Wichita State, class of 74.. wrote:
I watched about 13 state meets here at WSU. The year you won the 2 mile, weren't you battling the 880 champion, Tom Honer from WW? What the hell was he doing in the 2 mile. That is unheard of. I can't remember the details. How did you outkick a 1:54 1/2 miler; or did you gradually pull away so you had 15 yard space to cruise in? Like you said, 'a win is a win', time is 2ndary.
I think Tom Honer thought he could pick up a second gold medal in the 2 mile. After all he was the defending state chanpion in XC. But then again, I think he caught the perfect conditions in XC. Very muddy course, 5th race of the day, 15 guys closely bunched with 600m to go, it truned into a kickers race and Honer won. Jim Gifford was the toughest guy and problably would have won on a normal course.
Two mile track I thought we'd go out fast and we did not. Honer wanted a slow kickers pace I guess. I ran 4:47 through the mile, knew I had to make them start to hurt so I ran 73, 73, 70 and 70 second mile for a 9:33(4:47/4:46). Actually I problably ran 66 or 67 from 600m to 200m to get away from Honer and Jim Scott among others. I was not a kicker. They let me go and I took the race.