Some of sports most hallowed records were thought to be untouchable.

But, as the cliche goes, records are set to be broken.

Babe Ruth's 714 career home runs were thought to be unbreakable. It was eclipsed by Hank Aaron's 755 homers, which was then taken down by Barry Bonds.

Swimmer Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in a single Olympics were broken by fellow American swimmer Michael Phelps.

Even Jim Ryun's seemingly unbreakable record - he ran a mile in 3 minutes, 58.3 seconds, the best ever for a high schooler without a pacer in 1965 - was finally clipped in May in Pennsylvania by Gary Martin.

With all those reminders about alleged unbreakable records, there is a record that might prove untouchable - the record for most goals by a Kansas high school girls soccer player.

The owner - Andover's Kortney (Clifton) Gross.

The standard - 256 goals, set from 2005-2008.

Let's put that record into perspective. The most games a Kansas high school soccer player can currently play in a season is 21. That means over four years, the most games they can play is 84.

If someone played the maximum number of games each year, and scored exactly three goals in every game, she would finish with 252 goals.

But that's not the only Kansas record Gross owns. She also has the mark for goals in a season with 80, set in 2008.

Gross was never concerned with records. All she wanted to do was score goals.

"I really never thought about it," said Gross, who now lives in the Kansas City area and is a nurse. "A couple years ago, someone asked me about those records, but it was something I never thought about. It's just something that came naturally, and it was fun, but I never would have done all that without my teammates, and especially my sister passing to me."

Kortney's twin sister, Kelsey, was often the provider for those 256 goals. And if Kelsey didn't get the assist, she was likely involved in the build-up for the goal.

The twins hooked up for goals for years, long before playing at Andover.

"That was all I knew, playing with (Kelsey)," Gross said. "We played together for as long as I can remember, and a lot of my success was due to her being alongside me."

From Andover, the twins went on to play for four years at the University of Kansas.

But long before Gross was shining in the Big 12, there was a coach who had a hunch that Gross would turn out to be a soccer player few had ever seen in Kansas.

When Gross was 11, she and Kelsey started playing for the Lady Tigers, a Wichita-area team coached by Sammy Lane, who is now the head women's soccer coach at Hutchinson Community College and also coaches club soccer with FC Wichita. Almost immediately, Lane said he noticed the potential Gross had to become an elite goal scorer.

"We worked a lot on (scoring) when she was young," Lane said. "I'd give her the ball, she'd go at me, and she would either side foot it by me, or she'd dribble around me. By the time she got to high school, she got the opportunity to do it over and over, and she continued to get better at it. When she was (one on one) with the goalie, she'd just have a knack to score. It was ingrained in her.

"Players don't exist like her anymore. She had an uncanny ability to score. She could beat you off the dribble, and then you'd be the house that she'd score. She'd just side-foot it into the corner every time."

Gross wasn't just scoring goals for Lane's Lady Tigers in local leagues. She was doing it on the regional level, at events in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.

"I was good at soccer, but until I started playing for (Lane), because he invested not in just me but everyone, I wouldn't have reached my potential," Gross said. "I wouldn't have gone on to play at the collegiate level if I hadn't played for him and the Lady Tigers."

The goals came fast and frequent when Gross played for coach Tracey Repp at Andover. As a sophomore, Gross' 77 goals led the nation, and was a Kansas record. But that state record lasted just two years.

"Kortney had the knack of putting the ball in the net. It's an incredible art in soccer, to do it game in and game out, while being marked, and your teammates thinking, 'Just get the ball to Kortney,' " Lane said. "You can't help but compare players, and I look at different eras, and I hear this girl is special or that girl is special, but you don't know what special really is. I saw this kid up close and personal for 11 years. Once she scored the first couple of goals, she got that confidence. She was great."

Gross went on to score 11 goals and notch four assists while a Jayhawk. She briefly got into coaching soccer in Kansas City before turning her professional life to nursing.

"I miss soccer," Gross said with a laugh. "I guess I was not meant to be a coach."

But she was meant to be a goal scorer.

We are grateful to partner with WIN for KC, an organization with the mission to empower the lives of girls and women by advocating and promoting the lifetime value of sports through opportunities for participation and leadership development. WIN for KC and the KSHSAA believe involvement in activities and sports lay the ground work for supporting well-rounded citizens in our communities and beyond. For more on WIN for KC visit: https://www.sportkc.org/win-for-kc