Victor Burns wrote:
I just read that this guy still holds the Illinois state record for Cross Country from 1972. Proven runners like Sage and Torres didn't even run that fast.
What's this name on the All-Time Illinois XC List?
13:57.7, Dave Walters, New Lenox (Lincoln-Way), 1973
Is this a mistake, really meaning to be Dave MERRICK of Lincoln-Way in 1970?
Or was there actually another remarkable distance runner at that same high school just 3 years after Merrick?
Merrick by the way may be the best Illinois HS runner ever , after Virgin. He ran 8:43 and 4:05 on over-sized indoor tracks in the winter of his senior year in 1971. I'm not sure what happenned to him in the outdoor season. I know he dealt with bad knees a lot.
Also, Merrick broke Gerry Lindgren's HS Record in the Indoor 3-mile, running 13:37!
If people think Virgin has been forgotten, then Merrick has been shipped to a remote location and buried!
And I wasn't even born until a week after he graduated from HS, and I grew up in CA.