Sugie and Sheets Shine; Records fall in Nashville
This past weekend, Kentucky's athletes descended to the Norton Learning Center in Louisville, Kentucky to compete in the KTCCCA President's Day Weekend Invite. We saw incredible performances throughout that meet which can be viewed at the following link President's Day Classic.
However, a couple of our athletes ventured to Nashville, Tennessee to run against some College athletes at the Music City Challenge. At this meet, we saw Riku Sugie of Thomas Nelson and Will Sheets of Covington Catholic run the 1 mile and 5000m respectively. Long story short, we got our money's worth.
To begin, Sugie completed the 1 mile race in 4:09.60, the Indoor Mile state record. The previous record was held by Bobby Curtis who ran 4:10.20 back in 2003. This race is also the 5th fastest mile race ran by a Kentucky high schooler across any surface (indoors and outdoors). It is worth noting, Curtis ran 4:10.20 indoors, then followed that up with a 4:07.06 Outdoors, a record which stood until Jacob Thomson bested it in 2013. The current record of 4:06.30 is held by Olympic Bronze Medalist in the 1500m, Yared Nuguse who ran 4:06.30 Outdoors in 2017. If Sugie improves by as much as Curtis did from Indoors to Outdoors, he will have a real shot at challenging that overall mile state record come outdoor season.
On the other side of things, Sheets braved 25 laps around an indoor track to compete in an indoor 5000m, a race not commonly run by high schoolers Indoors. He did not disappoint. In his 5000m track opener, Sheets ran 14:26.66 shattering the previous Indoor 5000m state record. Not only that, but that is the fastest 5000m race any high schooler in Kentucky has ever run, besting Sugie's 14:28.63 that he ran last Outdoor season. For Sheets, he joined Sugie as the only high schoolers in state history to break the 14:30 barrier in the 5000m.
For us, this is setting the stage for one of the greatest duels in State History as we get prepared for the KHSAA Indoor State Championships where they will both compete in the 2A division. It also sets the stage for a fantastic outdoor campaign from both of them. So far, there resumes are as follows:
Riku Sugie:
800m - 1:57.06
1 mile - 4:09.60
3200m - 8:48.83
5000m - 14:28.63
Will Sheets:
800m - 1:56.95
1 mile - 4:12.02
3200m - 8:52.02 full 2 mile (8:49 adjusted 3200)
5000m - 14:26.66
Surprisingly, the 1600/1 mile record and 3200m records are still standing today. We will anxiously await their outdoor campaigns to see if they can achieve these epic heights. However, as a consolation prize, we get to watch them Compete at the KHSAA Indoor State Championships in 2 weeks.