ADAMS TWP — It would have been easy for Lydia Dennis to wallow in self-pity.

No one would have blamed the Mars senior soccer player and track and field athlete to feel depressed and cheated because of a knee injury that wiped out a large chunk of her final year in school.

But Dennis didn't pout. Instead, she showed up to the soccer pitch this fall with a brace on her leg, a smile on her face and encouragement for her teammates on her lips.

“You can take an injury one of two ways,” Dennis said. “You can walk around saying 'poor me' and 'why me?' Or you can go out there with a positive attitude and work hard to get better.”

Dennis chose the second path. For that, she was rewarded as one of 26 student-athletes to earn a 2013-14 Positive Athlete Award from Positive Athlete Pittsburgh.

Dennis won her award for girls track and field. Freeport softball player Alex Roenigk was also one of the award winners.

Dennis tore her ACL during a soccer game early in the season. She was one of four Mars girls soccer players, along with Karli Paracca, Maggie Sarver and Olivia Haefner, who suffered season-ending ACL injuries.

The group bonded and became known as the “ACL Sisters.”

“Lydia had to shoulder a lot of the leadership weight before she was injured,” said Mars girls soccer coach Blair Gerlach said. “When she went down, we kind of felt like we were snake-bit. The injured players, including Lydia, still attended games.”

Gerlach said they also talked to the younger players, offering encouragement and tips.

“It was the experienced speaking to the inexperienced,” Gerlach said.

Dennis said the “ACL Sisters” provided important moral support to each other.

“When one of us would get upset or get down because something in our recovery didn't go right, the rest of us would be there to pick each other up,” Dennis said.

The driving force behind Dennis' rapid recovery was her desire to make it back for track and field season.

She endured arduous rehabilitation and was cleared mere days before the spring sports season.

It was difficult for Dennis to take her foot off the gas when required her recuperation.

“I'm a person who wants to go 100 percent at all times,” Dennis said. “I'm a competitive person. That's just who I am and it was very hard to go easy sometimes.”

Dennis, though, did and all the while kept a smile on her face.

“I know a lot of people who are so sweet and happy,” Dennis said. “I just like to be happy. I just like to smile.”

She had a big grin on her face when she was finally able to compete in the long and triple jump again.

“I was grateful I got the chance to put on the Mars uniform again and run down that runway and jump,” Dennis said. “A lot of people doubted I would be able to make it back. A lot of people don't get that chance when they have an injury like the one I had. I'm pretty proud of that.”

Dennis had a top-5 time in the county in the 400-meter dash (1 minute, 1.6 seconds) as well as a top-5 leap in the long jump (16 feet, 5½ inches) and the triple jump (36-5½).

Dennis also ran a leg of the Mars 1,600-meter relay, which had the fastest time in the county at 4:04.18.

Still, she had to deal with the spectre of her injury all spring.

“It's always in the back of my mind,” Dennis said. “Whenever I would finish a run and my knee hurt, I would wonder if I injured it again. It was a constant mental battle.”

Dennis, who will jump at the University of Pittsburgh next fall, said her fears lessoned as the season went on.

She also said she was inspired by the other athletes honored with positive athlete awards at the award ceremony earlier this month.

One of those athletes was Roenigk, who was stricken with alopecia, a rare auto-immune disease that causes hair loss, when she was 2.Roenigk underwent chemotherapy to try to treat the disease last year, but it failed.“It was pretty scary,” Roenigk said. “There were a lot of side effects, but I thought it was worth a try.”Roenigk has grown comfortable with her condition and said she hasn't received very much teasing as a result of it.“People accept it is part of who I am,” Roenigk said. “I am not self-conscious about it. I'm happy with who I am.”Roenigk, a senior middle infielder, batted .395 with seven doubles, three triples and nine RBI this season for the Yellowjackets, who advanced to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs.She was also one of the leaders of the team.“I try to be as positive as I can be,”she said. “I think it's important to do that because that rubs off on people.”