Meghan, from West Liberty, Ohio, made headlines at the Ohio state championship track meet.
Meghan is a star runner whose story of losing a race to help an opponent finish a race got national media attention.

“I was running a two-mile race. On the third lap, I fell behind. I had won the one-mile race earlier and was dead tired. I just wanted to finish. On the last lap, the girl in front of me stumbled and fell. When I realized she couldn’t make it, I helped her to the finish line,” says Meghan.

Meghan didn’t know the opponent when she had helped her but learned that her name was Arden McMath.
She realized that she had to help her when she saw her fall.

“It was my initial reaction,” Meghan says.

Meghan is a competitive person, “but that only lasts so long, I will always be compassionate,” she says.

Since both of the girls were in back during the race, they didn’t count for points for their teams. Meghan doesn’t know if she would have done the same thing if she had been in the front.

“I don’t know—part of me thinks I would, part of me isn’t sure,” says Meghan

The story has gotten a lot of attention, but Meghan doesn’t understand why it became so popular.

“People almost took too much from it, like I’m this hero. I’m not. There are people saving starving children in Africa. There are people serving our country. I’m just a kid who helped another kid,” says Meghan.

Meghan hopes that her story could inspire people not to bully, to instead help people out. Rather than bring people down, bring them up.