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SPORTS

Roberson CC runner breaks leg, finishes race

Bob Berghaus
bberghaus@citizen-times.com
Connor Callihan, Roberson junior cross country runner, waves to his teammates as he's taken to an ambulance with a broken leg. Callihan fell and broke his leg about 10 feet from the finish line Monday during the Mountain Athletic Conference Cross-Country Championships in Fletcher.

Roberson cross-country coach Andrew Devine knows what it's like at the end of a race as runners strain to get the best times possible.

Some may fall near the finish line, totally exhausted, and then find the strength to get back up and cross the line.

Then there's Connor Callihan, a junior on the Rams' cross-country team.

Running in the Mountain Athletic Conference meet at Fletcher Community Park on Monday, Callihan took a tumble. But it wasn't from exhaustion. Several feet from the finish, his right leg snapped like a twig, breaking in several places.

"I've been doing this for a long time," Devine said. "I've never seen anything like this."

People started yelling for Callihan to finish, unaware what had happened. But he knew what he had to do.

"This was my last race of the year," Callihan said by phone from his bed in Mission Hospital on Tuesday. "I just had to finish for my team. I just had to."

So, he crawled the remainder of the way, despite feeling pain he's never experienced before in his young life.

"His leg was in a way nature didn't intend it to be," Devine said. "This went from an admirable effort to something totally different."

His mother, Stephanie, said doctors told her Connor broke his tibia (shine bone) in three places.

Manteo Mitchell knows what it's like to break his leg during a race. The former Western Carolina University athlete broke his fibula during a 1,600-meter relay heat in the 2012 Olympics but kept going. The Americans eventually earned a silver medal because Mitchell didn't quit.

"Wow. Just read the story about the kid from TCR," Mitchell emailed me after reading it on the Citizen-Times' website Tuesday. "Must be an 828 thing. I need to reach out to this kid."

Connor was scheduled to have surgery Tuesday. He did get to talk with Mitchell, who wished him well and told Connor how proud he was of him for finishing.

Stephanie was standing near the finish line already feeling guilty. Each time Connor passed her he said his leg was hurting. He came home from school Friday saying it was sore. He took a run Sunday and despite feeling soreness wanted to compete in the MAC race.

Connor's parents said he has experienced soreness in the past and thought it was nothing more than that.

A doctor told Stephanie that Connor may have suffered a stress fracture well before Monday's race.

"He got to the finish and said 'My leg' and he just went down," Stephanie said. "He was in a lot of pain, but he crawled over the finish line. That's just the type of kid he is.

"The brotherhood on this team is just amazing, and Connor thinks the world of his teammates and of coach Devine. He didn't want to let them down. They're just an amazing group."

And Connor Callihan is an amazing, and courageous, individual.

This is the opinion of Citizen-Times sportswriter Bob Berghaus. Follow him on Twitter:@Bob_Berghaus