Natalie Martin was a fall season volleyball player and a summer season lacrosse player when she first came to Norwood High School. During the winter of her sophomore year, she was looking for another sport to help her get in shape for the lacrosse season, she found track and has never looked back.

“It was supposed to be just to get in shape, but I came to love track so much that I ended up dropping lacrosse and joining the spring team as well,” Martin said. “It was a tough decision as I had played lacrosse all my life and was on a club team, but I just fell in love with track.”

The sophomore became infatuated with the sport, especially the distance events where she would take part in the mile, the 2-mile, and was the anchor of the 4x800 relay team for the Mustangs. Martin was not interested in sprinting events and at the time, Norwood didn’t have a lot of distance runners.

She found her first distance race to be very overwhelming as there were so many people at the meets, but she just went out and did her thing, finding her grove on the track. Once she started finding her confidence, she began to entrust her running and continued to get better. She found herself having so much fun that she eventually decided to forgo volleyball in the fall for cross country. 

“I was really enjoying myself with running so I figured that I might as well run all three seasons,” Martin said. “I really liked my teammates and coaches; the atmosphere was so much different than any other sport; it’s technically a team sport but it’s very much individual.”

Having decided to drop lacrosse in favor of spring track, Norwood girls head coach Alana Keady was beyond ecstatic.

 “When she left lacrosse to come to track I was so glad that she did, she is an unbelievable runner,” the Mustang Coach said. “That spring, she started to really impress me with her athleticism and her times started dropping. She was a role model who worked hard and was driven.”

When it came to comparing her cross-country running to her track running, Martin was quick to note that she preferred track.

“Cross country times don’t really matter as each course you run on is totally different and you can’t really match them up so the times are different,” Martin said. “Cross country is more of a mental run through the woods, while track you know exactly what’s going on. Coaches are yelling out splits but with cross country you are by yourself with only a watch.”

As a runner for the Mustangs track and field team, Martin had not only been a part of the 4x800 relay team that set the school record, but she also holds individual school records in the mile and 2-mile during the indoor season, and this past spring she added to that collection. During her final season with Norwood, Martin set the school record in the mile with a time of 5:02 at the Meet of Champions, and then in the Division 3 State Meet she ran an 11:06 to capture the school record in the 2-mile. 

Her running ability and accomplishments with the Mustangs earned her a spot to run all three of her events on the Holy Cross team. The Crusaders were Martin’s overall first school choice before she even figured in track. 

“After visiting Holy Cross I knew that it was where I wanted to go,” Martin said. “I was so excited to be accepted to Holy Cross, it was the place for me, but I still wanted to wait a few days and weigh out my options. I had been looking at some schools in the Patriot League, as they were all strong academically as well as athletically.”

As she prepares to run for the Crusaders in Worcester, the Norwood native is hoping that she can go out and enjoy herself while performing at a high rate. She fully believes that she worked hard to get to this point and doesn’t want to put a lot of pressure on herself on the collegiate level. She just wants to go out and run while putting up personal records and enjoying the college experience.

Once college comes to an end, four years in the future, Martin noted that she will continue to run, taking part in as many races as she can. She doesn’t ever see herself not running.