Former WPIAL Champion Megan Penrod Details Return From Season-Ending Injury
PITTSBURGH -- As the javelin left Megan Penrod’s hand, she didn’t expect it to be her best throw.
She was competing at George Mason University in the Duquesne University track and field team’s third meet of the 2024 season. She set her block leg, rotated her shoulders and followed through, throwing 42.71 meters.
The distance marked a new personal best, the second-farthest women’s javelin throw in Duquesne history and the meet-winning throw.
Not only was it her best throw; it was one of her last.
Within the week, it was determined via Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that Penrod had partially torn her Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL), ending her 2023 campaign and turning her life upside down.
However, Penrod’s self-motivating attitude and mindset have never waned.
“I have so much more to prove than I have already, said Penrod. “I know that inside. I’m not done. I know it.”
The junior’s rise through the Duquesne record books has been anything but expected and now, the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship invitee is defying the odds again.
Penrod began her career throwing shot put at Butler Area Senior High School before the COVID-19 pandemic. During the shutdown, she gained an interest in running, lost weight and muscle mass and leaned out enough that her track and field coaches, Jackson and John Williams, convinced her to try a new event.
“I hate being bad at things,” explained Penrod after first learning to throw the javelin in her junior year. “So, it was really frustrating. I hate losing. I can’t lose.”
However, despite an early learning curve, Penrod carried momentum into her senior season after placing eighth in the Western Pennslyvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) championship meet at the end of her first season.
Penrod would go on to qualify for the WPIAL championship meet her senior year as well.
“Going into the meet,” said Penrod, “I was thinking that this was my last track meet ever.” The senior had already committed to attend Duquesne to study speech-language pathology but had emailed and not heard back from the track and field coach.
The girls who place in the top four quality for the PIAA State Championship meet. Penrod, through five of her six throws, was ranked fourth. However, she was bumped back to fifth place by the girl who threw immediately before her, which meant that her sixth throw could be the last throw of her career.
“I get on the runway and all I remember is throwing it. At this meet, they have an electronic scoreboard. We were all waiting for it to pop up.”
The scoreboard lit up 125' 11", moving Penrod from fifth place to first place and winning her the WPIAL Championship.
“I remember looking at my dad specifically and we were both in shock,” said Penrod. “He has always had a different interest in my throwing because it’s not a very feminine thing. You get looked at a little differently. He calls me a badass all the time. I remember it was the first time I’ve ever seen my dad cry. I would relive that day every day of my life if I could.”
In a turn of fate, the Duquesne javelin coach, Shannon Taub, was at the meet. Taub heard Penrod’s name over the loudspeakers and remembered her email months prior about joining the team. Taub reached back out to Penrod about being a preferred walk-on on the team, which was made possible by the meet-winning final throw of Penrod’s high school career.
“When we started training,” said Penrod, “it was like being a junior in high school again. I sucked and I hated that I was bad again. It’s one of those things that is so frustrating but can become so rewarding.”
Penrod stayed committed and earned an invite to the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship by the end of her freshman year on the Bluff. At A-10s, Penrod earned the first female point for the Dukes, placing in eighth among the women javelin throwers.
“Seeing those numbers,” said Penrod, “and earning those points for our team at a conference meet, it made me feel like I deserved to be here. I’m a preferred walk-on. I needed to prove that there is a reason why I am here.”
Over that summer, Penrod received a call informing her that she would be put on a scholarship. An affirmation that not only that she belonged, but that her hard work was paying off.
Penrod opened up her sophomore season in March of 2024 at a meet at North Carolina State. She set a new personal record of 40.72, taking another jump after training during the offseason.
Following the NC State meet, Penrod flew home to compete in a local meet at Carnegie Melon University. It was at CMU that Penrod won her first collegiate meet. Following that, she traveled to George Mason, where she won her second meet in a row and extended her personal record by two meters. The throw went 42.71 meters, marking the second furthest distance thrown in Duquesne women’s javelin history.
Internally, Penrod was dealing with immense pain and occasional numbness in her right arm when she threw. It wasn’t until her fourth meet of the season, at Bucknell, that the pain became unbearable. She didn’t feel the “pop” that some athletes feel when they tear their UCL, but an MRI revealed that the ligament supporting her elbow was partially torn anteriorly and posteriorly.
“It was gut-wrenching,” said Penrod. “I had so much momentum coming off of a huge year and starting my next one so well. And then, it was just all over.”
Penrod was met with an option following the diagnosis: have a reconstructive surgery (Tommy John) and miss a substantial amount of time and restart her training process or rehab during the summer and hope that the ligament heals naturally.
Penrod, who stayed self-motivated and determined, chose to attack rehab with the hope that she would be able to throw again in her junior season.
“I just know that I’m not done,” exclaimed an impassioned Penrod. “I’m not done. That’s it. I have so much more to prove.”
Penrod worked through months of physical therapy, strengthening her bicep and forearm. She credited her staff, Taub and the team’s trainer Ricky Wheeler, for working together with her to figure out how to attack the rehab and increase her overall strength.
Penrod’s roommate, Kaeden Frino, has been following her and supporting her throughout the process.
“Megan is one of the strongest people I know,” said Frino, “mentally and physically. Even on her hardest days, when she was recovering from her injury and not being able to compete at A-10s at the end of a record-breaking year, she had the brightest smile on her face, supported her teammates and kept working to get back on the field.”
As of Nov. 2024, an Arthrogram (an MRI with contrast) revealed that Penrod’s UCL was fully intact, meaning that she would be cleared to compete in the 2025 season.
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