Jeff Adkins - 8:52
Chris Fox - 8:56
Steve Taylor - 8:59
They certainly would have run under 9:15 at the West Virginia state meet if it had been necessary to win.
Yet they did not break those times. Not questioning that they were not indeed good. They were. We are talking about performances that were run 25 years ago.
Not good at all, indeed.
Try Oklahoma. Our state record is 9:22 from like 1980 something. I've never heard of any good runners from rhode island either but maybe i'm wrong, i don't really know.
I second the motion on Oklahoma!
There aren't even any good times for road races.
If you can run 16:30 move to Oklahoma, you'll become a legend!
Yeah, none of the nest Providence College people have been from Rhode Island. So ....thus far, we got no one from Vermont or Rhode Island.
Hawaii produced Victoria Chang, who won the Footlocker national championship a few years back (though she did little afterwards). Todd Iacovelli is at Michigan right now doing well.
In the past Henry Marsh came out of Hawaii & did well & the state HS 800m record is 1:51.
Of course, who really cares? It's nice here all year & if the runners here are not fast enough for anyone's taste, we can go to the beach instead.
RI had Bobby Doyle and Les Pawson. Pawson won Boston and Doyle placed pretty high as well.
Judi St. Hilaire is from Vermont
EER's wrote:
Jeff Adkins - 8:52
Chris Fox - 8:56
Steve Taylor - 8:59
They certainly would have run under 9:15 at the West Virginia state meet if it had been necessary to win.
Yet they did not break those times. Not questioning that they were not indeed good. They were. We are talking about performances that were run 25 years ago.
Not good at all, indeed.
FOX graduated in 1977 I believe and went on to run 13:21.60/27:53 (I think)/ and 2:12 (I think).
Not too many in AMerican history were that fast at all three. Many might have been "able" to do it ... but Chris Fox did it.
Here is a blurb off the Auburn website that I decided to hunt up (I wasn't too far off):
A 1983 graduate of Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and member of the Auburn track and field team from 1979-1982, Fox was a six-time All-American. Two of his All-American honors were in cross country. He also received two in indoor track and two in outdoor track.
In 1982, Fox set the school record in the 5000m indoors (13:44.73) and outdoors (13:34.14) and still holds the title to date. He also ranks among the top five, to date, in the mile and 3000m (indoors) and 10,000m (outdoors).
In his post-collegiate career, Fox went on to run the mile in 3:59.10, the 5000m in 13:21, the 10,000m in 27:53 and the marathon in 2:13.40. All these times rank among the top in American performance history.
John Daly (Rutland, VT), ran for Missouri, ran 4:07 mile (or its 1500m equivalent) back in the day. Lawton Redman was a standout xc runner in high school but ended up focusing on cross country skiing at St. Lawrence (though he still ran well there) and later made the last winter Olympics in the biathalon. For girls, there was a girl, home-schooled from Putney, whose name escapes me that won US junior nationals in 2:06 (mid 90s). Tara Chaplin won NCAA D1 cross country running for Arizona. In high school she was eclipsed by Erin something (Donahue?) who beat her at Foot Locker, yes two VTers went 1-2 at FootLocker in the mid90s. She later ran for Stanford. Anyway, this was a bit stream of consciousness but it's not bad for a state of a half-million people whose distance athletes usually focus on skiing.
Les wrote:
qwerty wrote:so does alaska
Don Clary. US ranked in the steeplechase.
Additionally Don made the '84 Olympic team in the 5000m.
Ill probably get cruelly mocked for this, but Bruce Hyde is a Vermont native who seems to have made out pretty well for himself. Rhode Island doesnt seem to turn out too many, but they did have a footlocker finalist a couple years back, or maybe he came real close, David Murphy? He runs for William and Mary now I think. Anyways, Connecicut is probably the most successful of the New England States.
osteoperosis wrote:
Alaska, their eskimo furs weigh too much to go fast
Yes, but they do get a conversion for that.
EER's wrote:
Yet they did not break those times. Not questioning that they were not indeed good. They were. We are talking about performances that were run 25 years ago.
Not good at all, indeed.
So what's your point?
Although first among the states in ratifying the constitution Deleware is last when it comes to producing good runners.
It's official...Nebraska sucks.
For a somewhat heavy populated area, I would say New Jersey road racing is a little weak. The Midland 15K in May is a fairly tough course, but still no one broke 5:20 for 9.3 miles.
Louisiana. End of story.
I believe for the girls 3200, there has been one under 11. Ever.
Now...what I would like to know is why. Why do certain states suck while others are machines?
Bobby Doyle was 7th in boston in 1979 and 5th in 83 i think. PB of 2:14...not too shabby.
I am not from North Dakota - just lived in Bismarck a few years in my late 20's. I was astounded at just how good runners were from North Dakota compared to the tiny population. I also left out Janelle Olson, who I would run with on occasion when she was in town - I believe she was a DII indoor champion in the 5k.
I don't know what happened to the girls that were so good aside from Hoge and Splichal. Whatever happened to Stacy Honeyman, Jessi Kinschi (sp?), and that frightfully lean Carly Emil? Weren't there two sisters from Jamestown who were quite good as well. Also a Mormon girl who sent to South Dakota whose name escapes me.
Sorry to reply to myself, but North Dakota, at the high school level, is way better than, say, South Carolina. this is shameful for a state as big as South Carolina is compared to North Dakota. Check out the class A boys mile in 2004 in tiny North Dakota - 8 guys under 4:30 (a few more in Class B). South Carolina, I think, is the worst HS running state for its size. In 2004, ND had two 8th grade girls run sub 5:00 and one ran 10:36 for 2 miles! North Dakota would kill South Carolina in a Cross meet.