ST. GEORGE — When Pine View High School senior Brianna Udy crossed the finish line at the state cross-country championships in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, it marked the culmination of a remarkable high school career.
Unbeknownst to most of the other runners and spectators that surrounded her, the 5,000-meter distance Udy covered during that race represents but a small fraction of the lengthy journey that she’s been relentlessly navigating, mile after mile, over the past five years.
Her journey is one of healing, recovery and sheer determination. Udy is a spinal stroke survivor who has beaten the odds and defied her doctors’ predictions that she would never walk again without aid.
At Tuesday’s state meet, Udy ended up finishing sixth among Pine View’s runners and 52nd out of 150 runners overall in the 4A race. Against a competitive field that included Utah County powerhouses Mountain View, Timpanogos and Orem, Pine View emerged as the best-finishing school among Southern Utah 4A schools, with the Panther girls taking fifth overall and the boys taking fourth.
Although she had clocked a personal-best time in the race, Udy hesitated at first when asked about how she’d done at state.
“One thing about Brianna is, she’s never satisfied with what she accomplishes,” chimed in her mother Rebecca Udy. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad. But you know, we’re standing back and just marveling at what she’s accomplishing and what she’s done over the last five years and she’s just always, ‘I could have done better.’”
Brianna then acknowledged she was, in fact, happy with her performance at state.
“This was definitely my best season,” she told St. George News via a videoconference call on Thursday evening. “Just all the work that I put in, all the miles and all the early mornings, it like came together this year and I was hitting PRs (personal records) in almost every race this season.”
Brianna added that she found herself consistently improving throughout the season, which ended with her securing one of the team’s top seven spots that got to compete at the state meet.
“I surprised myself, which I was really happy about,” she said. “It paid off for sure.”
As the team headed back home on Tuesday, Pine View head coach David Holt spoke of Brianna’s importance to the team.
“She wanted so much to make the varsity team,” he told St. George News via telephone. “And not only did she do that, she brought such a great attitude, a positive attitude and a hard work ethic. It really helps drive the team. And I think everybody felt it. Her determination rubbed off on them all year long.”
It was just over five summers ago that Brianna Udy’s life changed forever. She was still shy of her 12th birthday and had been competing in youth track meets since age 9, specializing in sprint races.
On that fateful Tuesday of June 12, 2018, Brianna had been training for an upcoming state meet and had just gotten home from practice. She said went upstairs to get ready for a wedding that she and her family were planning on attending in Salt Lake.
“I remember I was pulling up my hair getting ready for this wedding,” she recalled. “And then all of a sudden, I just felt extreme dizziness and just, like, the most nauseous I’ve ever felt. I was kind of trying to push it off, like I’m just kind of, I don’t know, lightheaded, like it’ll go away. But then it didn’t, and I remember sitting down and then it felt my right leg, which just went numb. I knew something was definitely very wrong. And so, I hobbled myself down the stairs.”
Brianna said she still remembers seeing the look of panic in her mom’s face.
“I was like, ‘Oh, crap, this is serious,’” Brianna recalled.
Brianna was first taken to the emergency room at the hospital in St. George.
“They took an MRI of her brain thinking this could be a possible stroke and it came back clear,” Rebecca Udy recalled. “Then we were sent to Primary Children’s because they couldn’t figure out what was going on.”
After being transported to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Brianna recalls her hospital room being crowded with medical professionals.
“There were so many doctors in my room,” Brianna said. “They were just lined up in there with a giant whiteboard that they were just drawing on and writing all their ideas and possibilities.”
“She was very much a curiosity to the neurology staff,” recalled Rebecca Udy. “It was scary to us and fascinating to them.”
Within a few days, Rebecca Udy said, the doctors were eventually able to use MRI scans to identify the problem and pinpoint its location: a small blood clot in her spinal cord was cutting off the blood supply to her lower extremities.
Such spinal strokes are extremely rare, accounting for less than 1% of all strokes. They are even more uncommon in children.
By the time Brianna’s diagnosis was made, paralysis had already set in from the waist down, leading to an initially pessimistic prognosis.
Peggy Curtis, Brianna’s aunt, recalled hearing the bad news.
“Most of the doctors and experts told us she would probably never walk again without assistance and certainly would never run again,” Curtis told St. George News via email.
“Brianna’s parents kept this information to themselves and never told this news to Brianna,” Curtis added. “They just encouraged her to work hard in physical therapy and try to make as much progress as possible, but in their hearts they believed she would never run again.”
Brianna, however, had other ideas.
“I was very sassy and determined,” she said.
