College cross-country runner gets blindsided by a deer during a race

Hey, Justin DeLuzio now has a story he’ll be able to tell at parties for years to come.

During a Division III regional meet in Pennsylvania a group of deer ran across a field that the runners were traversing. DeLuzio, who is with the Gwynedd Mercy University men’s cross country team, got hit by one of the deer and took a nasty spill.

According to the school’s athletic web site, DeLuzio was “very bruised up,” but he completed the race after teammate Matt French helped DeLuzio to his feet.

“Armani Rivera also paced with the duo and ran with those guys for a little while before continuing to finish the race,” cross country coach Kevin Clark said on the school’s web page. “All three of these guys could have run significantly faster if this did not happen, but made sure their guy was fine. Justin is doing OK, he’s just a little sore and bruised up. We were worried about his health for a while but we’re proud to see him fight through this along with his teammates, get up and finish his last collegiate cross country race.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 8:13 AM.