Coupeville Sports

The man, the myth, the legend … Kyle King.

“Kyle King”

Now this is confusing.

As I was perusing the results from yesterday’s Virginia/Panorama Farms Invitational — a cross country race that featured three of the nation’s top 25 college teams, including No. 4 Oklahoma, which won easily — I saw what I thought was a typo.

The results had Kyle King finishing 13th and 14th in the race, with the only difference being that one Kyle King was supposedly running for the University of Virginia, while the other one competed for the meet-winning Sooners.

Knowing that former Coupeville High School legend Kyle King was wrapping up his college running days in Norman, Oklahoma, I was of two minds. Either the stats guy had slipped up or the man, the myth, the legend who would run shirtless in the snow on Whidbey, was so fast he had run the race twice, finishing mere seconds behind himself, possibly busting the space time continuum.

It wasn’t to be, however, as a little research (and I do mean little — this is a sports blog, not “60 Minutes”) revealed the existence of another cross country runner with the exact same moniker of Kyle King.

How dare he lay claim to the name of a Coupeville sports god?!?!?

According to my “research,” the imposter Kyle King won five state titles in high school (the same as the real Kyle King). His favorite movie is “The Fighter.” (Not bad.) His favorite magazine is “Runners World” (Predictable, but OK.) And his favorite band is Blink-182 (Apparently they’re tone deaf in Virginia…)

Frankly, I only see one way to settle this. A head-to-head race for the right to be the one and only Kyle King, Cross Country Stud. And no, yesterday’s race doesn’t count, since our Kyle King was running under his coach’s game plan to have the OU runners stay in a tight pack and not break apart for any reason, the better to hide the Sooners true strengths until later in the season.

But there is going to come a time and a place when the two must face off and this must be settled once and for all. For in the words of “Highlander,” that most sainted of ’80s classic cinema cheese, “There can only be one!!!”

And his name will be Kyle King!!

Yeah, I’m sort of hedging my bets here…