justjabbin wrote:
Its not the same...Granville held all the national class 800m records for freshman through senior and ran every one of them in a HS race against HS kids. I personally witnessed his 1:46 at the 1996 Ca state meet. He ran it in the trials.
Although I would certainly think it fantastic if Greer broke the record it is not quite the same running against a non HS field. Granville had to basically do a time trial as second place in his 1:46 race was 1:53ish so he was away from the field after 100m and on his own after that.
I was lucky enough to see Granville's race at the CA State Meet as well.
As stated, Granville did it in the trials. While I had no one in the race I split my watch as Granville went thru 200m. I don't recall the exact split, but suffice to say that it was monstrously fast, particularly in light of it being a prelim.
I began to yell to anyone around me - on the backside, near the 200m start - that Granville was running fast, REALLY fast. He went through 400m equally impressively and, still, few people seemed to understand what was happening. By 600m it was clear that he wasn't about to let up - and he might get the record. It was about then that the race announcer and the crowd seemed to pick up on the fact that the National Record was in jeopardy.
Of course, he got the record, but the majority of the crowd had little idea that it was happening; given that I'm typically an idiot, it was sheer luck that I caught on early - but it's one of my great memories of track and field.
Interestingly, he narrowly won the final the next day in 1:50 point.
frankie out.