John Gregorek's amazing college career

As a Soph, made the ill fated 80 Olympic team.

A couple of NCAA seconds:

1981

3K SC

1. Solomon Chebor Fair. Dickinson 8:23.34

2. John Gregorek Georgetown 8:24.66

1982

1500

1. Jim Spivey Indiana 3:45.42

2. John Gregorek Georgetown 3:46.40

Any idea what he is doing nowadays? Is he still working in the shoe industry as a rep for Asics??

He left Brown once Craig Lake took over and was been mentioned for a few jobs, but never seemed to have left Seekonk, MA...his son, John, is currently running for Columbia...one would think he would be pretty solid college coach, along the lines of a Steve Spence and Bruce Bickford...

Gregorek was a huge young talent. He narrowly missed the Olympic team in the steeple in 1984 and I don't think he ever focused on that event after. In the 5000 he ran times under 13:20 which at that time put you right at the top of the mix nationally and his 3:51 mile definitely worried his competitors.

I recall in 1987 he fell in a slow race at the TAC Nationals 5000 right when Sydney Maree started his last 1200 of 2:58 when the pace was 4:35. He would have right there with Maree, Padilla, and Brahm and probably would have made that World team. I can remember the smack that sound made when he hit the track in San Jose.

In 1988 I think the heat got to him an he gave up the last mile in the Olympic Trials.

In 1992 he still had his wheels and closed ahead of Kennedy and lost to Trautmann but didn't hit the Olympic Standard so Reina took his spot on the team.

By this time he was working full-time and squeezing his training in and working around that.

I didn't know he ran so many fast steeples. I wonder why he gave that up? I doubt anyone other than Marsh or Croghan ran that many low 8:20 steeples as a collegiate.

He was still repping for Asics last fall.

How is John Gregorek Jr doing at Columbia? His Columbia University bio has no info on it at all.

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=205078819

An article from 2009...

http://www.milesplit.com/articles/28311

I messed that up, he made that 84 team in the Steeple. All the more the wonder why he quit the steeple at that point.

I ran against John Gregorek Jr. (His son) in High School. His son definitely had his dad's genes. Was a beast in XC, having many memorable races and victories. I remember hearing at a meet once, that 3 days before the race, he had run a 10 Mile road race & "tempo'd" it in 59:00. Which, despite what some on this board think, is damn good for a high school runner.

Didn't have much of a kick though, and i think that's what hurt him the most. Although thought of him as a great candidate in college for the 10k.

Adam C wrote:

How is John Gregorek Jr doing at Columbia? His Columbia University bio has no info on it at all.

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=205078819

An article from 2009...

http://www.milesplit.com/articles/28311

John Jr ran an 8:13 3000m about 3 weeks ago for Columbia.

malmo wrote:

3000m steeplechase

1. 8:21.26 1981 WUG

2. 8:21.32 1980 OT

3. 8:22.88 1981

4. 8:23.62 1982 TAC

5. 8:24.66 1981 NCAA

6. 8:32.5 1981 TAC

7. 8:33.8 1979 IC4A

8. 8:34.9 1982

Plus and measly 3:51 mile and 3:35 1500.

Not only that, he was the first Big East Champion - winning the inaugural Big East XC meet in '79.

He won the 10k at the '81 Big East meet, then won the 800 at the '82 edition.

Staggering range.

He was 3rd at the 1992 Oly Trials in the 5k, but didn't meet the qualifying time, and thus didn't go to Barcelona.

[quote]MaRunnER wrote:

I remember hearing at a meet once, that 3 days before the race, he had run a 10 Mile road race & "tempo'd" it in 59:00. Which, despite what some on this board think, is damn good for a high school runner.quote]

For a good high school runner, running just under 6 minute pace for 10 miles is not even a little impressive. By my senior year I did the majority of my normal distance day training at 6 minute pace or under. That was day in and day out. One 10 mile tempo at just under 6 is not "damn good" for a high school runner, it is a normal training run for the top level runners. My son hasn't even broken 4:30 for the mile and would be able to run a sub 60 for 10 miles, although it would definitely be pushing it. I am sure most above average high school runners could do this fairly easily.

