Back in 2012 when Jordyn Colter ran 17-flat at Liberty Bell, she left people shaking their heads in disbelief.
Colter whacked 34 seconds off the existing record when she ran her 17:00 circuit around the Liberty Bell course. Surely that kind of trimming on a course with as much history as Liberty Bell would leave a record that would last a while.
It did last a while. It lasted four years. And when it got broken, it got broken twice.
For the first time in a long time, the featured girls race at Liberty Bell was actually a contest. After missing Liberty Bell her freshman year, Lauren Gregory came to the 2016 edition of the meet with dreams of making it three Division 1 titles in a row. And, for that matter, the fastest time of all divisions three years in a row.
Gregory had a personal best mark of 17:16 on the course and, in any ordinary year, would be a prohibitive favorite to make it three years of domination in succession.
But 2016 was no ordinary year. This year, there would be Brie Oakley to contend with.
Oakley had not even begun her high school cross country career, at least from a competitive standpoint, by the time of 2015's Liberty Bell. This year, it may have been ever-so-slightly a reach to call her the favorite going in, but such were the accomplishments of her last year that she was definitely on everyone's watch list.
It figured to be a great race. One significant problem with the Liberty Bell course, though, is that nobody gets to see much of the race except the folks running it. If you're fast, and a bit clever, as a spectator, you can see the crush of humanity at the start, catch the runners going by on the canal trail at about one mile, and then see the finish.
For those who did all that, they saw a confusing mass of bodies at the start, a two-person race at one mile, and Oakley breaking away from Gregory--though with Gregory still very much in view--at the finish.
If they were standing on the right side of the clock, they just might have noticed that Oakley crossed at about 16:44 and Gregory at 16:52.
And, since Colter's record was such a nice, round number, they just might have known that Oakley just did some serious damage to the existing meet record. And that Gregory stepped on it on her way by as well.
We hesitate to suggest Oakley's new record is inviolable. We've learned that lesson. But it is a lofty standard for anyone to aspire to just the same.
Neither Oakley nor Gregory will be around to threaten the record next year.