It's not always all about medals and fast times and personal records.

It's not always about winning.

Sometimes, the true reward in track and field — and in any sport, really — is overcoming adversity.

Just ask Butler senior Tabby Wilbert.

The Golden Tornado hurdler had a trying 12 months. Her father died a year ago after a battle with cancer. She tore her PCL late last season, and this year toppled over a hurdle and broke her collarbone.

Wilbert was just finding her stride in the 100 hurdles when the injury happened. She had the fastest time in the event in the county when she had an unfortunate collision with a hurdle.

For an ordinary athlete, the busted shoulder would have wiped out her season.

But Wilbert isn't ordinary.

She didn't want her final high school race to be one in which she stumbled over a hurdle and suffered a serious injury. So she had a surgery to place a plate and screws in her collarbone so she could return to the track soon and salvage at least a sliver of her season.

When Wilbert did make her return for the WPIAL team and individual championships, the results weren't as she had hoped.

That hardly mattered.

The fact she returned and ran again at all was all the victory she needed.

Just ask Butler's Liz Simms.

A year ago she was within meters of the finish line and a state title as the anchor leg of the Golden Tornado 3,200-meter relay. But the scorching heat in Shippensburg last May took its toll. Her legs wobbled and the next thing she knew she was sprawled out on the track.

She got up and finished the race. Butler finished eighth and got a state medal — it just wasn't the state medal they wanted.

Instead of dwelling on it and letting it wreck her, Simms decided to use it as fuel this season.

“When something like that happens to you as an athlete, it takes awhile,” Simms said in March. “You can take a day or two to cry about it and be sad about it and think, 'That's it. I just messed up.' But coming out from it, in the end, I'm kind of glad about what happened to me.”

Just ask Moniteau's Kendall Grossman.

In the first meet of the season, the Warriors' junior pole vaulter snapped a pole and fell out of the pit. She was shaken and scared and had to rebuild her confidence.

Grossman had to start from scratch in an event she had dominated in District 9 with two championships and in the state with two runner-up finishes.

It was a long process, but Grossman never wavered. She never let the fear and discouragement overwhelm her.

“What it really did was make me stronger now,” Grossman said. “It made me realize for myself that as long as I keep trying, everything will be OK.”

Just ask Butler jumper Sami Taoufik.

Last year he had designs on a WPIAL Class AAA high jump title, but failed to even clear a height.

This year he returned and conquered those demons by winning the gold medal in the event.

“It feels so good,” Taoufik said after his win. “I was worried maybe this meet is bad luck for me.”

All sports — and track and field in particular — teach a valuable life lesson on how to overcome adversity. It can teach you that sometimes you can do everything right and still lose and do everything wrong and still win.

But what matters in the end is the effort.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.