Hagan Stone Park

The other "Granddaddy" course in North Carolina, with almost as much history as McAlpine, has also seen some larger jumps in its course record.  For example, when Buddy Priest (Person) ran 15:31 there in 1994, it was a 2.5% improvement over the previous record, set by Bill Jackson (SW Guilford) just the year before.  An even bigger jump happened when some guy named Alan Webb came down from South Lakes (VA) to race in Greensboro, and he ran an astounding 14:36 there.  Not only was Webb the only high school runner ever to break 15 minutes there, but his performance was 5.6% faster than Priest's previous course record.  As far as NC boys go, Ben Huffman (Providence Day) is currently the best; when he ran 15:14 last fall, it was 1.2% better than the next-best NC runner, Jake Hurysz (Eastern Alamance).

Hagan Stone has seen a strong progression of North Carolina girls setting course records, starting with Beth Fonner (Trinity).  Fonner ran 18:11 in 1997, which was 2.1% better than the previous course record, and 5.2% faster than her best in-state predecessor, Julie Smith (West Forsyth) and her 19:08 in 1992.  In 2001 Julia Lucas (Myers Park, below) dropped that to 17:52, an improvement of 1.7%, and then in 2009 the current record was set by Wesley Frazier at 17:36.  Frazier's mark lowered the record by a further 1.5%, and the only North Carolina runner to come close to that since her was Sara Platek (Ragsdale) earlier this year.