Honoring the memory of Dave Laut

We pay tribute to and honor the life and career of Dave Laut, former Olympic shot putter, USA record-holder, who was shot dead by prowlers in his front yard in Oxnard late Thursday evening. Laut, 52, won the ’77 state shot put title for San Jose CC and later coached one year at Ventura CC. He leaves a wife and son.

     “Dave was my first UCLA recruit.  We worked together at UCLA from fall ‘77 thru the ‘80 trials.  What a kid!  He was the nicest, hardest working, humorous, gentle giant I have known.  

He could always make you laugh. He came from a great family.  Dottie and Jim, his mom and dad, loved to watch him.  Donnie, his little brother, was just a youngster.  But he too, was a successful thrower. Jim Laut had coached both boys for a lot of their careers.  We lost another of the great ones.”  

–Jim Kiefer, former long-time Fullerton CC head coach; UCLA asst. coach

Dave Laut…’84 Olympic shot put bronze medal

Santa Clara HS / Moorpark CC / San Jose CC / UCLA

State CC title, two NCAA, four AAU titles, *tied USA record: 72-3

Santa Clara HS: 1974 CIF 2-A Shot Put Champion (62-6 in 1975);

1974 State Chps. 5^th 59-4¾; 1975 State Chps. 2^nd 65-9 (half inch defeat)

Moorpark CC-1976: So Cal Finals-?; State Chps. shot put-2^nd distance ?

San Jose CC-1977: 61-9½ PR-West Coast Relays JC Champion;

NorCal-?; State-1^st 60-10¾; SJCC coach-Gary O’Sullivan, Head Coach Bert Bonanno

UCLA-1978: Mt. SAC Relays-1^st 66-9; Calif. Relays-2^nd 67-2; PAC-10 1st 68-6;

NCAA-1^st 66-1¼; AAU Nationals-4^th 64-6;

UCLA-1979: Bruin captain; NCAA: 1^st 66-11½; AAU title 69-3¼ PR;

PanAmGames-1^st 66-4

USA National titles: 1979: 69-3¼; 1981:70-10½; 1983: 71-2¾; 1985: 68-11¾

1980: Indoors-SF Examiner-1^st 67-0;

1980 Olympic Trials: 6^th 66-6¾ (67-11 qualifying)

1982:  72-3 PR *equaled American record-Koblenz, Germany (August)

1983: USA / East Germany Dual-2^nd 71-9; *Inaugural World Cup-4^th 67-7

(69-2 qualifying); European Circuit: Stockholm-1^st 69-8¾, Berlin-2^nd 67-0

1984:  UCLA/Pepsi-1^st 70-5

1984 Olympic Trials: 1^st 70-0½ … series included a 69-4, 69-5½ (qualifying 66-4)

1984 Los Angeles Olympics: 3^rd place 68-9¾

1988 Olympic Trials: 6^th 66-8¾ (65-11 qualifying)

South Africa Trip: Laut joined 13 American athletes to compete in the first international competition in 12 years against a South African team. Laut and others would be banned for four years by The Athletic Congress. South Africa had been banned by the International Amateur Athletic Federation in 1976 because of the country’s racist system of apartheid.

World Rankings: 1979-3^rd; 1981-5^th; 1982-2^nd; 1983-3^rd; 1984-9^th; 1985-7^th

USA Rankings: 1978-6^th 1979-1^st 1980-5^th 1981-3^rd 1982-1^st 1983-1^st 1984-3^rd 1985-1^st 1987-10^th 1988-5^th

Coaching: Asst. T&F coach-Ventura CC (years to be verified) ;

Eight years head T&F coach-Hueneme HS (Oxnard); one year Hueneme AD

Honors: Ventura County Hall of Fame-1994; Moorpark CC Athletic Hall of Fame;

San Jose CC Athletic Hall of Fame

Personal: Laut’s brother, Don, won the 1987 state cc shot put title (54-6½) for Moorpark.

Mark Covert…The “runner’s runner…Antelope Valley’s longtime T&F/XC coach is internationally known for his record of running every day since July 23, 1968.  Covert, the first inductee in the NCAA-II Cross Country Hall of Fame (led CS Fullerton to D-II XC title),has accumulated some mind-boggling stats along the way.

Covert’s Streak Totals at the end of July 23, 2009 -  41 years

Number of Days - 14,975   Months 492,  Weeks 2139

Total Miles During Streak - 142,296                                            Lifetime Miles - 152,116

Streak Ave. Day - 9.54                                                                Ave. Week - 66.5   Ave. Month - 289

Miles During the 60’s - 7,742     70’s - 55,202   80’s- 34,152                    90’s - 24,361           00’s - 20,789

Miles in NIKE Shoes - 119,863

*Covert/AVC will host the 2010 state community college T&F championships on their new Mondo surfaced

facility.

The television coverage of the 12th World Championships held in Berlin have given respect to the 1936 Oympics held in that very same stadium. USA's Jesse Owens received proper adulation, but California's community colleges were well represented with seven athletes bringing home medals. The following champions make us proud:

1936 Berlin Games…

Ken Carpenter…Discus-gold medal

Porterville HS / Compton CC / USC

Two-time NCAA Champ, ’36 Olympic gold

Cornelius Johnson…High Jump-gold medal

Los Angeles HS / Compton CC

 4^th in ’32 Olympics while in high school

 8-USA titles, *world, USA records

Jack Parker…Decathlon bronze medal

Sacramento CC

1936 * National JC javelin record 203-4;

’36 Olympic decathlon-3^rd

Mack Robinson…200 silver medal

John Muir HS / Pasadena JC / Oregon U.

’36 Olympic silver-200; NCAA 200 title, NJC record

Archie Williams…400-gold medal

University HS / San Mateo JC / UC Berkeley

 ’36 Olympic, AAU, NCAA Champion

World record-holder

Frank Wykoff…400 relay-gold medal

Glendale HS / Glendale JC / USC

1st 9.4 sprinter; 3 Olympic 4x1 relay gold

Bob Young…1600 relay-silver medal

Kern County HS / Bakersfield CC / UCLA

USA Olympic 1600 relay-Silver, USA record

USA world record 2-mile relay

Bakersfield CC LJ record-20yrs.