BOONE— Mary Jayne Harrelson wasn’t supposed to even be a high school track runner.

A couple of changes to the softball team and a friend’s advice helped lure her away from one of the sports she grew up loving.

“They were making the move from slow-pitch to fast-pitch (softball), I wanted to play second base and they weren’t going to let me, and I told Beverly (Winstead) that I was done with (softball),’ Harrelson said. “She said to me ‘are you crazy, come do track. We just hang out and eat Doritos and have a blast.’.”

Eleven years after that conversation, and five-years after claiming her second NCAA championship, Harrelson was inducted into the Appalachian State University Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony held in Boone Saturday.

The Person County native was honored at a breakfast Saturday and presented along with four others before a near sellout crowd during the Mountaineer football team’s home opener against James Madison.

During Harrelson’s storied career she was a six-time All-American and became Appalachian State’s first NCAA champion in track and field when she won the 1,500-meter run in 1999 and 2001. She’s holds six individual school records and is a member of three other relay records.

Harrelson was a 23-time Southern Conference champion and was named conference Female Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2001.

“It’s one of those thing that you go through the experience and it doesn’t really hit you. I have a feeling about five years from now I’m going to look back and say ‘wow’,” Harrelson said. “I’m still in the sports and very successful, but once I step away from the sport and look back at my accomplishments and all the gifts I’ve been given, it’ll sink in.”

From walk-on to ASU Hall of Famer

Harrelson was a three-sport athlete at Person during her first two years, but she didn’t begin running track until her junior year. She saw little track time her 11th grade year because she was a reserve on the 1995 girls’ basketball team that advanced all the way to the 4-A state championship. The PHS basketball season severely overlapped into track season.

She was a hustler on the volleyball court during the fall for four years and received a couple of scholarship offers from small colleges. Her high school volleyball coach remembers just how hard the girl with the headband would work.

“After we would have two or three hours of volleyball practice, she’d put on her running shoes and she’d start running down Carver Drive and that was the last I saw of her,” Person volleyball coach Sandy Mathews said. “She ran around town, she ran on the track. She was one of those self-motivated kids that pushed herself and didn’t need anyone to push her.

Harrelson ran a couple of races as a junior, and her track season as a 12th grader once again started late after the basketball team made another deep run in the state playoffs.

But the Rockets’ distance runner saved the best runs of her abbreviated career for last.

Harrelson finished third in the state in the 1,500-meter run and advanced to the semifinals in the 500-meter run.

It was at this state championship meet, where a chance encounter changed her life affirmed that she made the right decision to attend Appalachian that following fall.

“I was at a state meet my senior year and the coach for Appalachian came up to me and asked me where I was going to school,” Harrelson said. “‘I said ‘Appalachian’ and I didn’t know he was from Appalachian. He said he wanted to give me a call next year, but I told him this was my senior year. He asked me if I wanted to run for the track team and I told him ‘I don’t know’.”

She did, and did well.

After a summer of hard work, Harrelson walked on to the Mountaineer program and instantly had the second fastest time on the team. Harrelson earned a scholarship the next season, and rewarded ASU with its first individual track and field national championship.

Ni Hao (Hello) Beijing

Harrelson continued her running career after college.

Highlights since her days at ASU include a second-place finish in the 800-meter and mile at the 2002 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships and winning a silver medal in the 1,500-meters in the 2003 Pan-American Games.

But the Person County native fell a little short of her ultimate goal of making the 2004 Olympics when she finished fifth in the 1,500-meter at the Olympic trials.

The 28-year old has her sights fixed on making a run towards the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

“Right now everything is focused towards going to Beijing,” Harrelson said. “That’s the main goal. Every day, every minute, every hour in my mind I’m thinking about China. Right now everything is big picture because you get so caught up in little things some time.”

Harrelson is currently bouncing back from two shin splints that forced her foot in a cast for six weeks. She recently came out of the cast and was able to return to training in Knoxville, Tenn. with other elite national and world level runners.

“Being an athlete, being a runner is a lifestyle. Its what you do from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night,” Harrelson said. “And what time you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning. My whole life is based around my running. It’s my outlet and my passion. When I can’t I’m a mess and I’m so glad to be able to get back to it.”

For Harrelson, the hard-work required to become a world class athlete really isn’t work at all.

“It’s been 10 years since I graduated high school and sometimes I wonder what have I done for 10 years,” Harrelson said. “I feel like I’ve played everyday. Training for me is playing. Pushing your body and testing yourself is fun and I’ve never worked a day since I graduated high school.”

A family affair

Harrelson was joined at the Hall of Fame induction by members of her family, including some of her four siblings, her mother Debbie, and fiancé.

For her, seeing friendly faces in the crowd is nothing new.

“I’ve got some amazing siblings and I think with so many kids, that’s where I got my competitiveness from,” Harrelson said.

“No matter the distance, (Mom) would drive or fly. She flew to my Olympic trials, and she hates flying,” Harrelson added. “My mom allowed me to be who I am. I was a tom-boy (growing up). I was rough around the edges, but she didn’t care. She allowed me my personality and let me grow. If there’s one thing that I can take away from my mom when I’m a parent is to let them be who they are and not mold them into who I want them to be.”