I was in that state 2mile as well, along with many other races, and I agree with the above poster in seeing those negative splits. We would all helplessly wait for him to make his move and when he did, he accelerated like we were standing still. He won the State meet 2 mile in '79 with a 8:47, which was almost 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place, on a very soft dirt track. Lane one was like a sand pit actually. (The following year Hughes stadium installed an all-weather track). It was also a very hot day, I’m guessing 80 degrees at the time we ran.
I got to know Jeff a little in 1978-79 and I remembered one thing that was odd. Most top runners know who the other top competition is and what their best times are. Jeff was oblivious to all of this. It just didn’t matter too much to him. He passion was Rock & Roll music and I believe he even played the guitar. Running seemed to be something fun for him to do, at the time, but not a real passion. Most don’t know this but one of Jeff’s teammates was Lin Whatcott, a 9:01 2-miler that year. (A good teammate for him to train with)
Another often talked about story was the time Jeff crushed the hilly Mt. Sac Invitational course record with a time of 14:32 for 3miles. (they have since altered the course and I have read that the new course is about 15-18 seconds faster). If Mt. Sac made adjustments for this in their record books, he would still hold this course record after 27 years, which isn’t surprising. What is even more impressive is that he won by nearly 30 seconds in a heavily weighted field. 2nd place was Paul Medvin in 14:58 (a 4:05 miler) and 3rd was Chuck Assuma in 15:02 (a 8:52 2 miler and past 2mile state champ) and 4th was Jeff Hess from So. Oregon in 15:15 (I believe he still holds the national HS 3000 steeple record in 9:08). Nelson looked like he was just cruising when he won this race! If pushed, who knows what he could have run.
Too bad he never ran a 5K on the track in a good field. If he had I think his record would still be standing.