1980 World XC Junior Team

Sappenfield and Fields came out of southern california. I don't remember for sure, but I think one was CIF southern section and the other was LA city section.

Again I'm not certain, but I think one may have run at CSUN.

Farron ran in the mid 28's at one point. Def a Socal boy. When he got his stress fracture, he cross trained with roller blades.

A quick Google revealed that Fields ran for UCLA after Granada Hills HS, and Sappenfield ran for Santa Barbara (?) and/or Stanford.

An Eric Sappenfield is on the Stanford all-time freshman 3000m SC list. One list shows it as 1971 and another list has it as 1871. I'm guessing that they were both typos and meant to be 1981.

http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/011503aaa.html

http://graphics.fansonly.com/schools/stan/sports/m-track/spec-rel/m-track-toptenfrosh.pdf

http://sbrunning.org/recordsMen.htm

I lived (and ran)in the SFV in Socal for years. I remember Farron Fields running some great races in the late 70's in high school then later in the 80's and maybe early 90's? in track and road races. As I recall I think he was known for being really injury prone(stess fractures?), and would suddenly appear out of nowhere running some great races then disappear again for big chunks of time. I do remember one race he ran, one year at the Lasse Viren 20k, out in Malibu, and him duking it out with the great Jon Sinclair the whole way. Can't remember if he beat Sinclair or not that day, but it was really close at the end.

RayP wrote:

I lived (and ran)in the SFV in Socal for years. I remember Farron Fields running some great races in the late 70's in high school then later in the 80's and maybe early 90's? in track and road races. As I recall I think he was known for being really injury prone(stess fractures?), and would suddenly appear out of nowhere running some great races then disappear again for big chunks of time. I do remember one race he ran, one year at the Lasse Viren 20k, out in Malibu, and him duking it out with the great Jon Sinclair the whole way. Can't remember if he beat Sinclair or not that day, but it was really close at the end.

I thought that race was a tie. Wasn't that the day they both went 58 and change before they figured out the course was a little short?

Bill Graham ran for Stanford. His 28:54 in '82 was a school record until the Lananna crew came along. In other claims to fame, in '89 he won the intramural xc race on the Stanford golf course. Second place went to an undergrad who is now the American record holder in the 50K (road). I was somewhat further back.

Hi All,

There were six members of the 1980 World Junior Team.

Tom Downs

Ed Eyestone

Dan Caprioglio

Bill Granham

Eric Sappenfield

Farron Fields

Ed Eyestone won bronze at the meet while the team won silver.

I know about Ed since he did go on to 2 Olympic teams (1988 and 1992) in the marathon. He went on to a long competitive career and is now BYU head track coach. Eric ran at Stanford but later quit to concentrate on his studies. Tom Downs went to Cal (I think). Farron was an excellent talent who just had problems staying healthy. Last, Dan Caprioglio qualified for Marathon trials in 1984 and 1988 (and ran in World University Games 1987). Cheers All.

Farron Fields placed 10th at the U.S. Nationals 10,000 in 1990 in Cerritos, CA. Ran around 28:45.

I had never heard of the guy but found out he was a national class HS runner from CA at one time.

I thought Tom Downs ran at Auburn with Chris Fox but I must have him mixed up with someone els.