first high school cross country
title
1957 was the year.
-Prep Panorama by Fran Errota and Don Nash, Track & Field News, December, 1957
A quote for all runners to remember …
Although he lost the 2007 NCAA individual cross country title by one second
Galen Rupp led
-NCAA Cross Country website
Track & Field News
postal competitions-the pre-internet era
In 1957, decades before the internet era, T&F News, and a.k.a. “the Bible
of Our Sport,”came up with the idea of annual fall
national postal competitions for colleges, junior colleges, freshman, open, and
high schools. The two-man ten mile relay consisted of alternating 440s (i.e. 20
laps each man) on the track. In addition, the high school competition featured
a five-man two-mile total team time run on the track. A three-mile run on the
track for individual and five- man teams was added in the ‘60s for the
colleges.
The competition was initially limited to the month of
November and results were mailed with Track & Field News presenting awards
to the leaders in each division. In later years the window of competition was
extended to mid-January. The entries climbed to a high of 117 in 1964.
(editor’s note- research about the postal competitions
is still in progress)
Community Colleges
Two Man Ten Mile Relay
(alternate 440's)
1.
2. Pierce CC (Ca.)-43:38.6 (1964) … Martin Cooley and John Kennedy
3. Santa Ana CC (Ca.)-43:38.6 (1964) … Bill and Bob Delaney (’63 state mile
champion/’64 state meet double winner –4:05.4 mile run / 9:02.5 two mile run)
4.Glendale CC (Ca.)-44:10.5 (1963) … Frank Muller and Earl Clibborn
El Camino CC (Ca.) won top honors the first year
(1957) with a time of 48:24.7 by John Bell and Jerry Holland (Fresno State
letterman).
In 1962 Coach Norm Lumian of
Orange Coast CC (Ca.) hosted a fast and competitive two-mile ten-mile relay
with 13 community college teams competing. Glendale CC (Frank Muller and Earl Clibborn) won in 45:01.1 with
High Schools
1.
Hillsdale HS (Ca.)-45:12 (1963) Marcel Hetu and Ralph
Likens (both transferred to College of San Mateo, see community college records
above) Likens and Hetu joined two other teammates to
set the national prep four-man four mile relay record in track.
High School five-man two mile run- total team
time (on the track)
1. Ossining HS (NY)-48:49.5 (1963) … 9:45.9 average per man
Morningside High School (Inglewood, Ca.) easily won the
first ever high school five man two-mile race competition with a combined time
of the five runners of 50:25.5. To put perspective of the state of running in
that era (1957) consider that the individual national leader in this fall prep
two-mile race clocked 9:47. *
Morningside was coached by the ultra-successful
Dean Miller who went on to San Jose State and won back-to-back NCAA cross
country titles with Jeff Fishback (College of San
Mateo) and Charley Clark, former Santa Ana CC national record-holder in the
mile and two-mile, as one of his leading runners.
* Fastest postal two mile times were recorded in a post-cross country
duel between junior Mike Ryan (Wilcox,
Fall Postal three mile
run-Frosh/JC Division
Individual
1. Sterling Jenkins (Soph., San Diego CC, Ca.)
-14:02.2 (Dec., 1963) ... Jenkins had run the
mile in May in 4:07.7.
2. Gene Carson (
Postal five-man three
mile run-total team time
Frosh/JC DIvision
1.
Santa Ana CC (Ca.)-74.25 (1963) … Bob Delaney-14:18, Bill Delaney-14:54,
Aguirre (no first name listed)-14:53, Keith (no first name listed)-15:02, Cayer (no first name
listed)-15:18…
-Track
& Field News, December, 1957; Long Distance Log, Vol.7, No.74, February,
1962; Track & Field News, September, 1958; Track & Field News, January
issues of 1959-65