douglas burke wrote:
1975-6 wrote:
Joan Benoit went on to some real success…I sat behind her in geometry class. Then there was this guy named Bruce Bickford, who made a couple of teams as well…
I believe Bickford is the last American to be ranked #1 in the World at 10000 Meters by Track and Field News
No , that would be Rupp in 2014.
not very old sac joaquin guy wrote:
Blake Haney was a year ahead of me and Austin Tamagno was a year behind. Haney had a fairly successful career at Oregon and I’m pretty sure Tamagno still hasn’t broken 4 in the mile despite a 4:01 his senior year of high school, maybe an equivalent 1500 at some point but it was like a 3:41-3:42, not exactly what he or anyone who followed his career was anticipating. I always thought he should have pursued the 3200 and XC his senior year instead of going after the 800, considering he ran 8:56 in the 3200 as a sophomore as well as a 15:03 at Woodward park that year. I think what happened is he felt that he couldn’t compete with Drew Hunter at longer distances so he dropped to the 800 but in reality he was never going to compete with Hunter at any distance ever.
Same era and would agree that those are the two most memorable names. I think Haney especially was noteworthy -- it's been a while, but I believe he was considered the top miler in the country in the (admittedly brief) span between LV's graduation and Grant Fisher's junior year season
I'd also throw in Would add Nikki Hiltz and Anna Maxwell on the girls side. Hiltz obviously is a pro now, one of the top US women's 1500 runners. No idea what happened to Maxwell.
Maxwell ended up getting some stress fractures later in her College career. Coaches raced her when she shouldn't have. Back into running again. An outdoor enthusiast and working at a Law Firm in Seattle.
Chicago area in the late 90s and Jesse Barnes, Mark Pilja, the Torres brothers, and Donald Sage were the fast guys. Jorge Torres probably had the best career, though the other guys did pretty well, too.
Robin Shipman
Ran at Alabama for awhile
fast times in the old dominion wrote:
For me it was Alan Webb, Kip Keino's son (I think his name was Kippy or something), Steve Walters, and Katie Doswell. We all know what Webb did. Keino ran a year or two in college then quit. Walters ran 4 years in college - he had cancer in high school which limited his career. Doswell ran for Duke and may have had a brief post collegiate career.
We must have graduated the same year (‘04). I went to college with two teammates of Webb’s, one teammate of Keino’s, and two teammates of Doswell’s.
No clue what Soren Knudsen is up to but hopefully staying out of trouble
keepgoing wrote:
Chicago area in the late 90s and Jesse Barnes, Mark Pilja, the Torres brothers, and Donald Sage were the fast guys. Jorge Torres probably had the best career, though the other guys did pretty well, too.
Forgot to add Marius Bakken. He graduated from York the year I just got started running.
wastaterunner2005 wrote:
For me it was:
Men:
1. Carl Moe - guy was an absolute stud. EVERYONE was talking about him at every meet. Nearly ran a sub 4 mile (4:03 or something). I remember every girl crushing hard on him and wanting to get his autograph (and being secretly jealous of him). Think we went on the UW and ran OK (not much faster than high school), but had a respectable spot on a strong team at UW contributing at meets.
2. Jordan McNamara - Lot of hype around him in high school (I believe he was teammates with Carl, can't remember exactly). Went on to run very well at Oregon and professionally (3:52 mile PR, oly trails finalist etc). Then moved to LA and became a porn star. Legend.
3. Taylor Mays - Guy was a sprinting god (won 100m and 200m state titles as a soph), Even more impressive was he was HUGE (like DK Metcalf). Just shocking to watch in person. Everyone knew was going places. Ended up focusing solely on football, was a super star at USC under Pete Carroll, and was even at one point the consensus number 1 pick (should have went for the draft instead of returning for his senior year). Ended up slipping to 2nd round despite a freakish combine. Is considered sort of a bust in the NFL, but I think playing and starting games for 5 years like he did is VERY respectable in the most competitive sports league on earth.
Girls:
1. Brie Felnagle - Can't put into words how popular and well known she was. She was truly born at the wrong time (she would have had 2mm tik tok followers if she was running in high school today). Couldn't log onto this site circa 2005 without some thread popping up about how hot she was, is she 18, and who her boyfriend was. Literally 50 page threads on Dyestat devoted to her. Super impressive runner too. Went on to win a D1 1500m championship, run at the trials nearly making an oly team etc. Backed up the fame with great running.
2. Becca noble - Of all the runners/sprinters I listed above, she was the one that special "IT" factor. I still remember her splitting a 51 second anchor leg at the state meet going from last to first. People went absolutely crazy. Honestly was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in any sport. Think she got seriously hurt in college, otherwise she was basically a shoo in for an olympic medal. Best high school running talent I've ever seen in person.
