LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, in Terre Haute, Indiana was dedicated October 17, 1997. This course has the distinction of being one of the few purpose-built cross-country courses in the world. The facility is part of 240 acres that comprise the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center just east of the Terre Haute International Airport. The course itself is built on a reclaimed coal mine and consists of an external loop of 3km and four internal loops that allow for circuits of varying lengths. Indiana State University's Cross-Country team uses the Gibson Course for its home meets.

In the short history of the course it has hosted multiple championship meets. The Gibson Course hosted the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Regional in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003. The most prominent meet it has hosted has been the NCAA Division I Cross-Country Championship. The Gibson Course hosted this championship in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and will again do so in 2008. In 2004 it also became the host site of the state high school championship meet for Indiana. It has also hosted numerous invitational and conference championship meets on multiple levels since it opened.

[edit] Course Records

Race	Runner	School	Time	Race	Date
Collegiate Course Records
Women's 6k	Sally Kipyego	Texas Tech	19:30.9	2007 NCAA Championship	11/19/2007
Women's 6k (old course)	Joanna Nilsson	Northern Arizona	19:33.9	2005 NCAA Championship	11/21/2005
Men's 8k	Josh McDougal	Liberty	22:56.4	2007 Brooks Pre-Nationals White Race	10/13/2007
Men's 10k	Jorge Torres	Colorado	29:04.7	2002 NCAA Championship	11/25/2002
High School Course Records
Girls 5k	Annette Glaz	AA Stagg (IL)	18:17.4	2007 Nike Team Nationals Mid-West Regional	11/10/2007
Girls 4k (old course)	Alexandra Banfich	Culver Girls Academy (IN)	14:05.1	2005 Indiana HS State Championship	10/29/2005
Boys 5k	Chris Derrick	Neuqua Valley (IL)	14:54.3	2007 Nike Team Nationals Mid-West Regional	11/10/2007