Top All Time Kansas Distance guys

vav wrote:

Last random thought...I too was surprised to see WycoLoco

was relatively young...he's knows his history so well...

Thanks, I've managed to snag a few compliments on here, yet since I'm not a teacher I've had little luck in finding a coaching gig in Wichita. I guess off-season coaching is the way to go.

Got his ass handed to him? He got beat by an international in the 2 mile, thats it last year. And he's obviously not the best miler so a 4:17 is pretty good especially since it was after his 9:08. But yeah talk crap about a guy who is dominating Kansas. And the whole thing about only two championships in 6a is stupid. I might take one or two off but four. Just be a hater cause you weren't as good as him.

Yo, Rod! always wondered who Zat0pek was. Hope you're well. Yes, I'm still out here, trying to hack my way through the local Philadelphia racing scene. I'm always in and out of shape, racing on 25 miles a week, but having fun chasing past results from a mediocre/under-achieving career!!! By the way, I was with TD at the Penn Relays when he got Nenow's signature for your showcase. Have you been able to keep that up?

Does anyone recall watching or racing against Alton Davis? He was a talented runner out of Missouri who ran for Wichita State in the 70's. My understanding is that he developed a serious foot injury that ended his competitive running.

He is also a very good coach.

Terry Couch ran the summer team Marcus and I were on (from my original post). I don't think at the time he had a head coaching job anywhere...now he's the coach at Wichita West. You have to start somewhere...best of luck finding something.

friday night lights wrote:

Got his ass handed to him? He got beat by an international in the 2 mile, thats it last year. And he's obviously not the best miler so a 4:17 is pretty good especially since it was after his 9:08. But yeah talk crap about a guy who is dominating Kansas. And the whole thing about only two championships in 6a is stupid. I might take one or two off but four. Just be a hater cause you weren't as good as him.

I'm sure I'll be scolded for this, but he has a pretty good point.

Rim Rock 2006 - 3rd to a couple Mo runners.

Chili Pepper 2006 - lost to both the Potosi guys & just ahead of their 3rd runner.

Footlocker MW 2005 - 16:04 5k (65th place)

Footlocker MW 2006 - 16:33 5k (131st Place)

Golden West 2006 - 9:28 2-mile (9th place)

His Soph year he would not have beat Weems in XC nor Umberger in the 3200 on the track. Last year he still wouldn't have beat Weems in XC. Imgrund probably would've beat him in at least the 1600, probably the 3200 as well, because he had better tactical gears. It's a shame Tucker Weems was never healthy in track, he was much better than Imgrund when healthy & Imgrund ended up with 4:18 & 9:16.

Wyco Loco wrote:

since I'm not a teacher I've had little luck in finding a coaching gig in Wichita. I guess off-season coaching is the way to go.

many schools are lacking X-C and distance coaches and force somebody into those jobs. Many schools WILL let outside volunteers fill those spots. Try to network or know people in school districts.

The opposite also happens. Some of my former teammates who are teachers end up coaching the freshmen, linemen in football, for cryin out loud, while the 300 lb drivers ed teacher was coaching X-C...go figure.

Vista Burger wrote:

Does anyone recall watching or racing against Alton Davis? He was a talented runner out of Missouri who ran for Wichita State in the 70's. My understanding is that he developed a serious foot injury that ended his competitive running.

He is also a very good coach.

Yes, I remember him. He was a year or 2 younger than me, but we ran against WSU alot in duals, invitationals, etc., when I was at Pittsburg State. He was a fine runner. He, Bob Christensen and Steve Shaad were a good bunch of X-C guys that made up solid Wichita State teams in tne mid 70's.

Thanks jscott for the reply. It would have been nice to see those guys race in their prime

You got to give praise to Herm Wilson at WSU for coaching some great athletes over the years. He also did a great job of bring world class athletes to Kansas with the USTAFF and later USA/TFA meets at Cessna Stadium.

I recall watching Craig Virgin ran a fast 5000m race along with Carl Lewis jumping and Evelyn Ashford sprinting at WSU. Also you had the NCAA XC Championships at Echo Hills thanks to the hard work of Coach Wilson.