MaRunnER wrote:

he had run a 10 Mile road race & "tempo'd" it in 59:00. Which, despite what some on this board think, is damn good for a high school runner.

MaRunnER, I think you are correct; most on the board would think 59:00 for a high school runner is not that great....because it isn't! I am sure he could run much faster if he was not tempo'ing but for anyone to think 59:00 is "dam good" doesn't know what "dam good" is.

McMillan's calculator shows that 59:00 for 10 miles is equivalent to a mile in 4:53.

Adam C wrote:

How is John Gregorek Jr doing at Columbia? His Columbia University bio has no info on it at all.

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=205078819

An article from 2009...

http://www.milesplit.com/articles/28311

408/813

Yeah I would run a ten mile loop once a week in high school my senior year and would routinely run between 58-60 minutes. My best was low 57s. I only ran 9:35 in the two mile.

1979 NCAA Steeple

1.Henry Rono Washington State 8:17.92

2. Amos Korir Villanova 8:23.13

3.Hillary Tuwei Richmond 8:24.46

4. Thom Hunt Arizona 8:26.73

5. Sam James Tennessee 8:30.26

6. Randy Jackson Wisconsin 8:30.69

7. John Tuttle Auburn 8:35.6

8. Bruce Bickford Northeastern 8:36.5

9. Dan Heikkinen Michigan 8:37.9

10. John Gregorek Georgetown 8:41.0

1980 NCAA 1500

Sydney Maree Villanova 3:38.64

Todd Harbour Baylor 3:39.65

Richie Harris Colorado State 3:39.68

Ross Donoghue St. John's University 3:41.44

Kevin Ryan Bowling Green 3:43.10

John Gregorek Georgetown 3:44.10

Of course this is LetsRun, so everyone runs 45:00 10 mile runs on the average, has broken 1:40 for the 800, and routinely runs 3:42 for the Mile, so i can understand how it looks weak...

....

I believe in Aerobic development over all else; however, most high school runners are NOT developed aerobically enough to be doing the work that they really should be doing. 59:00 may not seem "fast", but if it really was just a Tempo workout, it's not bad at all for a High School kid, especially a few days before a race. If anything it's a great workout. I'm sure if he raced it he could have gone much faster.

I disagree that with that Calculator that it's equivalent to a 4:52 mile - I understand that the premise behind McMillan's Calc is that the times are based on what you would run if you trained for the distance, but we're talking about high school kids here. I'd say if you could get a kid to run sub 60 for 10 miles, he's probably easily going to break 4:53 (probably 4:40).

I don't know how all the coach's manage their program (so i'm not saying in any way his coach did this), but a problem we have in MA right now is many of our coaches rely on a HEAVILY outdated system. On Saturday's, HS kids will run "LSD" for 10-12 miles @ 9:00/mile pace, and on regular runs they'll run in the 7:00-8:00/mile range. Of course, some kids vary, some programs vary, but this is something that is very, very common. It's wasteful.

FL Runner wrote:

...one would think he would be pretty solid college coach, along the lines of ... Bruce Bickford...

My God, you didn't really write that did you?

Way back in 1980 when John was still running at Georgetown he showed up at Cherry Blossom on March 29th and ran 48:48, ended uo running 8:21 later that year in the steeple, great range.

Johnny has a huge pair of pears. Ran some epic DMR anchors @ Penn. In ’78, he walked down the field in the HS race w/ a 4:06 to bring home the gold for St. Anthony’s. In ’80 & ’81, while running for G-Town, he closed the gap on Sidney w/ 3:56 & 3:57 splits but couldn’t close the deal. In ’82, he ran a 3:55 leg in a thrilling come from behind victory over Ross Donahue of Nova - breaking their 18 year strong hold in the event. Nerve Tingling Blood Racing Excitement @ Franklin Field!