While diminutive in stature, Allison Wood manages to balance a lot on her shoulders when the high school athletic season begins each year.
The Hopkinsville High School senior stays busy in the fall, playing both soccer and running cross country – two sports that require a lot of running on a daily basis.
Running is nothing new to Wood. A member of Hoptown’s track and cross country team, she has been a member of both teams since the eighth grade.
Wood put together a solid sophomore season in 2019 that saw her set a school record in the 3200-meter run on the track. She then set her sights on becoming the first Hoptown High female athlete to break the 20:00 mark in a 5K race.
When COVID-19 hit in the spring of 2020, it cost Wood a chance to run the school’s first sub-5:30 mile when the pandemic canceled the season.
She switched from running to soccer in the fall where she is a defender on the Lady Tiger soccer team. Wood pulls double duty in the fall, accomplishing the rare in-season double-double that takes up a large portion of her time away from the classroom.
Ready for a breakout junior season in cross country despite the pandemic, things were off in her times. They were slower than the previous year despite more training. It was determined that Wood had lower than normal iron levels that affected her health.
She was able to qualify for the state cross country meet but ran nearly two minutes slower than the previous year.
After getting her iron levels on track, she took to the track in the spring where she broke the school record in the 1600-meter run, just missing becoming the first HHS runner to break the 5:30 barrier. She ran a 5:30.75 at the region meet.
Over the summer, Wood mixed her training with the Governor’s Scholar Program, an accomplishment for a select few that are among the best and brightest in the state. She already attends the Gateway Academy to Innovation and Technology that’s part of the local school system.
Fast forward to this weekend where she ran a 19:59 at Saturday’s Warren East Raider Twilight Run to establish a new school mark and fulfilling her prophecy from two years ago.
She’s also busy on the soccer field for the Lady Tigers, who are among the top three girls’ teams in the region.
Wood is hoping to keep running in college and her academic standing will allow her to be more choosy in where she goes because of academic scholarship money. Her hard work in the classroom mirrors the work she puts in as part of her training. And the result is the term ‘school record holder’ being associated with Allison Wood after the graduates from Hopkinsville High School.
