Photo of Caroline McMartin from Central College Invitational held 9-7-19

The journey back to the finish line at the state meet was a moment of relief and triumph, and turned out to be the last in the high school career of Pella High School’s most decorated distance runner.

Caroline McMartin, after collapsing just meters away from the finish line in Fort Dodge in 2018, pulled back to be the 23rd runner in the 129-girl Class 3A field to cross the finish line at the 2019 State Cross Country meet, leading Pella to an 8th place team score as well.

McMartin says she’s been working to overcome some of the physical challenges that made even that race difficult, and looks forward to pushing on to Central College this fall to see how far she can come.

“This year was a struggle with the iron deficiency thing that I’ve figured out,” she says. “Once I realized that, that’s knowledge that will really help me in the future and hopefully I can use these things that happened in high school to prevent them from happening again in college.”

Hear from McMartin and teammate Ellie Roorda, who is also heading to Central College, on tonight’s Radio Sports Page at 6 p.m. on 92.1 KRLS.