NAMPA, Idaho – Ellie Logan is tough.

Growing up on a ranch, you kind of have to be.

Last week when she was supposed to be taking it easy at her family's ranch in Fossil, Ore., while getting ready for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, she got in a little skirmish with a pair of 2,000-pound bulls.

She was on her horse attempting to get the bulls down the alley into the chute – but they had other ideas as they began brawling. With her dad inside the house, Logan hopped off her horse to try and shut a gate to corral the fighting beasts.

They broke through two fences and then hit the gate just as she was trying to shut it causing her to stumble.

But the 5-foot-9 Logan wasn't deterred.

"I stayed on my feet," she said.

That might as well be her motto.

Logan, who graduated earlier this month with a degree in biology, has remained upright despite three major injuries that have cost her nearly two combined track and field seasons and one basketball season.

She had elbow surgery as a freshman costing her the track and field season. A compression fracture in her leg as a junior, causing her to miss half of the track season. And in her senior year she missed all of basketball and part of track with a torn ACL.

Through it all, though, Logan has persevered.

"That's Ellie," basketball teammate Carly Parker said. "I always see her working out or shooting (hoops) or lifting weights – she puts that extra 10 percent in. It is fun to see her achieve when everyone least expects it."

Logan wasn't even supposed to compete in track this year after tearing her ACL in September, but she returned for the NNU Invitational on April 13. She competed once more in the regular season and then launched the second-best javelin throw in the country to win the GNAC championships two weeks ago.

"It is a weekly competition with myself with where I feel my body is at and what I should be throwing," she said. "At the conference meet, I wanted to throw over 160 and I was able to do that (162 feet, 3 inches). I will set a new goal this week and try to PR again."

Logan, who finished eighth in 2016 and 15th in 2017, will be joined by teammate Payton Lewis at the national meet in Charlotte, N.C. Lewis is the defending national champion in the pole vault. Both athletes compete Saturday, with pole vault starting at 10:30 a.m. MDT and javelin at 11:15 a.m. MDT.

"She has done all the rehab to gain flexibility and strength," NNU track and field coach John Spatz said. "She is probably as healthy as at any point in her NNU career. She seems really determined and done everything at a totally different maturity level this year."

Logan comes from an athletic family. Older sister Jessica threw the javelin at New Hope Christian College in Oregon, finishing third in the country at the NCCAA meet in 2015. All four of Ellie's siblings were three-sport athletes at tiny Condon-Wheeler High School in Central Oregon.

Logan played volleyball, basketball and track and field and ended up at NNU despite being recruited for track by Kentucky and Oregon State.

"It was deciding between throwing javelin at a big school or continuing to play basketball," she said. "I wanted to do both and (NNU) worked with me."

Logan, who will return in the fall for a final year of basketball and track and field, was successful at both sports right away, as she has amassed more than 1,000 career points in basketball in just three seasons and is making her third nationals appearance in track and field.

Part of that is her immense natural ability and part of it is the work ethic earned working on the family ranch. From training horses for fun in the summer to doing fence work – her least favorite job – to clearing juniper with a weed whacker in the fields.

"There is just something about growing up in that rural setting," Spatz said. "You work from sunup to after dark. The work ethic the ranch lifestyle instills in kids like them – you can do a lot."

Including stand up to two brawling 2,000-pound bulls.