"Kathy's immediate goal is to come to Penn State and take classes. Her long-term goal is to compete on the track team, bringing her high school success to the collegiate level."

This is a quote taken from an article written in July of 1998 about Penn State women's track and field athlete Kathy Messner.

Five weeks ago, at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup, seniors were called to center stage. The athletes were recognized for the milestone they had reached and the achievements they had earned. Showing no effects of the tragic injury that had taken place only a few years prior, Messner walked up to the front. She waved to the crowd. Little did the people there know how far she's really come.

During high school, in Thurmont, Md., Messner reigned supreme. She had 12 individual state titles to her credit in the long jump, triple jump, high jump, 100-meter dash, 55-meter dash, and the 300-meter run over a span of three years. Messner also holds the Maryland indoor state record in the high jump and Class 1A records in the out door high and triple jumps. And in 1998, she became the National Scholastic Champion in the high jump. With all these honors to her name, she was quickly recruited.

"[Track] has pretty much been number one in my life since I started." Messner said.

Messner said that without her athletic ability she would not have been able to afford the high cost of college, let alone an out-of-state one. She had to consider community colleges. So when the offers came in, she began her search.

"I never ever considered Penn State," Messner said. "But then I fell in love."

Initially her first choice was Tennessee. But to make certain that she did not overlook any opportunity, Messner and her mother, Marie, traveled to Penn State. Even before entering State College, she knew it would be her new home. She had spotted Beaver Stadium from the freeway and something had told her it was the right place. Further inspection only reinforced her intuition.

She signed her letter of intent.

On June 26, Messner was driving down the highway. It was only a few weeks after being added to the recruited roster of Penn State. She was stopped and getting ready to turn into a lane of traffic.

Suddenly she was jolted into an array of oncoming cars, and one tractor-trailer that halted her once uncontrollable motion. Her car was totaled with her inside.

"I remember hearing the Jaws of Life," Messner said.

Messner was taken by helicopter to the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma ward, with her sister Ann, one of the Emergency Medical Technicians called to the scene, by her side.

Messner had sustained a broken neck, injury to her spleen, and a deep cut to her arm. Doctors worked quickly. They connected a piece of her hip to her neck. The bone was fused with a titanium plate and four screws. Her spleen had to be removed after it ruptured. And even today you can see a large scar on her left arm where a huge gash had once been. While on the table, Messner coded, her heartbeat stopped -- twice. The situation looked grave and beyond uncertain.

Messner, miraculously, came out of surgery alive, though doctors told her mother that she would be paralyzed for the rest of her life. She had to remain at the hospital with braces, casts and stitches. Three weeks and a day later, she returned to the comfort of her own home. She had a hospital bed set up in her living room.

"My dreams were shattered," Messner said. "I didn't think about track and field. I didn't even think I would even walk again."

Despite her doctor's predictions, Messner was not going to be condemned to a wheelchair. She could barely move but she could move. Even small trips across the room tired her out. But there was hope.

"Each little improvement was a miracle," Marie Messner said. "We pushed each other to get through things."

During her difficult recovery, Messner cites her mother as her greatest support. Marie Messner took time off work to take care of her daughter, a daughter who remains eternally grateful.

"She was incredible," Messner said. "One hundred percent of her time was devoted to me. She is the greatest person in the world."

A lot of times, people in such devastating accidents never recover to their full strength or even return to the way their lives used to be. It can be so easy to give up and succumb to tragedy.

Today, four years later, Messner is competing in the high jump, triple jump, 60-meter hurdles, and the long jump. At times, she has to take it easy. She cannot put too much weight on her back and has to watch the way she lands when jumping. Though one would never know that only a few years ago, Messner was barely able to walk.

Messner came to Penn State the spring following her accident and slowly began accustoming herself to campus life. She still became fatigued and was in pain, but she continued to rebuild.

"You really wouldn't notice much," said Penn State women's track and field assistant coach Jeff McAuley. "She's pretty damn tough."

When the spring of her sophomore year arrived, Messner claimed her spot on the women's track team, the one she had earned.

The doctors had originally told her that she would never be able to high jump again. After some extensive trials and precautions, Messner began working her way back to the event she had owned and loved during her high school days.

Already this season she has reached her personal Penn State best and at Big Tens she took seventh in the Pentathlon.

"When she jumped her personal best this year, I cried," Marie Messner said. " She amazes me."

Messner exudes effort and genuine leadership qualities, being team captain and an inspiration to fellow athletes. She will soon be graduating with a degree in kinesiology but she is already working. Messner wanted to show her gratitude to the firefighters that saved her. She was inspired to become a firefighter herself and now heads the fire station in Thurmont.

"Never give up," Messner said. "I almost gave up and wondered if I was really supposed to be here. But I kept fighting and fighting."

And Messner has endured the first stages of her journey with many detours and many roadblocks. But she has continued to keep moving ahead. Her hard work will continue to pay off and make her road a little less rocky.

"I've worked so hard," Messner said. "I finally got what I wanted."