Recalls her mother: “I mean, Brianna the whole time was like, ‘Well, yeah, that’s fine. But I’m gonna walk again and I’m gonna run again.’”
Brianna said she remembers one time when she saw her mother get emotional while speaking to the doctors.
“I think they told you that I wouldn’t ever be able to run, right?” Brianna asked her mom, adding, “Yeah, I heard it. But I was like, ‘No.’ I never fully believed it.”
Rebecca Udy said her daughter was very persistent and strong throughout the recovery process.
“Stronger than me, to be honest,” Rebecca said. “She just always pushed through it.”
Brianna spent the next several weeks working with physical therapist Lisa Barnes.
“She was amazing,” Rebecca Udy said of Barnes.
“Every day, she believed in me,” Brianna added. “She didn’t baby me. She treated me like an actual person.”
Rebecca Udy said Brianna’s rapid progress in her recovery astounded her doctors and other hospital staff.
“She made huge strides even when she was in the hospital,” her mother recalled. “They couldn’t believe it when she left that hospital walking with a walker already.”
A short time later, during a follow-up visit, Brianna was fitted with a customized leg brace.
“She was like, ‘Mom, I’m not going to need that,’” Rebecca Udy recalled. “And Lisa was like, ‘You will need this.’ And so Brianna wore it once and then refused to put it on again.”
“Oh, she was a stubborn, persistent child,” Rebecca Udy said as she and Brianna both laughed.
Brianna said she believes that having the mindset and determination of a runner helped her.
“The mentality that I built up over the years, just being able to work hard, and push through pain … that just filled me,” she said.
Rebecca Udy said the one residual effect of Brianna’s stroke is that her right leg is still a bit weaker than the left.
Coach Holt recalled the deep concern that he and Brianna’s other track coaches felt when they first went up to Salt Lake City to visit her in the hospital:
“It’s obviously a very sad situation, but just from a running point of view, I was like, ‘Oh, man, we’ve lost somebody who I had looked forward to being an amazing runner in the future. But she overcame all of it and has become one of the most amazing young women I’ve ever been able to have the pleasure to work with.”
Added Holt: “She was such a happy and positive young lady before, and I think she came out of it even more so. You can see that in the role that she’s played on our team the last couple of years.”
Although her fourth and final high school cross-country season has just wrapped up, Brianna isn’t quite done running yet. She’ll be starting practicing for indoor track soon, in preparation for competing for the Pine View High track team next spring, before graduating in May.
Like many seniors, she’s been busy contemplating her post-high school plans. She said she hopes to go to college in-state, mentioning both Utah State University and Brigham Young University as possibilities.
As for a possible field of interest, Brianna said she’s been inspired by the dedication shown by her nurses and caregivers.
“It really opened my eyes to the medical field and the workers,” she said. They put their whole time and effort into it.”
“I think personally, it’d be something I could excel in,” she added. “Just because I think a big thing is being able to relate with people and know what they’re going through. That’s huge. And so, I don’t know, I mean, we’ll see. Whatever I end up doing, I think, just because of lessons I’ve learned, that will help me be able to connect with patients or whoever. All I know is, I want to help people.”
Rebecca Udy said that although her daughter hasn’t been secretive about her medical challenges, they haven’t been widely known, even among her classmates at school.
“Because she recovered so quickly as far as walking again, nobody knew what she had gone through except our family and some friends,” Rebecca said. “I think even a bunch of her teammates will not even know that this happened to Brianna, even to this day, until they read this article.”
Added Brianna: “You really would have no idea that it had happened to me. I just didn’t want to use it as an excuse for not being as fast as I can. Because, obviously, I can do anything if I were to just keep working hard. I just didn’t want to tell the whole world.”
Photo Gallery
Pine View senior Brianna Udy (left) competes in the state cross-country meet, Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 24, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View High School cross-country athletes, St. George, Utah, fall 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View High School's cross-country athletes at the state meet, Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 24, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View High School's cross-country teams, St. George, Utah, fall 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View senior Brianna Udy competes in the state cross-country meet, Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 24, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View senior Brianna Udy competes in the Timpanogos Invitational. Orem, Utah, Sept. 1, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View High School's girls cross-country team at a meet in Cedar City, Utah, October 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Portrait of Pine View senior Brianna Udy, date and location not specified. | Photo courtesy of Rebecca Udy, St. George News Pine View High School's girls cross-country team at the UHSAA state meet, Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 24, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Pine View High Athletics, St. George News Pine View High School senior Brianna Udy (center) and other runners compete at SUU Invitational, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 26, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News Pine View High School senior Brianna Udy (center) and other runners compete at SUU Invitational, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 26, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News
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