November 08, 2014 @ New Horse Park in Lexington, KY
Current Kentucky State Meet Records (Paddock Course @ Kentucky Horse Park)
Class A – Maddox Patterson (Sayre) 18:25.34
Overall State/Class AA – Gabby Karas (Collins) 17:39.04
Class AAA – Whitney O’Bryan (Daviess County) 18:09.00
Above are the current six state records that stand as of last year on the Paddock Course at the Kentucky Horse Park. This course has been used since 2009 for the Kentucky State Cross Country Meet.
What records shall be left standing at the end of the day Saturday?
Only one current record holder is running on Saturday and that is Collins sophomore Gabby Karas. Karas, has set and re-set the overall state record the last two years at the state meet. The 2013 Foot Locker finalist has had what many would call an odd season. Coming off an injury she led through the mile at the Titan Classic in the middle of October but dropped out mid-race. She then ran and won a JV 4K meet in 14:40. She beat all the boys in the race as well. She then ran her first 5K this season in the last regular season Saturday at the KTCCCA Meet of Champions on October 25th winning in 18:27.09. This leads us to what happens Saturday, is she ready to roll a sub 17:39? It is obviously in her realm and she will have a couple runners who have PRs south of 18:15 that will help push her.
The other two girls’ class records are also in threat range. Presentation’s Caroline Gosser ran a 17:50 at Great American in early October and followed that up with an 18:21 at Lexington Catholic. That 18:21 was on the State Meet course in a win by 26 seconds. She has done this before, as she won the Class A 3200m last May in track in which she took down the state record (11:02.60 3200m.) Can she do it again Saturday?
The Class AAA record of 18:09 has not been hit this season at the Horse Park but it was pretty darn close. Sacred Heart frosh Kathleen Simms ran an 18:13.26 to win at Lexington Catholic on October 18th. Four more seconds is not out of reach by any means especially with the super frosh trio (Simms, Alena Sapienza-Wright, and Kaitlyn Lacy) dueling it out up front. All three have run under 18:20 this season along with Mercy’s Brianna Wolken and Sacred Heart’s Maggie Allen.