Last spring, Rayanna Wisner enjoyed a breakout track and field season as a sophomore at Rainier High School.
In her first campaign of her prep career, she was a consistent top-four finisher in the 800 meters en route to a 10th-place finish at the state meet with a personal best time. Wisner also made up a quarter of Rainier’s sixth-place 4x400 relay team.
It appeared another big season was in store for Wisner as a junior. Fast forward to this spring, PRs and medals are far from what’s important for her, because she wasn’t even supposed to be competing this year.
On Aug. 6, 2025, Wisner and a friend traveled to Olympia to a driving range, where they were supposed to enjoy a fun day. Wisner had never golfed before, and her friend was teaching her the basics.
But during the demonstration, Wisner thought her friend was showing her with her hands and stood close so she could observe. Her friend used the club, and on the back swing, the club struck Wisner in the face.
“I was fully conscious when everything happened. I was really calm. I didn’t even cry,” Wisner recalled. “I went down, and I didn’t know if my head was hurt. I just thought my nose was bleeding.
“It was a normal day, and then things took a turn.”
From the driving range, Wisner received an ambulance ride to a hospital in Olympia. Doctors assumed the extent of the injury was a gash to her head, but upon further inspection, they told her she needed immediate surgery. So she returned to the ambulance and went to a hospital in Tacoma, but she had to wait two days to have surgery while she had CT scans every few hours.
The damage done was quite extensive. Wisner shattered her orbital bone, broke her nose, suffered a significant brain bleed and severe concussion, and she has permanent damage to her right eye and mild hearing loss in her left ear. She had a metal plate inserted into her head during surgery, and she was in the hospital for a week.
One of the most heartbreaking pieces of news Wisner received, among the many, was that she would be at least a year out from competing in her beloved sports of cross country and track and field. Given that the cross country season was set to start just a month after her injury, she couldn’t compete with the Rainier team that was looking to defend its 2B state championship won in November 2024 in Pasco.
“In cross country, I was there to support my girls, but it was definitely hard watching them compete and not being able to compete with them,” Wisner said. “Sports are really big to me. Having that taken away from me was heartbreaking because I love being a part of a team, and I love competition.”
Doctors told Wisner that the sunglasses she was wearing at the driving range may have saved her eye or even her life.
Wisner remained in good spirits in the hospital despite having to see a remarkable amount of doctors in the days following her traumatic injury, including a plastic surgeon, trauma doctor, eye doctors, rehab psychologist, neuropsychologist, neurosurgeon, the list goes on.
“There’s just so many doctors. You wouldn’t believe it just from a simple day out going golfing to all of this,” she said. “And I’m still seeing doctors.”
Wisner has been going to physical therapy since September doing tasks to “retrain my brain balance.” She said there was a point in September where if she closed her eyes, she would fall over.
“There’s different exercises, like one where they put a laser on your head, you close your eyes and you turn, and you turn back and try to hit the target,” Wisner said. “There’s lots of concussion protocols because they’ve never really seen anything like my case.”
The struggles didn’t stop once Wisner was released from the hospital. She still attends physical therapy every Friday, and she encountered troubles academically with a workload that included college classes as part of the Running Start program. Multitasking has become a significant challenge for her, tacked on with her difficulty hearing, constant ringing in her ear and double vision in one eye.
“I was taking advanced algebra at the high school, and it was really hard. I had to drop it after one semester because it was hard for my brain to remember. I struggled a lot,” Wisner said. “But school is going a lot better. I go to tutors, and I get the extra help that I need.”
Walking around in public after her injury was another challenge. Wisner said she was afraid to leave the house for a while, and when she showed up for school, she recalled students going up to her, staring at her stitches above her eye and asking, “What’s wrong with your face?”
“That was really challenging on me. But now I think of it as a battle car. It’s something I got through and I overcame,” she said.
Wisner was cleared to start lifting weights and do light supervised running in mid-October, and, remarkably, she began practicing with the track team in March after being told she wouldn’t be able to compete in any sports her junior year. She has been limited so far to the 400 meters, the 4x200 relay and the mixed distance relay.
But in her first track meet, Wisner was able to complete her events but she collapsed after a race. Since then, she has steadily improved with an emphasis on her breathing habits while running. In the Rainier Icebreaker Invitational on March 21, she recorded her best time of the season in the 400 meters at 1 minute and 10.69 seconds. And, most importantly, she remained on her feet.
This season, her goals are much different. Wisner wants to eventually rejoin the 4x400 relay team, return to running the 800 meters and be comfortable racing again.
“Last year, I definitely had different goals. I’m scared to even put myself in my normal events because I’m scared of the times that I’m going to face,” Wisner said. “My physical therapist tells me that just because my brain is telling me something, my body is not all there. I’ve just got to keep myself under my limits and not push myself too hard. I want to feel like I’ve reached my full potential and get to where I feel like I’m comfortable racing again because I do not feel comfortable when I’m racing right now.”
Teammate Jazzlyn Shumate has been one of Wisner’s biggest supporters throughout the past seven months since the injury. Shumate once dealt with a significant knee injury and could sympathize with Wisner on the grueling road to recovery, albeit on different scales.
“She’s been coming to me for advice. I didn’t have as much of a traumatic injury, but having to come back mentally, I know it’s rough,” Shumate said. “I am pushing her a little bit because I know that she can get back to where she was. She’s one of those people that wants to prove others wrong and wants to show that that injury didn’t define her.”
Rob Henry, one of Wisner’s cross country and track coaches, has enjoyed watching Wisner start to “come back into who she was” and regain her confidence during practice.
“She’s gaining her confidence back. That’s all you want with the kids. That’s why you do it is to see the growth and see them overcome adversity,” Henry said. “It was pretty scary what she went through. She’s a really tough kid.”
Wisner thanked her support system for their help throughout the past seven months, most notably her parents, her teammates and coaches. The traumatic chapter in her life hasn’t quite closed and may never technically close because of the permanent damage done on that summer day at the driving range. But her outlook on life has changed, and she is enjoying the small things in life, such as spending time with her teammates on the track.
“I would love to remember this as something to be grateful for. I’m grateful to be here running on this track right now and to be here with my family and my team,” Wisner said. “You’re not always promised tomorrow. I didn’t know where that day could have ended and where it could have led me. It could have gone a lot differently. I’m just happy to be here where I am now.”
