One hundred years, one race
Rudy Chapa’s 10,000 record Indiana’s
outstanding performance of all time!
by Jim Brandyberry
At the end of the first 100 years of Indiana high school boys track and field, it is compelling to look back across a century of competition. Searching for the outstanding individual performance of those ten decades, one mark stands out from among the rest: The national high school 10,000 meter record of 28:32.7 by Hammond’s Rudy Chapa.
The scene was a moist but favorably cool April 24, 1976, at the Drake Relays, surrounded by college and post-collegiate runners. “Going into it, I knew it was my last shot of reaching the automatic qualifying time [28:40] for the Olympic trials. My strategy was to stay with the leaders as long as I could,” Rudy recalled in a 2002 inter-view. “I remember just feeling wonderful, under control, comfortable. Everything was perfect.”
Perfect was the result! The splits indicate something of the magnitude of his effort: 9:07 for the first two miles, three miles in 13:41 and four miles in 18:16. He established a national high school record for six miles at 27:36 en route! Those splits beg to be further analyzed: Three consecutive two mile runs in 9:07, 9:09 and 9:20 with a sprint afterwards. No rest in between! Or, look at it this way: Two 14:16 5000 meter races back to back. “That’s sick!” his teenage distance prodigy son Joaquin exclaimed recently in admiration.
Even more, it was a world junior record (for athletes under age 20 in a given year of competition) and remained so until 1991. Needless to say, it still stands as a national high school standard, breaking the former record by over 21 seconds.
Though possessing considerable natural ability, Chapa also put in the miles. “It is hard to overestimate the amount of work we did,” he reflected on his days at Hammond High School. “100 to 130 miles and more per week was common.” No wonder two other teammates also broke 9:00 for two miles with him his junior year!
When he went to the storied University of Oregon distance running program, his mileage dropped by over 50%! With such employers as Nike since college, Rudy spent years around world class distance runners. Yet, he could compare, “Only three or four people that I’ve met trained harder than we did.”
Chapa was not done, though. He went on to become an NCAA champion in the 5000 meters and broke the legendary Steve Prefontaine’s American record at 3000 meters.
Now with his own investment business in Portland, Oregon, Rudy Chapa was, over the last century of Hoosier high school track and field, Indiana’s Best.