race and Patriots finished 11th overall, but the true satisfaction came from running with her team one last time.

“That’s what she really wanted,” Weisend said. “It made her season a lot more satisfying than people would believe given the fact that she was hurt.”