Earlier this month at the Foot Locker National Championships in San Diego, CA, Megan Goethals was looking to cap off her high school cross country career with national champion title. Not only did she meet that goal and beat 39 of the nation’s top high school runners, she met it in exciting fashion.

With less than 200 meters to go in the five-kilometer race, Goethals — a senior at Rochester High School — was in second place but about five seconds behind the leader. Miraculously, Goethals gave one last final kick to catch the leader for a nearly photo finish at the tape. Goethals winning time of 17:06.9 was officially listed as two-tenths of a second in front of second place

“It was kind of like a feeling of shock that I actually caught her,” Goethals said. “I just don’t believe it actually happened. It’s just cool to think about.”

Goethals passed Chelsey Sveinsson of Dallas, TX to finally give Goethals the title of National Champion. Goethals coach Larry Adams thought that the race was one for the ages.

“I’ve been excited at the end of races before … but nothing like that,” Adams said. “That was the most exciting finish I’d ever seen, for sure, in all of my years of coaching.”

After finishing third in the same race the year before, Megan came back this year as the top returnee and had a lot of people putting expectations on her. Adams said that both of them were prepared and confident for race day.

“I knew we were prepared,” Adams said. “It was probably the most confident I’ve been going into a race with an athlete because I know how hard she works at it and how she prepares for it.”

Since Goethals had been there before, she already knew what she needed to do to complete her national title run.

“I felt pretty ready,” Goethals said. “But I still needed to work on more hill training for it. But I felt like my fitness was good and everything so I just needed to maintain it.”

As big of a deal that being a national champion is, Goethals has managed to keep a level-head about it.

“The accomplishment, she loves that part of it,” said her coach Larry Adams. “But she doesn’t want to flaunt it in people’s faces. She doesn’t want say, ‘Oh look at me, I’m a super-star athlete. She’s just a kid. She’s Megan.”

All of this is not bad for someone who didn’t even like distance running in middle school.

“I hated long races,” Goethals said. “When I did the 200, I hated it; I thought I was going to die. I liked sprinting the 100 because I just didn’t want to do anything long. When I started doing the mile in eighth grade, my coach kept trying to get me to do the two mile and I told him I wouldn’t do it … I just hated the long distances.”

When Megan became a freshman, she was more focused on basketball than cross country.

“I had to drag her out to running cross country races,” Adams said. “I thought she had the potential to be a state-caliber runner, hence why I dragged her out in the middle of her fall basketball season.”

Luckily for Adams and Goethals, the decision to focus on running was a great decision.

“I loved [cross country] after I tried it,” Goethals said.

It’s funny what love can do to people.

Now that she has become a national champion, Goethals has now become a high school star in many people’s eyes across the country. She has been receiving e-mails and messages from random people congratulating her and recalling how she has been an inspiration to them.

“It’s so special,” Goethals said. “It makes me feel really good just to know that something that I didn’t know was going to help other people and they are telling me that it made then start running or work harder. I think that it is awesome and I appreciate all of the letters and notes that I’ve gotten.”