Glory days, well they’ll pass you by

When I graduated from high school in 1985, the best runner in my state of Ohio and the country was Scott Fry of Sandusky Perkins.

No one was even close. He won the Kinney CC meet (now Footlocker) by 17 seconds.

Flagpole wrote:

When I graduated from high school in 1985, the best runner in my state of Ohio and the country was Scott Fry of Sandusky Perkins.

No one was even close. He won the Kinney CC meet (now Footlocker) by 17 seconds.

Thank you for responding! Scott was an OH legend for sure. I think he went on to greater things as a runner in college than Draddy. Stahr was probably better than both, but more of a 800/1500 guy.

Wise Old Man wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

When I graduated from high school in 1985, the best runner in my state of Ohio and the country was Scott Fry of Sandusky Perkins.

No one was even close. He won the Kinney CC meet (now Footlocker) by 17 seconds.

Thank you for responding! Scott was an OH legend for sure. I think he went on to greater things as a runner in college than Draddy. Stahr was probably better than both, but more of a 800/1500 guy.

Fry had PBs of 13:38 and 28:33 vs Stahr who was a 1:46/3:37 runner.

Close call….but probably Stahr….

A few guys I ran with. Don't think I ever beat any of these guys. One of them I came close to beating in a high school xc races.

GK - great xc runner in high school, provincial champ, 3:47 for 1500/13:4x 5000m

AR - multiple time provincial champion in high school. did some training runs with him where I wouldn't be able to keep up during the second half. Ran for Canada at world junior xc. 3;51 1500M/4:09 mile in HS. Ran 14:15 in college for 5k.

NF - great HS runner, multiple time prov. champ. 49/1:50. age 18. But never got better.

RF- brother of NF also 1:50 at age 19 1 year out of HS. that was his best.

TM- Gave him a run in one HS 5k xc race but still finished 2nd. 3rd to him at provincial champs in 5k xc, 10 seconds behind. 14:20 5k, 8:4x steeple, NCAA finalist in steeple, 3:45 1500m

All of these guys I remember from high school.

Wow, lots of depth for hs. Strong group if all running in the same time and place.

We had Ian Clarke (8:04 indoor 3000 at 18), Dave Reid ( 3:37), freakin' Doug Consiglio (3:35 indoors), Marc Oleson (3:58 mile in HS), John Castellano (13:37 but also ran 13:52 in HS) and Greg Andersen (8:00.2 in HS). All these guys were active from about '78 - -87 though only Reid had a bit of a career as none of the others got much better or better at all in their 20's.

And that was in Ontario, Canada by the way.

crackle & drag wrote:

And that was in Ontario, Canada by the way.

Given this level of talent early you would have thought more of them would have made a bigger long-term impact, but in the end, it’s a long hard grind.

The three I referenced all were successful junior/college runners, but only Stahr flirted with sustained national level competitiveness.

Best distance/middle distance guy on our team in 1954 was nationally ranked Leroy Neal. He and his bro transferred in to Fullerton U.H.S as juniors I think to be with our coach, a young up and coming hotshot (Bush). Leroy already had a 4:12 mi and would go on to score big in the half and the mile. I was undistinguished to put it mildly.