These days, it’s a good feeling when Reese Kasper looks back on the elbow surgery that derailed her dreams of gymnastics glory.

It’s not the anesthesia the recent Niwot graduate is remembering. Rather the setback that altered her athletic pathway and pointed her towards what’s been a brief but already star-laden track career.

This spring, the Longmont Times-Call track and field athlete of the year swept the Class 4A hurdle events at the state meet, capping off her stellar two-year campaign with Niwot.

Reminiscing about this past season — the latest chapter in what’s been a two-year ascent from hurdle newbie to the Class 4A 100- and 300-meter hurdle state champ in May — Kasper looks back, not long ago, pointing to where it all started.

She thought it was bad fortune at the time.

Just before her freshman year, doctors told Kasper she’d damaged the bone and cartilage in her left elbow so badly it would need surgery and a long recovery. Even then, they said she probably wouldn’t get her arm back to full strength.The news was devastating and eventually pushed Kasper to quit gymnastics and turn her focus to other sports — namely, tennis and track and field. She said she tried hurdles for the first time in the middle of her sophomore season when she was living in Minnesota.

“I was like I want to try something new just for fun, and I ran the 300 hurdles, and I ended up running it in 45 seconds, which put me fourth in the state,” she said. “So, I was like, ‘Oh.’ And it was super fun, and ever since then I’ve been running hurdles.”

Kasper chose track and field over tennis when she arrived at Niwot 1 1/2 years ago. Both sports are offered in high school during the spring season in Colorado. She preferred track and field.

In two seasons with the Cougars, Kasper won six state events. And with it, she helped guide the girls team to its sixth straight team championship last month.

In that finale, she won the 100 and 300 hurdles and was part of another in the 4×200.

Her 4×400 team looked as if it’d be victorious, too. But after it ran a 4A record in preliminaries, Windsor trumped the Cougars in the finals.

“I’m super grateful,” Kasper said. “And I’m super grateful I won the 100 and 300 hurdles. I didn’t run the times I wanted, but knowing I could run those times in the future, it showed me to be grateful while also knowing I have a lot more to give.”

Next school year, Kasper will run at Kansas State University. It comes after a season where she ran the state’s fastest 300-hurdles time (41.35 seconds, ninth-best in the nation) and the second-fastest mark in the 100 hurdles (13.99) and 400-meter run (54.38).

Earlier this month, Kasper ran Colorado’s fastest time in the 400 hurdles (58.82, ninth in the nation) — which is a college event — at the USA Track and Field under-age 20 championships in Oregon.

“When she arrived (Niwot), she’d only run the 300 hurdles three times. Just as a ‘I might want to try it,’” said Niwot and REAL Training hurdles coach Darius Reed, who’s been working with Kasper for the past year. “So, her track age is very young in time spent hurdling. She has a lot to go.”