I used to be that guy. I used to be that guy who was all for crawling to the line if you need to. I now see it as ridiculous.
Seriously? A 16 year old girl is hunched over with what looks like some serious internal pain, collapses on the ground, and a guy gets in her face telling her she needs to crawl. This is ridiculous and medieval. What is more important, a high school cross country state title or the health of a 16 year old girl?
The girl is lucky she wasn't even 10 meters from the finish. I've seen some more serious cases. A kid from MA crawling 50 meters to the finish with people just watching? He wanted to "tough it out." Well, the truth is, the kid collapsed and couldn't finish. Somebody should have helped him.
This is the point where an adult needs to make an educated decision and think to themselves "hmm, maybe this person is in some serious danger. Maybe somebody should help them," opposed to just watching them crawl helplessly.
I already know the responses I'm going to get, so don't bother. We'll see what people say when one day a kid tries to crawl 100 meters on the ground at the end of a race, keels over and dies.