It wasn’t exactly a normal practice for the ISU diving team. It was still early in the season and the team was practicing in Iowa City on a Saturday to get some work in on the 10-meter platform.

Jessica Henderson, then a junior and a captain of the team, was about to attempt a new dive that included 2 1/2 somersaults with a full twist.

In her first attempt at this dive, she over-rotated her body and ended up slamming her knee to her head as she awkwardly hit the water.

Obviously shaken up after smacking into the water from a 30-foot dropoff, Henderson sat out the rest of practice, figuring it was a stinger and that she would be back in no time.

After returning to Ames the following Monday, Henderson still didn’t feel quite right. The training staff and coaches eventually told her to her to go get checked out at the Thielen Student Health Center where she was diagnosed with a concussion.

Concussions can be tricky injuries as sometimes symptoms drag out for weeks or even months, while other times symptoms reside in a few days.

Unfortunately for Henderson, her injury drug on.

“It was frustrating and just emotionally draining,” said Henderson of the entire process.

Aside from staying out of the pool, Henderson also missed the last three weeks of the fall semester trying to recover.

She followed the concussion protocol suggested to her, which included avoiding phone use, computer use, television use, as well as bright lights. She spent most of her time in a dark room trying to recover as quickly as possible.

“I had to sit out of everything in my life. I just pretty much sat in a dark room for three weeks trying to get better and hoping that I would get better sooner,” Henderson said. “I didn’t go to school the last three weeks and I was just pretty much lying in bed in a dark room. It was just frustrating because I didn’t see any progress.”

As spring semester rolled around, Henderson still struggled with headaches and dizziness. She had to take the rest of the diving season off to try to lighten the load on her psychically and mentally.

When the symptoms continued to bother her, she decided to withdraw from classes and allow herself the spring semester to fully heal. With Henderson out for the season, then-freshman Elyse Brouillette was forced to step up and provide a huge lift for the team.

Brouillette responded in a big way and rattled off one of the best seasons of any freshman diver in school history, leading the Cyclones on all three boards, and etching her name in the school record books by finishing with top-10 all-time scores in school history on all three boards.

“It was a little tough being a freshman since I was new, but I had to fill that role and I stepped up,” said Brouillette.

While Brouillette enjoyed one of the best statistical seasons in school history, Henderson struggled to recover from the devastating concussion. She couldn’t even watch her teammates compete due to sensitivity to light and sound, which were both abundant at home meets in Beyer Hall.

Fast forward one year and Henderson is back for her senior season. After qualifying for NCAA Zones, the qualifying event for the NCAA diving championships, as a sophomore and again as a junior, before the injury cut her season short, Henderson had big expectations.

After nearly a year off, her health was finally restored and Henderson was ready to make the most of her final season. And then the injury bug struck again.

Henderson had issues with her quadricep and trainers were unable to diagnose the exact cause of the injury. She attempted to gut through the pain, but her leg simply wouldn’t cooperate.

In an early season meet, Henderson attempted a dive, but as she approached her jump her leg gave out and she ended up sitting on the board in frustration as a result of the failed dive attempt.

“Her knee would buckle, and she would just collapse,” said ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick of the injury.

After taking the next few weeks off, and changing her hurdle to help alleviate the stress in her quad, Henderson is finally healthy again and is hoping to get back on track.

After missing almost all of her junior season, and struggling with a nagging leg issue throughout the beginning half of her senior season, Henderson has grown a lot and is ready to go out on a high note.

“You’re limited to what you set your mind to,” Henderson said. “So if I focus on those injuries then I’m just setting myself back. I can still be a great diver and I can still be awesome.”

Even though she tries not to focus on the injuries, Henderson admitted that at times, she was still hesitant when diving, an effect many athletes have while trying to comeback from injuries.

In recent meets, Henderson has been close to hitting the qualifying mark for zones and feels she’s almost got her dives down.

“I am this close to nailing my dives,” Henderson said prior to the Iowa Invitational.

On Dec. 6, a full year after Henderson suffered the devastating concussion that stole her junior season from her, Henderson and her teammates competed in the Iowa Invitational in Iowa City. It was the first time she would compete at the place that turned her career inside out.

“I’m sure it will bring back some memories,” Henderson said prior to returning to Iowa City for competition.

After struggling on the first day of competition, finishing 13th place on the 1-meter board, perhaps in part due to nerves, Henderson had a strong showing on day two, finishing eighth on the 3-meter.

Most impressively, Henderson took seventh place on the 10-meter board, the same event and the same place where she had suffered the concussion just over a year ago. Her score was only 2.25 points away from the NCAA zone qualifying score in the event.

The strong performance was an indicator of good things to come, as just a week after the Iowa Invitational, the Hawkeyes made the trip to Ames for a dual meet.

Henderson led the Cyclones on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in her final matchup against Iowa. Her scores were also high enough to qualify her for the NCAA Zone D event later in the season. Qualifying for the zone event was a major goal of Henderson’s.

“I think it’s just whatever you put your mind too and I’m not limiting myself,” Henderson said prior to the dual against Iowa. “I do think that I can still reach my goals. It’s just going to be more challenge and a little bit more of an emotional roller coaster.”

Henderson’s positive attitude never waivered and now she has finally punched her ticket to the zone event. After completing the comeback process to the point of qualifying for the zone event, she can focus on enjoying the rest of the season, building up to the conference meet and the zone meet.

Warrick is also rooting for his senior diver and the captain of his squad after watching the recovery process first hand. A strong showing at the zone event would send Henderson off on a high note, after a career of highs and lows.

“It would mean the world for her and as her coach it would be great to see,” Warrick said. “She’s really earned it with her perseverance and she’s worked so hard.”

With plenty of season left, and after enduring so much, Henderson continues to plug away at her goals hoping to make her comeback story a successful one and end her career on a high note.

After having her junior year stolen by injury and journeying through the long comeback process, Henderson does not expect to go down without a fight in her final season as a Cyclone.