Bennington HS runner finds track jersey in tree, delivering ray of hope after tornado
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Bennington junior Lilly Dall has never been happier to be back on the track.
“I was stressed this weekend,” she said. “So it was great to go to school and talk to my friends.”
When Friday’s tornado tore through town, Dall was on her way to a Zach Bryan concert in Des Moines. Her mother called her from the basement of their home to tell her the house took a direct hit.
“She said she just felt the whole house lift up and then come back down,” Dall recalled. “Big crashes all around from the windows coming in.”
Her family was safe, but home shifted off its foundation, leaving it unsafe to live in.
“Honestly, I still feel like I’m going to go home to my house today, but I’m not,” she said. “It’s hard to get used to that that’s not my home right now and I’m going to a hotel instead.”
In the aftermath, her mom discovered that Lilly’s track jersey blew away in the storm. With their conference meet just days away, she frantically contacted her coach.
“I emailed her and I’m like, ‘Hey Suing, I’m so sorry the tornado hit us and I cannot find the jersey at all.’”
“I just responded to her like, ‘that is the least of our worries right now,’” said Jocelyn Suing, Bennington track and field co-head coach. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. We can get her a new jersey on Monday and she can run in it Tuesday.”
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But that wasn’t good enough for Dall. She needed her lucky jersey and was determined to get it back.
“My mission for the day was to find my jersey,” she said, explaining what she did upon returning from Iowa. “I went all the way back to the back end of my property and I couldn’t find it. The only thing I could find was a cooler. So I just keep looking, then I look up, and there’s my jersey.”
There it was — Lilly’s jersey hanging high in a tree. After cutting down the branch, she was relieved to find it was in great shape.
“No tears, luckily. Under Armour is very durable,” Dall said with a laugh.
She couldn’t wait to tell her coach.
“I was like Suing, I found it!”
“Unbelievable,” Suing said. “What are the chances that one, and that she finds it hanging in a tree by a limb. I was in shock.”
The Dall family, and many others, have far greater concerns ahead. But for Lilly, finding that jersey represented hope.
“It was a sign from God that everything is going to be okay,” she said. “You can find what’s lost in a time like this. I’m here to comfort you. This is not the end.”
Lilly will be proudly wearing her blue Bennington jersey Tuesday, competing in the 3200 meter event at the EMC Conference Meet at Lincoln Northwest.
“There was a ray of sunshine, some hope that it’s going to get back to normal” Suing added. “I’ve got my jersey now or whatever it may be for whoever it is. But that was her ray of hope, that we’re going to be okay.”
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