I watched Croghan win the Ohio boys CC state championship when he was a senior, and I remember thinking he didn't seem all that excited about it.
Considering his high school PRs were ONLY 4:12 and 9:20 on the track (decent of course, but these days tons of high school runners do better than that), it's amazing what he turned himself into.
When he ran 8:45 in 1989 I was pretty surprised. A year later he was down to 8:22 and placing second at the U.S. Championships to Diemer and the rest is history.
Close, he ran 8:25 in 1990 when he broke through at TAC nationals.
It was the next year at NCAA's that he ran 8:22 at NCAAs. He was a relentless front runner, and I remember thinking at the time that this guy was going to step big time in the steeple. Little did I know he was going to drop down to 8:10 within a month!
Marc Davis wrote:
I was a better runner because of guys like him in the sport. I still tell the story of when Croghan ran 3:39 one night, and made me realize I took for granted the times I sat on him.
MD
So, tell the story? Was that the same night you beat Skah in the two mile? Is there a video of that race? I'd love to see it. I agree with the other poster in this thread, beating Skah was a major accomplishment.
While Marsh was the extreme case, very few steepelchasers are high mileage runners. Why would they need to be, it's only a 3000m race, not a 30,000m race.
Ya know...Ran against him in high school as he was in the same conference and he didn't seem to be the most social but then he was far and away better then anyone else in NE Ohio whilist I was usually tossing a football around with my teammates waiting for a CC meet to start while he was actually stretching or striding or doing something important...If I remember correctly, he had a smoking-hot sister as well
Kennedy, Croghan, and Williams were all Olympians in their respective events, very inspirational to my generation of runners, and the lone bright spots in an era otherwise devoid of depth. I believe Kennedy and Croghan were both Olympic finalists. Amazing to think that Kennedy ran 12:58 back then (the amazing Said Aouita took forever to dip under the fabled 13:00 mark), and that time is still well respected some 15 years later, with a very few Americans running a tiny bit faster. Along with Lincoln's 8:08, Croghan's 8:09 still holds its merit against any of the current crop of contemporary steeplers.
We had a lot of guys who concentrated on road running in the 90's.
Wasn't Keith Brantly from the 90's? I may be blending together decades- Mark Curp half marathon national record holder for a while. There were others.
I ran in the same race as him in college at the All-Ohio cross country championships. I think it was 1989. I was "only" about three minutes behind him. I considered that pretty good.
Kennedy, Croghan, and Williams were all Olympians in their respective events, very inspirational to my generation of runners, and the lone bright spots in an era otherwise devoid of depth. I believe Kennedy and Croghan were both Olympic finalists. Amazing to think that Kennedy ran 12:58 back then (the amazing Said Aouita took forever to dip under the fabled 13:00 mark), and that time is still well respected some 15 years later, with a very few Americans running a tiny bit faster. Along with Lincoln's 8:08, Croghan's 8:09 still holds its merit against any of the current crop of contemporary steeplers.
We had a lot of guys who concentrated on road running in the 90's.
Wasn't Keith Brantly from the 90's? I may be blending together decades- Mark Curp half marathon national record holder for a while. There were others.
But Coogan was really good.
No social media to get their names out there.
Do you think everyone is misspelling Mark Coogan’s name as Croghan?
Also what’s up with the poster claiming to be Mark Croghan’s smoking hot sister?
My brother felt the same way about Robert. He did a great job training him...so good that he nearly beat Mark in the '96 olympic trials! What an exciting day that was! Was so proud of them both!