GORHAM — Tyler Jasud has played hurt all season.

And there are no pinch runners or defensive replacements in his sport. No specialized short-yardage backs. No television timeouts.

Jasud, a fourth-year junior on the University of Southern Maine cross country team, has maintained his status as one of the top NCAA Division III runners in the nation this fall.

The Rumford runner has done it while a battling a hip injury that would make it difficult for the average person to do daily chores, or maybe even walk across campus to the next class.

“I’m going to be able to get through the season, which is a big relief,” Jasud said.

Yeah, you might say that. Jasud, a Mountain Valley High School graduate, will represent Southern Maine at the Division III national championship meet for the second straight year.

He received an at-large invitation to Saturday’s race in Highland Hills, Ohio. Jasud missed out on All-American recognition by mere seconds a year ago, finishing 43rd out of 278 runners at the national showcase.

“I tell him, ‘God has blessed you. You’ve got a special talent.’ He’s tough mentally. What we tell all our runners is that they never want to look back and have any regrets,” said USM coach Scott Hutchinson. “It goes by so fast, in a heartbeat. You’ll be graduating before you know it.”

Jasud continued chasing his dreams throughout the autumn despite a nagging ailment that made it almost impossible for him to run on non-race days. A cross-training regimen involving swimming and cycling helped keep Jasud in shape without worsening the situation.

It’s possible that Jasud’s high school athletic background prepared him for that eclectic workout. Admittedly “burned out” by running, he planned to be a Nordic skier in college.

“Even in Maine, there aren’t a lot of schools that offer cross-country skiing.” Jasud said. “I looked at UMPI (University of Maine at Presque Isle). Then I settled on UNE (University of New England). USM was kind of a last-minute decision. I thought at that point I’d be giving up athletics and trying to get settled into academics.”

That’s when Jasud experienced what turned out to be the best form of peer pressure. He made friends in the classroom who were members of the Huskies’ running squad and knew of his background.

Jasud followed their prodding as a sophomore and learned immediate hard lessons, courtesy of his own competitive juices.

“It took a while. I was a little foolish at first. The way I approached practice it was like racing seven days in a row. I could hardly walk up and down stairs the rest of the day,” Jasud said. “There were some older guys on the team, and I was fortunate to learn from them as time went on.”

Two years later, he’s one of only three runners in history to win back-to-back Little East Conference championships. And that again was a result of Jasud changing his approach after being humbled by physical limitations.

Even after winning three prior conference runner of the week awards this season, Jasud was convinced that his hip troubles made teammates Justin Richardson of Turner and Alex Gomes the prohibitive favorites.

“I tried to give them the best advice I could going into the race, thinking for sure they would win,” Jasud said. “Then with about a half-mile to go I was near the front, and whether or not I had the strength I was going to go for it. With 100 meters to go I had about an 800-meter lead, and I just smiled the rest of the way. It just came out of nowhere. It wasn’t something I thought could happen.”

Hutchinson noted that the go-for-broke greyhound who joined his team after a one-year hiatus has been replaced by a thinking man’s racer.

“He ran an incredibly smart race that day,” said the coach. ” A couple of kids went out really hard, and I said, ‘Let them pull you.’ And sure enough, about 3½ kilometers in, you could see them start to struggle. He’ll leave it out there. He has that innate ability to pick the right time to go.”

Technically a senior, Jasud hasn’t decided what to do with his extra year of running eligibility. He plans to go to graduate school in the future.

Short of admitting that he has thought about what it would be like to run the Boston Marathon (“pretty cool”), Jasud doesn’t divulge his future plans. As for the past and the present, it’s safe to say he doesn’t regret coming out of retirement.

“The routine, the schedule and the discipline it takes have carried over into school for me,” Jasud said. “My grades are better than what they were before I was competing.”

Jasud also offers no predictions about Saturday, although he acknowledged it will take a monumental effort to top last year’s time of 25 minutes, 5.35 seconds.

“I had the advantage of having one of my best races ever,” Jasud said. “You stay at an unbelievable hotel, and then to run in that atmosphere and compete with those guys, you really get pumped up.”

Sounds like the perfect pain medication.

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