BUTLER TWP — Maggie Welty knew what college she’d be running off to in the fall.

She just didn’t know if she wanted to run once she got there.”

Butler’s standout distance runner battled shin splints last fall that prematurely ended her senior cross country season.

“Maggie was hurting to the point she couldn’t qualify for states at the WPIAL meet,” Butler track and field coach John Williams said. “That was tough on her mentally since she did so well the year before.”

Welty placed third at the WPIAL Cross Country Championships as a junior and 12th at the state meet.

Already planning to attend Penn State University, she wasn’t planning on running cross country or track in college.

“I applied at some other schools, but I always knew it’d be Penn State,” Welty said. “Family members have gone there. My older sister, Hannah, is a student there now.

“I want to go into nursing and with the academic load, I thought trying to compete and run might be too big an overload.”

But as Welty’s shin splints healed and this spring’s track and field season approached, things changed.

“That was a kid who just didn’t want to run anymore after high school,” Williams recalled. “But once she healed up, it was like a new athlete was born.

“Maggie wanted the mile record here. She wanted it badly.”

She got it, running the 1,600 meters in 5 minutes, 6.42 seconds to snap the Butler High School record set by Danica Snyder in 2011.

And now Welty, sporting a 4.3 grade point average in high school, will be running cross country and track for the Nittany Lions next fall and spring.

“When I made my school visit there, Coach (Mike) Seybert made it a point that their coaches meet with me,” Welty said. “They made me feel wanted, like I could contribute.

“I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

Seybert said competing on the track can be helpful to a student determined to succeed in the classroom.

“It gives you a break from constantly studying,” Seybert said. “I really believe running is helpful to academics. It’s a competitive release.

“When it came right down to it, Maggie realized she wasn’t done. There’s more she wants to do in the sport and she’s going to a program in Penn State that will push her toward those goals.”

Last fall, Penn State’s cross country team placed fourth at the Big Ten Championships, won the Mid-Atlantic title for the third straight year and ended the season ranked No. 10 in the nation.

Six of the Nittany Lions’ 21 female ross country runners were seniors last season.

Penn State’s women’s track team placed third at the 2017 Big Ten Championships. Of the 18 distance runners on the women’s roster this spring, 15 return.

“I just want to be part of the team, compete and get better as I get older,” Welty said.

Hannah Welty ran track for part of her high school career at Butler, but switched over to lacrosse. Welty’s younger sister, Joey, is an eighth-grader and specializes in the triple jump.

“It’s an athletic family and with that comes competitiveness,” Williams said. “I’m not surprised at all that Maggie decided to keep on going.”

Welty is just happy she’s leaving with a school record.

“It was important to me to get that (1,600 meter record),” she said. “I felt like, as a senior ... That’s what I’m leaving behind for someone to chase.”