Yahoo Sports 
His leg broken in several places, H.S. runner crawls across finish line
Connor Callihan was mere feet from the finish line at the cross-country conference championships when he suddenly stumbled. Not knowing what had happened, fans started yelling for him to get up, to finish the race.
But standing was completely out of the question: Callihan's right leg had snapped, his tibia breaking in three places.
“His leg was in a way nature didn’t intend it to be,” his coach said in an interview with Greenville Online. “This went from an admirable effort to something totally different.”
He couldn't get up, but he could finish. Callihan, a junior at Roberson High in Asheville, N.C., crawled the last five feet. He crossed the line in searing pain.
“This was my last race of the year,” he said Tuesday. “I just had to finish for my team. I just had to.”
His story caught the eye of a fellow runner Manteo Mitchell, who was a standout at Western Carolina University and went on to compete in the 2012 Olympics. Mitchell knows the pain Callihan is suffering, as his fibula broke in the middle of the first leg of the 1,600-meter relay during the qualifying round in London.
Mitchell finished his leg of the race, and the U.S. went on to win the silver medal in the final. On Tuesday, Mitchell called Callihan right before the teen went into surgery, according to the Citizen-Times.
"I pointed out to him that running is the least of his concerns at the moment," Mitchell said. "Told him to focus on resting and recovering, then everything else will fall into place accordingly."
Doctors said Callihan most likely had a stress fracture long before Monday's race. Whether he's been running on a fractured leg all season or something just went wrong in that race, there's no question this kid is courageous.
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Danielle Elliot is the editor of Prep Rally for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or follow her on Twitter!
