Top 12 HS distance gods of all-time

hplum40 wrote:

Great call. He didn't even consider adding any women to his list. Nor did he title it "Top 12 male HS distance gods..."

He said "Top 12 HS distance gods" not "Top 12 HS distance goddesses"

OK, we're narrowing it down.

This is actually US Male Mid-Distance Gods.

To be mentioned in conjunction with 'Distance' one has to actually run a long-distance race while in HS. The short list is:

K Bekele

S Wanjiru

Chapa and maybe Lingren (Ritz?) can make the cut. The girls lists above are even less 'Distance' than the boys. Alana Hadley actually ran long-distance events while in HS. Doesn't mean she deserves the list, but Mary Decker and Ajee Wilson? Start a 'Mid-D' thread if you feel they need to be included.

Marauders HOOOO! wrote:

Other options wrote:

Agreed. Not many know of rich kimball but he held the fastest state double win before Fernandez broke it in 2007. Believe he ran 4:02 and 8:46 back in the 70s. 2 mile was 3rd best at the time behind virgin and pre and mile was probably top 5. Also, I believe he WON world junior Xc. Obviously not putting him on a 12 person list is a mistake.

Second Kimball. Little known fact, he ran at Jesuit for Walt Lange his first 2 years before his family moved to the Bay Area. He might have gone sub 4 if he had stayed.

Also, no love for the Eric Mastalir? He's the better one who ran 3:46-4:04-8:07-8:44-14:01.

But who are you kicking off the list to add these guys?

Eric Mastalir was a stud sure. But there are a lot of guys in that group. How much love has Trautman or Reuben Reina gotten? After the first 6 guys I think there is a group of about 12 fighting for those last 6 places. Depending on how you value track times over XC, wins over fast times, and so on you can make arguements for a bunch of guys.

Lindgren and Hulst then just fill in.

And Serna in the first runner up position!

Ok all good choices... But let's lay down guidelines ...

1/ did the athlete set a record

2/ did the athlete set a class record

3/ did the athlete dominate their era

4/..?

5/..?

6/..?

wonderingoutloud wrote:

No order of my list ..just thinking out loud.

RUPP

Lindgren

Webb

Nelson

Fernandez

Hunter

Chapa

Verzbicas

Zishka

Ryun

Virgin

PREFONTAINE

Zishka is probably somewhere near the bottom of a top-20 list; I would replace Zishka with Ches.

I'm a huge German Fernandez fan, but his high school career was much like his college professional career....moments of absolute brilliance interspersed with long periods of injury.

If he had done more as a Junior, I'd say put him on the list.

It's easier to win a National Championship or make an Olympic Team when the adult competitors of your era had to devote the majority of their time to their employment.

Back in the 60s-70s, there were no professional runners (big part of the reason for why Prefontaine is admired). Every national-class athlete in the US had to have a job. You didn't have the Rupps and Solinskys of today, whose only responsibilities are to eat, sleep, and run, day in and day out. This is what allowed high-school and college-level athletes to be so much more competitive on the national stage.

Back then, responsibilities were distributed as follows:

- HS Athletes: Study and run.

- College Athletes: Study and run.

- Post-Collegiate Athletes: Work a full time job and run.

In present-day, responsibilities are distributed as follows:

- HS Athletes: Study and run.

- College Athletes: Study and run.

- Post-Collegiate Athletes: Run.

As a HSer or collegiate in the 1960s-70s, you may only have had 3-6 years of running experience, but part of that was evened out by the fact that everyone who had more experience was also being worn out by day-to-day responsibilities. As a modern HSer or collegiate, no matter how great you are, you're going to be competing with guys that have 10-20 years of experience and also spend every waking moment of their lives focusing on maximizing their performance.

Why isn't Ruben Reina on this list when he has the course record for the footlocker course? The only people that should be on this list is Reina, Fernandez, Webb and guys that broke the 4 minute mile or the 8:40 2-mile

TrackCoach wrote:

Zishka is probably somewhere near the bottom of a top-20 list; I would replace Zishka with Ches.

13:55 5k is pretty impressive.

Clancy Devery (ran 2:23 marathon as a Senior in HS).

His dad was my psych prof wrote:

Clancy Devery (ran 2:23 marathon as a Senior in HS).

Not even in the ballpark of a 3:53,8:29, 13:37 and 28:30

The top-2 are pretty straight forward, Ryun and Lindgren...short of running close to a world record and/or making the U.S. Olympic Team, those two athletes will always stand alone. Btw, In H.S., there are sprints and distance and since there really is no term middle distance, ever distance list should include Michael Granville.

asdfads wrote:

Webbs: 3:35

Webb never ran 3:35 in high school.

ALL CAPS wrote:

Ritz was 3rd at WORLD JUNIOR XC behind BEKELE!!

Ryun

Webb

Ritz

Everyone else

Being behind someone in no way demonstrates one's greatness no matter how god-like the person that one finished behind. Now, finishing in front of someone is another matter entirely.

But coming in behind Bekele? So what? I could have finished behind Bekele myself. That doesn't bolster my credentials as an all-time great.

What about Kevin Sullivan 1:47-800,3:42-1500 (all high school race), 3:59 mile, I believe 8:11 indoors for 3k and 13:54 for 5k.

Marc Oleson 3:46 (all high school), 3:58 mile, 8:15 indoor 3k, sub 14 for 5.

Greg Anderson 3:47 and 8:00 both same weekend against high schoolers.

Mike Woods ran 3:41 and 3:57

Bruce Kidd 8:30's and 13:17 3 mile, 13:43 5k

GERRY FKIN Lindgren

$nd that's all

Hhhaiosnav wrote:

ALL CAPS wrote:

Ritz was 3rd at WORLD JUNIOR XC behind BEKELE!!

Ryun

Webb

Ritz

Everyone else

Being behind someone in no way demonstrates one's greatness no matter how god-like the person that one finished behind. Now, finishing in front of someone is another matter entirely.

But coming in behind Bekele? So what? I could have finished behind Bekele myself. That doesn't bolster my credentials as an all-time great.

Dathan beat the defending world junior 10,000m champion and the defending world junior xc champion (Robert Kipkorir). He also beat a guy that would run 13:01 and 26:30 2 years later (Nicholas Kemboi).

ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK

1 Kenenisa BEKELE ETH ETH 25:04

2 Duncan Kipkorir LEBO KEN KEN 25:37

3 Dathan RITZENHEIN USA USA 25:46

4 Nicholas KEMBOI KEN KEN 25:52

5 Matthew TEGENKAMP USA USA 25:55

6 Robert Kipkorir KIPCHUMBA KEN KEN 26:00