Knowing how talented and stacked the girls 6A race was it was no surprise that the race went fast. Though it was stacked, one athlete just showed that on that day she was the best ever. Lake Braddock Secondary senior and Oregon commit Kate Murphy blew past the field the final mile and went on to run a state meet and course record of 17:08.
Check out Kate Murphy's Athlete Profile
Last track season Kate showed everyone what she was about. She just kept raising the bar and lowering the state records. It was a long track season for her but it looks like she is finally gearing up for some big post-season races.
Heading into the season Kate's coaches were all gearing her for a strong post-season both at states and NXN. Because of that she raced very little and only recently really started to throw in the speed work. Then again... she doesn't need anymore speed!
Her season opened at Great American this year with a solid 17:11 win over multiple state champions. She then raced just one more regular season meet up in Pennsylvania. She followed that up by strong wins at Burke Lake Park in both Conference 7 and the Northern Region.
Entering the state championship she was undefeated in XC with a 17:11 season best for 5K and a monstrous 16:34 best for the 2.98 mile course Burke Lake.
The race itself went out strong. Kate and another superstar, Rachel McArthur, both dropped the field early and clocked a 5:20 thru the opening Mile. That was fast enough to drop the field by a whopping 10 seconds.
Both Kate and Rachel then blasted thru the second Mile in 10:56 and 10:57 for a 5:36 second Mile. That is considerably fast considering the second Mile is actually the slowest Mile on the State Course.
They were dead even for a little longer until Kate began to separate. As she entered the field she had grew a lead up to roughly 50m. She never looked back as she powered around the curve and into the long drawn out homestretch.
She powered thru the finish in 17:08 to break the former state meet and course record of 17:11. That time also breaks Lake Braddock Secondary's school record by 16 seconds beating Sophie Chase's former record.
Kate will race again in just under 10 days at WakeMed in Cary, NC for the NXN Southeast Regional. She was able to easily lead her team to a state championship here but it is going to take a whole lot more for her to help get Lake Braddock back out to NXN. That is the plan and if anyone can lead a team it certainly is Kate Murphy.
