Valencia Gosser returned from a hamstring injury just before this past spring’s Shore Conference Championships and qualified sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.10 seconds. A short time later, she became Barnegat High School’s first conference champion in the premier sprint event with a time of 12.64 seconds.

Now, some would consider this a major accomplishment, and it is. But for Valencia, overcoming obstacles have become so routine in her life, she’s almost oblivious to it.

“She doesn’t see obstacles,” said her mother, Theresa. “It’s like they don’t exist to her.”