Carolina Day School senior Caroline Barton was named the Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year in girls cross country on Thursday morning.

Barton, who stands at 5-foot-5, won the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 3A state championship last fall. She finished the race with a meet-record time of 17:33.8, which was 87 seconds ahead of second place.

Barton made her stamp nationally as well. She earned First Team All-Region honors after a second-place finish at the Foot Locker South Regional Championships with her best-ever time of 16:59.49. At the Football Locker nationals, she placed 18th with a time of 18:23.0.

Last fall, Barton was named to the HighSchoolOT All-State Team. She is also a finalist for the HighSchoolOT Honors Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award.

Beyond running, Barton is passionate about social justice issue. She serves on the You Belong advisory board, which focuses on creating school-wide activities to promote equity. She is active at Trinity Episcopal Church, where she volunteered as an acolyte and server.

Barton founded an on-campus advocacy group aimed at raising awareness about high dropout rates among female student-athletes. The group is called StriveTogetherNC.

“Confronted by midseason tragedy brought to the region by destructive Hurricane Helene, Caroline Barton overcame all the uncertainty to regain focus, eventually delivering one of the greatest distance campaigns in state history,” said Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack. “An Honorable Mention All-American, she became the state’s third female in history to crack 17 minutes on the historic McAlpine Park course. Her victory by nearly 90 seconds smashed the independent schools championship meet course record.”

In the classroom, Barton holds a 4.86 weighted GPA. She will attend Princeton University in the fall, where she will run cross country and track.