Who is the best runnner ever from West Virginia?

It is about time someone gave Letendre a shout! Won state in the 400 and 5 years later ran like 2:37 for the marathon. Pretty good range. I think in college he ran 1:54 and 4:00 1500. Not the best ever, but worthy of a mention.

I don't know the answer to this one, but I bet he'd be good in a runner's biathelon.

David Westfall Garret

He is not a runner but he's a great Track & FIELD athlete:

World Record holder and 1996 Olympic Shot Put champ RANDY BARNES.

The Pittsburgh course was point-to-point and downhill.

RTC wrote:

[quote]wtf wrote:

When did Taylor run 27;59? I am pretty sure he never ran under 28 on the track.

[quote]

The 27:59 was in Pittsburgh. He also ran 47:01 for ten miles at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler and represented the US twice at the World Cup Marathon.

Carl Hatfield...legendary. I bet Frank Shorter would agree.

Tom

Time to go to sleep.....

Eric Cooper

Casey Batey

Beckett

YOu are crazy, the only one that deserves recognition is Batey

Give Sabtino a few years, and he will definitely be towards the top of this list.

dukerdog wrote:

I'm gonna bet Adkins was the only one of them to also play on their high school's football team. He also ran the fastest 3200 I believe.

Very, very good dukerdog. State champion in both. As legend has it, Adkins was starting DB on the State championship football team on Friday night, came back on Saturday morning to win the individual XC title. Thats what I call a tough double. 8:52 high school two miler. FastestRan at Penn State.

93 had a sick class - Cox, Robey, McClintic

...and the 95 Hedgesville 4x8 team was Mike Cushwa, The Johnson twins (Scott & Andy), and Matt Yost. 7:50 will stand for a while.

bhvndflbk wrote:

Steve Taylor. And he coaches Andrew Benford, who may one day be on that list, he came in 12th at teh Junior WOrld Mountain Running Championships.

this guy can predict pretty well. he said this in the fall of 2006, when benford was a freshman, and two days ago Benford ran 14:09.

Where is Hatfield on your list? Anyways, Fox, Taylor, and Hatfield so far, no one else come close but at least the state with a small population where moonshining and mining are more popular than runnning are improving in the distance running scene with Sabatino and others making U.S. teams.

Here's Jeff Atkins Friday/Saturday double from the fall of 1977:

On Friday, as a high school junior, he played DB on Woodrow Wilson's (Beckley, WV) football team that defeated Fairmont Senior 6-0 for the State Championship (all classes) title.

On Saturday he came back to win the individual crown in XC.

http://www.runwv.com/records/cross.html

I was wondering about some of the old runners from WV and ran across this old thread. Not much mention of WV anymore. Who is still running and doing well out there? I saw the name Jeff Robey mentioned. He was a soph when I was a senior. What a great runner he became. Can't believe he just fell off the face of the earth after a few years of college running. Anyone know what happened to him?

I recall hearing something about Matt Yost running at Virginia Tech I believe. Mike Cushwa became a helicopter pilot and flew in Iraq. Not sure what happened to the Johnson twins.

Well, you have to remember you're talking about West Virginia. Most of the "official" records are way faster than anyone from West Virginia can actually run. They tend to lose track of the laps because it is hard to find anyone at most meets who had math after 3rd grade. As a result,it is rare for the full distance to be run in anything longer than 800 meters. Most distance races are at least 1 lap short. I think, for instance, that the real record for boys for 3200/2mile is around 10:30.

Same guy?

Zippy 5K Results

April 18, 2010

36 Jeffrey Adkins 49 Granite Bay CA Golden West 16:33 5:19

Race photo 2702 at this link. He is more solidly built than the average distance runner.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daikoku/4531584091/in/set-72157623883636494/