I imagine seeing these world class athletes in person helped inspire plenty of young people to go out for track & XC.

We used to call him "Herm the Worm", in a friendly way, back then. He along with Suenram at PSU, Francis at FHS, Hunsaker at SMS and Busby at CMS, built alot of top talent from 2nd tier guys such as myself, who didn't get many (if any) scholarship offers. It was a great era of 4:30 milers who turned into sub 4:10 guys and 9:40 2 milers who turned into top X-C guys and solid 5k guys, many better and/or competitive with the big State schools. I had many teammates like that, as did CMS, SMS, Hays, etc. that come to mind. (not to mention schools like Adams State). Herm, however got more top shelf talent than the others, being a D1 school.

At CMS, we had some good ones back then, esp. post college: Mark Curp, Ron Tabb on the national scene, and Charlie Gray, a top regional level guy and now a national level masters runner.

Was Mike Vanatta a Kansas product? Again, he trained a bit a KSU (also '84 oly trials), while wife Chris was there...which brings me to a few female standouts:

Chris Vanatta NCAA XC 6thpl

I recall a "Vanatta" running at SEMS back in the 70s that was very good, right? (the guys in the red and black colors).

Good to read about all the history here. Hate to see anyone bash a kid that has ran 9:08 (hope he only gets faster). I remember a lot of these names from the past. As on "old tiger" at FHSU Francis talked about many of these competitors. Just finished the Kenny Moore book "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon". Reminded me so much of Francis and the others mentioned in your post. We heard so many times about Johnnie Mason and his 32 times under 4:00, his NAIA championship teams and the great dual meets between PSU, Emporia, Kearney, and Adams State. Good history and memories.

You guys were tough, especially in cross country.

Guys like Birnbaum, Lawrenz, Bell, Nelson, Tichenor, Lawry, etc...are the guys I remember from the 1st 1/2 of the 70s. We weren't real great then.

We (pittsburg state), had some really good X-C guys in the 70s's; Mike Nixon-nat. champ; Mark Rabuse and Bob Mcleod-2nd and 3rd at Nat., Dave Conover, top 10, among others. (not me, however, too far, couldn't hang! lol)

My HS coach considered Coach Alex Francis a major influence and spoke of him the way many today talk about Joe Vigil at Adams State. And all the NAIA All-Americans he coached back him up.

On another topic, do you feel the Kansas greats get slighted nationally compared to others. If seems young people today worship Steve Prefontaine while not being aware of the more accomplished track great Jim Ryun.

I recall seeing a KU Relays ('79 or '80) in which Glenn Cunningham, Wes Santee and Jim Ryun took a lap around the track in their classic KU uniforms with the pink shorts. That sums up much of American's international success in the 1500/mile event.

Like many things in life, I believe timing is maybe the biggest reason Ryun didn't get the legacy as Pre did. The running boom seemed to start after the 72 olympics. The Bowerman book told a good history of the beginning along with his influence and Lydiards.

I was one of the last recruits of Francis. I can remember him telling us that he and Vigil use to have a dual meet in Syracuse, Ks. It was about half way between Alamosa and Hays. Dual meets seemed to be more important than championships to those guys. We heard many stories of the late 60's and early 70's. Rabuse and Mcleod from PSU, some of the Emporia all-americans and many naia rivalries.

I remember the greats jogging around the track at KU Relays. Lots of history in Kansas distance even on the world stage. Very few people know who Johnnie Mason is, but Alex made sure we knew who he was. Another Kansas great that ran at Oregon was Archie San Ramoni.

I noticed in the Kansas high school 2 mile list 79 was a good year. The state champions that year were 1a Tim Gundy, 2a Bob Luder, 3a JP Worcester, 4a Mike Rogers, 5a Steve Delano, and 6a Brent Steiner/Steve Smith. I believe 6 out of these 7 were on the list. Sure would have been nice to have an all class meet.

Is Alex Francis any relation to Tim Francis? Also, did any of you guys know Mark Bussen?

Wyco Loco wrote:

Is Alex Francis any relation to Tim Francis? Also, did any of you guys know Mark Bussen?

I would doubt it, unless it was his grandson. Alex was in his 70s, back in the 70s.