Top All Time Kansas Distance guys

On the boys side Shawnee Mission Northwest is loaded with a great group of underclassmen and should win again. Emporia's boys are very good as well and if they were 6A and not 5A could give Northwest a run for its money.

As for individuals Bryce Volz from Campus appears to be head and shoulders better than anybody else in the state right now.

For the girls its Laura Roxberg of Blue Valley North and Heather Garcia of Baldwin are the best. Manhattan appears to have the best girls with BVNW.

Jayhawk wrote:

On the boys side Shawnee Mission Northwest is loaded with a great group of underclassmen and should win again. Emporia's boys are very good as well and if they were 6A and not 5A could give Northwest a run for its money.

As for individuals Bryce Volz from Campus appears to be head and shoulders better than anybody else in the state right now.

For the girls its Laura Roxberg of Blue Valley North and Heather Garcia of Baldwin are the best. Manhattan appears to have the best girls with BVNW.

Good luck to everyone running at State this weekend. Great, great thread and hopefully the young crop coming up will eventually add to list and memories on this thread.

david keller--i think hutchinson but not sure

dave warders -- was hesston

lonnie gee-- pratt skyline rather than pratt hs

kirk hunter-- hoyt royal valley

roger jennings-- phillipsburg

terry ziegler-- i think either grainfield or grinnell

don't forget the Orozco brothers, little Pete and big bro Joe out of Phillpsburg. Both top runners in the early to mid 70s.

Small World....My parents both went to Marymount, and I think I had some uncles run there in the late 70's or early 80's.

Bryce Volz goes to Bishop Carroll to an above poster.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents to the Kansas thread... I think that Billy Mills should be considered a Kansas guy, this is where he went to high school, Haskell was a high school when Billy went to school there, wasn't a Juco until 1971....I also have a Timmons story to add to the thread...I ran for Haskell and ran the hills around KU nearly every day, dreaming of following in Billy Mills footsteps and running for KU, looking in my mail box everyday for even a letter of interest from KU, just cobwebs...I signed with the 1st Big 8 school that offered my anything(OSU gave me a full ride) and signed that letter with every intention of extracting revenge on KU.... Indoors I popped off a 4:05 at Arkansas and we went to KU indoor meet the following week and i ran into Timmons and he asked me if I had ever considered running for KU when I was at Haskell, I asked him if he wanted my real answer or did he want the nice version, he told me to tell him honestly and I told him the revenge story and how he could have got me for next to nothin', he asked me if I still felt that way and I just smiled and said no, because none of his guys at the time could touch me.... He said they were interested in me but that Indian runners were risky academically and athletically and they didn't know what kind of student I was....Well hind sight being 20/20 I believe things worked out how they were supposed to...

this seems to be a decades old problem with KU. Local midwest kids who did not have the blue-chipper times of their top, out of state recruits, who never even got a call from KU, who end up either beating them or running faster.

Michael Cox 3:59 mile

JohnnyLaw wrote:

Michael Cox 3:59 mile

not a Kansan

Earlier in the thread the Juco scene in Kansas was mentioned and my alma mater(Haskell) is now so far off the radar where running is concerned I am not sure it can ever be found... Since the Tuckwin and Daney era that ended in the mid 80's, that program fell off the face of the earth. Daney created another powerhouse Juco program in Albuquerque NM, at another all Indian Juco (SIPI). On another side note I still have memories of Kansas City road races and getting my ass kicked by Charlie Gray at numerous distances!!! One of the first road races i ever ran was in KC and I remember one of my teammates (Nelson Begay) giving Mark Curp a lil scare in a 10K ( I am sure it was just a time trial, or hard run for Curp at the time??!!??) Nelson went on to run for Central Oklahoma and finished 7th at xc nationals...

I ran with a Jim Door at WSU in the mid 70s. I think he went to Haskell first. A tall guy with glasses.

I'd forgotten that Mills had gone to Haskell when it was a high school. If I recall correctly he was a state champion in the mile. Haskell was very strong in the 70's and 80's. Michael Daney was a great guy. I believe he went to high school in Wichita if I'm not mistaken. Back in the 70's Haskell had some decent athletics across the board. I remember a big guy, Kim Pemberton I think was his name. He played both football and basketball and was pretty talented.

yep coach Daney was a Wichita product... Yes Ken Pemberton was a great Athlete, he went on to have a fairly successful pro basketball career in Europe. I can't remember if Billy Mills was a State Champion in track, but my money would be on the 2 mile as opposed to the mile, I believe he ran a 9:08 duece in high school....Mike daney is still coaching and helped resurrect Brandon Leslies career on numerous occasions, and is coaching Alvina Begay, both oly trials qualified....

Kansas didn't start running a two mile at state until the 1960's.

I remember when Haskell played KU's freshman team, it must have been 1973 or so. Pemberton was playing and he tore them up. Haskell came very, very close to winning that game and that was the last time KU scheduled them.

[quote]old ndn runna wrote:

I can't remember if Billy Mills was a State Champion in track, but my money would be on the 2 mile as opposed to the mile, I believe he ran a 9:08 duece in high school

There was no Kansas high school 2 mile race in those days. The mile was the farthest distance until the mid 60s. I don't remember Mills having times like that in high school.

on the track, correct. but they did run the '2 mile' at the State X-Country championships.

Bryan McElroy was a standout high school runner from New York. I think he won the high school mile at the Penn Relays. He went to Villanova for awhile but transferred to KU. Anyone know why? And is he the only runner to be coached by Jumbo Elliot and Bob Timmons?

you got it reversed. He went from KU to Villanova; and ran in the Dream Mile with Ryun and Liquori. He was interviewed the week of the race, since he had run at both schools. When asked to make a prediction on the race, he said that 'HE' was going to win it! Why he left KU? Don't know.

Just going off memory, and seeing something in an old trophy case, but the time I remember seeing for Billy was 9:08, could have been for cross country, or an out of state track meet??!!??? I 'll check with Daney or Tuckwin...