By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — A.L. Brown’s Emily Karmanocky competed in her last high school race on Saturday.

She ran 800 meters in Charlotte and was clocked in 2:20, which is not shabby. But her PR is still 2:18. The magical goal was 2:14.

That elusive time of 2:14 is track and field scholarship level for the Charlotte 49ers.

So she’ll be heading to college athletics as a preferred walk-on, which means she’ll be on Charlotte’s team with a chance to earn a scholarship. No one who knows her has any doubt that if she can stay healthy — and that’s the big if for every athlete — she’ll earn that track scholarship one day.

“Just being on the team at a Division I school will be pretty big,” Karmanocky said. “Being a preferred walk-on means they already know who you are and they believe you can help the program. It’s a lot better than just trying to walk on. Growing up, it was always N.C. State for me, loved the Wolfpack, dreamed of running cross country for them. But Charlotte was one of the schools I applied to and was excited about academically, and Charlotte was the school that recruited me.”

A.L. Brown graduates students later than the Rowan County schools. The Wonders will hold their ceremonies this Saturday. Karmanocky didn’t know yet if she’ll be the valedictorian or not, but she’s right at the top of the Class of 2023. She also tied for the school’s best score on the ACT.

While she’s an excellent runner, she’s better than excellent in the classroom.

“She’s just an incredible individual,” A.L. Brown track and cross country coach Nick Buckwell said. “Fantastic student.”

She likes science best and plans a biomedical engineering major at Charlotte with a focus on building prosthetics.

“Paralympic sports are getting more attention now and growing fast,” Karmanocky said. “How cool would it be to build a prosthetic that helped some of those athletes?”

Karmanocky’s athletic career began with gymnastics. Her older sister was dedicated to the world of flips, handstands and somersaults, so Karmanocky naturally followed.

But she joined a running club in the fifth grade. That led to her first distance runs and cross country endeavors, and for a while gymnastics and running dueled equally for her attention.

“When I got to high school, it was time to make a choice, one or the other, because there wasn’t going to be time for the schoolwork I wanted to do and both sports,” Karmanocky said. “When I was young, I definitely thought gymnastics would be my thing, but running won out.”

For a runner, a normal school year can include three seasons — cross country, followed by indoor track, and then outdoor track.

“But I’ve never had the normal path,” Karmanocky said. “So many leg injuries. Besides the normal shin splints, there have been stress fractures and stress reactions that would have become stress fractures if I hadn’t taken a break.”

Every running year has been interrupted by some form of physical adversity. She’s been in a boot for up to two months at a time.

Still, Buckwell believes she’s the best the school ever has had in a  number of events.

“She holds five school track records — indoor 800, 1000 and 1600 and outdoor 400 and 800,” he said.

The toughest thing she’s ever experienced, even tougher than the injuries, was having to watch her teammates run without her. That’s always driven her to get back out there as soon as humanly possible.

Her freshman outdoor track season was in 2020. That’s the season COVID shut things down after she had competed in just one meet.

“We still talk about that one-meet season,” Karmanocky said. “It would be nice to get a redshirt for that. Man, if I just had one more season of high school!”

The lingering COVID issue forced a rearrangement of the NCHSAA athletic schedules her sophomore year, but she’s kept hurdling every obstacle.

Cross country has worn her down most years, but cross country setbacks — and some down time — actually led to her having her first ever healthy indoor track season as a senior. So there was a silver lining.

“The first thing you learn about indoor track is that you’re usually running outdoors,” Karmanocky said. “It was cold. But you learn to wear a jacket, and once you’re warmed up, it’s fine. I enjoyed it.”

Her senior indoor season led to her first experience at the state level. She qualified in the 1000 meters for the 4A State Championships at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, the state’s showplace for indoor track. It was there that a Charlotte coach saw her run, saw potential and left her a message that basically said. ‘Hey, keep working. We’re watching you.’ That led to emails and conversations and it led to Karmanocky choosing Charlotte as her college destination.

That’s the biggest life decision she’s had to make so far.

Karmanocky finished the indoor season healthy and quickly transitioned to her senior outdoor season.

She made it a good one. She cruised to a win in the 800 in the Cabarrus County Championships.

“I’ve competed at a lot of different distances, but the 800 seems to be my jam,” Karmanocky said. “It’s the best fit for me as far as speed and endurance, but the 800 is a very tough race. When you’re running the mile or two-mile, you’ve got some time to think, but in the 800 and 400, you can’t think, you just have to go.”

There aren’t a lot of high school girls in the state faster than Karmanocky in the 800, but, unfortunately for Karmanocky, three of them attended Cuthbertson High in Waxhaw, and Cuthbertson was one of the schools competing with A.L. Brown in the 4A Midwest Regional held at Davie on May 13,

The top four in each regional event advance to the state championship meet. Karmanocky ran a 2:20 800 and placed fifth. She finished behind the three Cuthbertson girls (they went on to finish 1-3-4 in the 4A State Championships), while a runner from R.J. Reynolds got fourth place.

But to put 2:20 in some perspective, 2:38 was the winning time for the girls 800 in this year’s Rowan County Championships.

The record in the 800 for the 4A State Championships is a shade under 2:08.

“I did have a good senior year in track, mostly because nothing crazy happened to me,” Karmanocky said.

At A.L. Brown’s recent awards banquet, Karmanocky received one of the most prestigious awards — the Ron Massey Athletic Director’s Award.

Massey was head football coach and AD for the Wonders for more than a decade, but time marches quickly. Massey’s last year at A.L. Brown was 2011, a dozen years ago, and he died in 2014.

“I’m sitting there listening to Coach Buckwell talking about the person who is getting the Ron Massey Award, and it took a while before I realized he’s up there talking about me,” Karmanocky said. “It’s surreal when people are saying nice things about you up there. That award was a great honor. I didn’t know much about Coach Massey, but I know he’s very respected and well thought of by everyone.”

Karmanocky was All-Cabarrus County for four years and all-conference for three seasons, but the Massey Award is about more than accolades of that sort. It’s an award about overcoming adversity, about getting back up after you’ve been knocked down, and continuing to compete at a high level.

And that’s Karmanocky in a nutshell.

“Coach Buckwell likes to say I’m afflicted with excessive humbleness.” Karmanocky said with a laugh. “But it really is nice to get some rewards and to see some pay off for all the work and all the comebacks. It’s cool to think I might be able to come back to A.L. Brown one day and still have a few records to talk about.”