For my 4 years of hs
Freshman year
Taylor Lord ran 14:43 at the Clinton farms xc course lol
Amanda Winslow - nxn top 20 4:44/10:20 talent. Had a great indoor mile duel with Emma coburn in college for 2nd place and almost won that outdoor 1500 the same year if everyone didn't sit on her till last lap. Ran in the 1500 trials this past Olympic cycle
Sophomore year
Kirubel erassa - won 2/3 indoor national titles and lost a crazy 3200 duel against Anyan. Still runs professionally won some team xc titles with Oklahoma state. I believe more than anyone that he was going to beat lawi lalang in the indoor 3k but Eric Jenkins tripped him and we will never know. But currently probably a 13:0x guy and top 10k guy in us if cards are played right imo
Tyler Anyan - 8:52 I think he also may have beaten verbicas in one of his failed record attempts. Went to Georgetown
Ty Mccormack - I personally thought he was on par erassa and Anyan this year but he never raced them being in 3a.
Nicky Akande - 4:55 1600 I believe. Went to Villanova
Shaquille Walker - adding him because he went crazy at BYU
Junior year
Josh Brickell multiple time footlocker guy. All American. Ran at furman
Grace Tinkey - also multiple time footlocker all American. Ran at furman I think then Adams state. I believe they won a team title
O'Neal wanliss - broke overall state record in smallest classification 1a. ran 1:49 against Cameron Thornton (also ran 1:49)
Senior year
Bailey Roth - crazy talent as a sophomore that year. 15:16 at footlocker south for top 15. State champ over stellar competition opening race in 4:40. Which is tough at Carrollton.
Josh Brickell - same thing I said above. He also beat Roth a couple times
GRACE Tinkey same ^
Tyreek Hill - nfl now obviously. Ran somewhere in the low 20s for 200m and won dream 100 that year.
I feel like I'm forgetting some other sprint talents but good times.
Jeff Cullinane (MA)
Sandi Cullinane(MA)
Dennis Cullinane (MA)
John Gregorek (NY)
Mike Stahr (NY)
John Trautman (NY)
In Connecticut in my senior year in 1968, the top miler and two miler, each by a considerable amount, were Scott Carter and Jim Hall (he was from Bill Rodgers' hometown, Newington). Their times seemed good 53 years ago but wouldn't impress anyone now, and they didn't do anything great after that. But my own sophomore teammate, Steve Wheeler, went on to Duke where he became the first sub-4:00 miler ever from Connecticut. The best athletes at the state championship were a hurdler named Kelly Myricks and some field events guy named Jenner.
I do recall Mark Sullivan, we called him carrot-top with that bright red hair. Really strong runner.
IL HS Class of 2012. They graduated just before I started HS, but Evan Jager and Chris Derrick come to mind. I also overlapped with Lukas Verzbicas (until he graduated early). Bit of a mixed bag for career outcomes with these three - one undisputed stud (Jager), an impressive but slightly underwhelming pro (Derrick), and then Verzbicas, whose unrealized potential is still mysterious and disappointing. I know he had a bad biking accident training for tri, but it seemed he made a huge comeback before just sort of disappearing.
A couple names most probably won't remember but Mark Johnson and Randy Jackson, both ran All-American for Wisco. Jackson won NCAA steeple and was 5th or 6th at OTs that year. Didn't do much as pro (but that was before there were a lot of opportunities or training groups). Ed Delashmutt won the HS mile triple crown but was injured a lot in college, ran 3:43-45 for 1500/~4:00 or 4:01 for the mile.
Phil Coppess was a good but not great HS runner, went on to do some great marathons during the mid-80s era.
Roger Craig was a couple years younger and did some things with Nebraska football and SF 49ers. He also had an older brother Curtis who was a really good hurdler.
switch that Curtis Craig (also a starting running back for Nebraska) was more of the sprinter, younger brother Roger was the hurdler in high school.
Brittany Sheffey, Aislinn Ryan, Heather Iatauro, Nicole Blood, Lindsay Ferguson, Hannah Davidson, Laura Cummings, Ellen Dougherty, the McCurdy sisters, and Allie Kieffer come to mind. Allie Kieffer went by far the furthest of these names in adulthood
We didn’t have the Internet back then, so I don’t even know who they were let alone what they did. I know one distance runner went to ASU and was okay but not great. A Jav thrower went to WSU and was similarly okay. No idea if either didn’t anything beyond that.
Someone with more motivation than me should run a gofundme to find and digitize old track and XC meet results and make them freely available on Milesplit and athletic.net.
Mark Winzenried, Pat Matsdorf, Tim Heikkola, Stan Druckery
Eric Eckstrand Sallies
Dan Wilson… had a decent pro stint
Chris Longo
Steve Mahieu
Julien Calendar
Grorge Williams (moved at some point)
and some jumper who triple jumped 50ft and high jumped 7ft
Longo ran well for Iona I think but other than Wilson I’m not sure any competed after college and just dan and Chris in college. Mahieu was talented enough man. Kid knew how to win.
These were dark days 1990s when sub 1:55, 4:20 and 9:30 were the best in the state. I ran 1:59 and 4:30 and wasn’t thought of as bad. Made state open, which is crazy.