Several years ago, Angelina Blackmon was cooling down from a few extra, fast-paced laps after elementary school P.E. when her coach approached her with an intriguing question.

Commenting on her high level of performance, the coach offered Blackmon a place on the elementary school’s track team. She accepted, and a decade and a half later Blackmon has become one of the top runners in a conference filled with intense competition.

Blackmon, a senior in sociology, said one of her more surprising accomplishments over the years was earning All-ACC honors last year on what teammate Anne Wheatly refers to as the “exceptionally difficult” Charlottesville, Va. course.

“When I was all-ACC last year, I was sort of surprised,” Blackmon said. “But I was happy too because I could actually run at that caliber.”

Blackmon, however, said cross country is not her favorite sport.

“I never really wanted to be that good at cross country,” Blackmon said. “I don’t really enjoy it. Track is my big thing.”

Nonetheless, assistant coach Laurie Henes praised Blackmon for her strong, team-oriented efforts.

“This is obviously not her favorite season,” Henes said, “But Angelina has done a great job of having a really good attitude about helping the team. She really wants this team to run at a high level. She is doing everything she needs to do to help the program.”

However, Blackmon’s career almost came to an abrupt end three years ago. During one of her runs, Blackmon was on the verge of dying, she said.

“I was at my house in South Carolina, and we have peach orchards,” Blackmon said. “And I was running, and I picked a peach off the tree and bit it. While I was running, my hands and my feet and everything just started to swell up.”

Blackmon went into anaphylactic shock, a condition that occurs when someone experiences an extremely severe allergic reaction.

“I made it back to the house,” Blackmon said. “I had to call the coaches, and they were freaking out and everything.”

These days, Blackmon takes more precautions when she runs.

“Now I’m more careful about the things I touch when I run,” Blackmon said. “I have to carry around an EpiPen, and my trainer freaks out if I don’t have it with me.”

Blackmon still enjoys solo runs, especially ones through the scenic and serene countryside.

“When we practice, a lot of people like to run together and talk about what they did and this and that,” Blackmon said. “I want to be peaceful. I want to just run by myself and reflect.”

Blackmon also values running with her family whenever she can.

“My brother runs really fast, and Coach jokes with me sometimes that they recruited me to get him,” Blackmon said. “He’s got a lot of potential — he can run longer than 10 miles. He runs faster than me, and he is only in the eighth grade.”

Meanwhile, Blackmon always wanted to be just like her older brother.

“When I was growing up I always wanted to be doing what he did,” Blackmon said. “I was the tag-along.”

When she was 14, a tragedy struck Blackmon when her adored older brother drowned. It was her first year of high school, and she and her brother’s track meet had been canceled. There was a lake where some of the runners liked to go after meets.

“When he went swimming that time, he actually drowned,” Blackmon said. “He got a cramp, and he drowned.”

Through all this, Blackmon still helps the team keep a cheerful mood.

“She lightens the mood a lot and keeps everything in perspective, and, you know, she’s just a trip,” Henes said. “She’s got the brothers and the sisters, and that’s just what she is used to. Hopefully, she is going to be around a bit after graduation. She has been a great leader. She really has developed into one, and we’re happy with her efforts.”