Salem 3-sport star Hutton bounces back from injury

Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes
Salem senior Rylee Hutton drives and scores a layup during a game against Cardinal Mooney this past season. Hutton, a soccer, basketball and track and field athlete for the Quakers, bounced back from an injury this past season.

Rylee Hutton had never really dealt with injuries before her junior track and field season at Salem. A three-sport athlete for the Quakers, she had managed to avoid any setbacks until suffering a hamstring injury at the 2023 Columbiana County track meet.

“I was trying to go for the MVP of the county because I’d never got it before and had a chance. So I was really excited,” Hutton said. “And my first race in the 100 (meter dash), it was really cold outside, and I pulled my hamstring. So I had to pull out for the day, and then it kind of backtracked me the whole season.”

The injury just wouldn’t go away. After sitting out until districts, Hutton reaggravated it in a jump, with hindsight, she should not have taken.

“It was actually my last jump. I was sitting in second at regionals for long jump, and I knew I’d go to state already, but I wanted to try to get first,” Hutton said. “I could have not taken my last jump, but I decided to, and I re-pulled my hamstring again. So then I had to pull out of the 400 and the 4×4… I had chances to go in both, so that was devastating.”

Hutton tried to salvage her injury-filled junior season by undergoing physical therapy before the state meet in Columbus, but she threw in the proverbial towel after her first two jumps, placing 16th out of 18 in the process.

The setback and disappointment led to a summer filled with physical therapy and nerves for Hutton.

“It was my senior year,” she said. “Sports are kind of my everything.”

Fortunately, she breezed through soccer and basketball seasons, cementing herself as one of Salem’s greatest all-around athletes by finishing with more than 100 career soccer goals and 1,000 career basketball points.

But her senior track season brought her much of the same pain that her junior season did.

“I had a great soccer season. Finished exactly how I wanted to. Same with basketball. Had an amazing basketball season. It didn’t bother me at all,” Hutton said. “And then track comes around again, and I pulled my hamstring in one of the first track practices back in a 10-meter fly drill. I pulled it again, and I was devastated.”

Determined to end her high school athletic career on her terms, Hutton committed to doing physical therapy every morning before school and driving about an hour away to undergo cold laser light therapy twice a week.

“I had no expectations, honestly, because I was sitting out the whole season,” Hutton said. “I didn’t really know what to expect or anything.”

Hutton attempted to test a comeback at the county championships, the same meet at which she initially injured her hamstring a year earlier. The comeback was in full effect for districts and continued despite both Hutton and her coaches having reservations about which events she should do with her injury history.

“It was very challenging mentally because with a hamstring injury, you can pull it again. You never know. It can never be fully healed. You just have to gauge it and see when it feels better,” she said. “My hamstring could feel perfectly fine one day, and then if I run, it could be really sore the next day. It was definitely a mental challenge, and it built up a sense of fear whenever I ran because I was terrified to have that feeling of pulling it.”

Ultimately, Hutton qualified for the OHSAA state track meet in three events: long jump, 4×400-meter relay and 4×800-meter relay.

The 4×800, in particular, turned out to be an unsuspecting source of success for Hutton.

“I ended up trying the 800 my last dual meet. I ran a 2:26, which was pretty good, and I absolutely hated it,” Hutton said. “But I ended up getting on the 4×8 team with that.”

Hutton, Maggie Hopple, Maggie Hall and Megan Stafford finished second in the state in the Division II 4×800-meter relay in Dayton. Individually, Hutton placed 11th in the long jump, an event that began almost immediately following the 4×400.

Despite the setbacks and worries that came along with her hamstring injury, Hutton plans to play three sports at Mount Union University.

“Every time I get into a season, it ends up being my favorite sport… So I don’t think I could ever drop a sport.”

She said that a part of her college decision was continuing her path as a three-sport athlete, even if that meant not going to Youngstown State. It’s just the latest example of Hutton doing things her own way.

“I’ve always wanted to go to YSU, but there’s something just about it. I don’t know. I just didn’t want to have any regrets with what sport I chose,” Hutton said. “Basketball is my main sport, but I still love soccer and track, and I had a good offer with soccer with Akron too, but I just didn’t know if I wanted to go for just soccer.

“With Mount Union, they offered me all three sports, and that’s rare to hear of. I just felt like the right decision was continuing all three of my sports and having no regrets.”

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