Portland, Maine — Donivyn Harms was rounding the bend for the final 80 meters of his practice routine at the University of Southern Maine when the pain in his lower leg began to increase.

It was something he had noticed through the indoor track and field season, but the former Hub standout and state qualifier didn’t think much of it. But after hobbling to the finish line, Harms was directed toward team doctors, who further examined his leg and gave him some unfortunate news.

“I wasn’t happy,” Harms said. “I had a slow start to the indoor season and I wasn’t running to my full potential, but now that I’m probably in the best shape of my life, it sucks that the injury had to happen because I was looking forward to what I could do during the outdoor season.”

A fractured fibula was the diagnosis for Harms, who said he was having an MRI done on Friday to evaluate what his recovery path will look like. While the Rochelle alum said he was initially discouraged by the injury, which he said may have occurred when he fell down some stairs prior to the start of the indoor season, he said he is looking forward to working hard in his rehab and getting back on the track.

“My coaches were very disappointed too because they were excited to see what I can do,” he said. “I was decreasing my times in practice and everything was looking pretty promising.”

Despite the injury, Harms was able to perform well during his first indoor season with the Huskies. The college freshman helped Southern Maine’s 1600-relay team finish fourth at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational on Jan. 14 in addition to a title run at the Bowdoin Indoor Invitational on Jan. 21 with a time of 3:27.38.

While he’s chipped in for the program’s relays, he’s also improved dramatically in the 400-meter dash, going from a fourth-best time of 54.10 at the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational to a 52.08 at the New England Alliance Indoor Track & Field Championship, where he took fifth place overall. In his lone race with the 3200-meter relay team at that same event, Southern Maine won first place with a time of 8:16.21, with Harms running the second leg.

“The 400 is definitely my favorite race to compete in,” he said. “My ultimate goal at the end of the season was to get into the 48-49 second range. I started out kind of slow, but at the end I was training harder and smarter, and I ended up improving at every meet. I still have room for improvement and I plan on improving.”

Going from Rochelle to Portland, Maine may seem like quite a journey, but for Harms, who said his mother and stepfather moved out there four years ago, attending Southern Maine to study sports management seemed like a win-win opportunity.

“I would always visit because it’s a beautiful area,” he said. “I got in touch with the coach when I visited the college one day and we just talked, and after that day he’d always check in on me and see how I was doing in my senior year of high school. I just went with it from there.”

Harms qualified for the IHSA State Finals in both his junior and senior seasons at Rochelle, running alongside former Hubs Xavier Rincon, Colfay Pointer (who is competing in track and field at Dubuque University) and current Rochelle senior Matthew Drendel. He credited RTHS coaches John Dobbs and Mark Zilis as two influential individuals who inspired him to reach his goals as a high schooler.

“Coach Dobbs and coach Z, they always had high expectations and high hopes for me,” Harms said. “I always wanted to compete to my full potential and they really pushed me to reach that potential. I really appreciate what they did for me and they helped shape me into the person I am today. I’m thankful for that.”

And for the freshmen, sophomores and other who are competing with the Hubs track and field team right now, Harms encouraged them to keep fighting and never go easy on themselves.

“I went to state my junior year but I didn’t get the results I wanted,” he said. “So I came back next year and I worked harder to reach them. Everybody should come in with a goal and they should work hard to reach that goal.”