by Larry Eder
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country-November 17
1956—Earlene Brown set American Records in the Shot Put (48-11 ½ [14.92]) and Discus (154-0 [46.94]) at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds in Australia. Brown returned to the site later in the month, finishing 6th (SP) and 4th (DT) at the Olympics. She would win the bronze medal in the shot 4 years later at the Rome Olympics and was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2005.
Wiki Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earlene_Brown
HOF Bio: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/earlene-brown
1964—Fresh off his double gold medal performance (800,1500) at the Tokyo Olympics a month earlier, Peter Snell ran 3:54.1 for the mile in Auckland to break his near-3 year old World Record of 3:54.4. It was the 2nd World Record in the week for Snell, who had lowered the 1000-meters standard to 2:16.6 just 5 days earlier.
After passing through 1500-meters in a swift 3:37.6, and with no one to push him, Snell could “only” manage a last ¼-mile in about 60-seconds, saying after the race, “It was one of the hardest last laps of my life”.
Replicating their finish behind Snell at the Tokyo Olympics were Czech Josef Odlozil (3:56.4) and another New Zealander, John Davies (3:56.8.
http://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/18/snell-runs-mile-in-354-1-for-second-world-markin-week.html?_r=0
Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1964/11/30/snells-tortured-race-to-a-record-mile
http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=113
2012—Oklahoma State (M) and Oregon (W) were the team champions at the NCAA Div.I X-Country Championships, which were held in Louisville, Kentucky. It was the 3rd title in 4 years for the Cowboys, and the 1st for the Ducks since 1987
(3rd title overall).
Individual winners were Texas Tech’s Kennedy Kithuka (28:31.3) and Iowa State’s Betsy Saina (19:27.9), who won a thrilling battle over Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino (19:28.6) and Oregon’s Jordan Hasay (19:28.6).
“I’m really proud of the way the guys ran,” said Oklahoma State head coach Dave Smith. “I’m thrilled with the way they responded and bounced back from last year. We were second last year and were dejected and left with our heads down. We could have folded up camp and crumbled and not have been a trophy team this year.”
Oregon had to delay their celebration after the women’s race, since a scoring error led to the announcement that Providence had won the team title! It was almost 30-minutes before the oversight was corrected.
Other notable finishers:
Men: 2.Stephen Sambu (Arizona-28:31.6), 3.Defending Champion Lawi Lalang (Arizona-28:51.8)…8.Mo Ahmed (Wisconsin-29:23.9)…10.Paul Chelimo (UNC-Greensboro-29:29.8)…20.Chris O’Hare (Tulsa-29:46.4)…31.Futsum Zienasellassie (Northern Arizona-29:54.1)…98.Kyle Merber (Texas-30:42.6)
Women: 11.Violah Cheptoo Lagat (Florida State-19:52.7), 12.Colleen Quigley (Florida State-19:53.2)…15.Emily Sisson (Providence) 20:01.7…18.Shalaya Kipp (Colorado) 20:02.8…21.Aisling Cuffe (Stanford) 20:03.8…25.Emily Lipari (Villanova-20:05.6)…27.Juliet Bottorff (Duke-20:06.1)…31.Shelby Houlihan (Arizona State-20:11.4)
Results
Men: http://results.deltatiming.com/xc/2012-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/results/2
Women: http://results.deltatiming.com/xc/2012-ncaa-d1-cross-country-championships/results/1
Oklahoma State: http://www.okstate.com/news/2012/11/17/Cowboy_Cross_Country_Wins_National_Title.aspx?path=xct
Oregon: http://www.goducks.com/news/2012/11/17/205747401.aspx?path=cross
2018—Northern Arizona (M/3rd straight) and Colorado (W) won the team titles in cold and windy conditions at the NCAA Div.I X-Country Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.
Host Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald (29:08.3), a senior from Australia, won the men’s individual title in an exciting duel with Stanford’s Grant Fisher (29:08.8) and Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat (29:09.0). The 5th scorer for Northern Arizona was Peter Lomong, whose older brother Lopez also competed for the Lumberjacks.
Dani Jones (19:42.8) beat a star-studded field of past and future NCAA Champions to win the women’s individual race, leading Colorado to its first team title since 2004:
2.Weini Kelati (New Mexico/19:45.3) 10,000 (2019)
3.Jessica Hull (Oregon/19:50.4) 1500 (2019), 3000i (2019)
4.Alicia Monson (Wisconsin/19:55.2) 5000i (2019)
5.Ednah Kurgat (New Mexico/19:55.8) X-Country (2017)
6.Allie Ostrander (Boise State/19:56.9) Steeplechase (2017-2019)
“This is incredible,” said Jones. “We were just talking about the 2000 team that won the individual (Kara Grgas-Wheeler-better known as Kara Goucher) and team title 18 years ago. We did it again and it’s unbelievable.”
Results: https://www.ncaa.com/di-mens-and-womens-cross-country-results
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_NCAA_Division_I_Cross_Country_Championships
Race Videos
Women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjKuIhiu6c
Men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tL_IwhkXto
2018—Getting a 1-2 finish from seniors Dhruvil Patel (24:24.5) and Al Baldonado (24:29.7), North Central won its 3rd straight (and 19th overall) NCAA Div.III X-Country title in Winneconne,WI. Coach Al Carius was at the helm of the team for all of their previous championships.
It was sweet redemption for this year’s seniors who were members of the team that finished a disappointing 5th on the same course at the 2015 Div.III Championships.
The race had to be recalled after a spill took several runners down in the first 100-meters!
Junior Paige Lawler’s individual win (20:55.0) in the women’s race led Washington University of St.Louis to a 1-point win over 2-time defending champion Johns Hopkins (98-99).
Men(8k): http://results.deltatiming.com/xc/2018-ncaa-d3-xc-championships/results/2
Women(6k): http://results.deltatiming.com/xc/2018-ncaa-d3-xc-championships/results/1
North Central: https://northcentralcardinals.com/sports/2018/11/20/2018-mens-cross-country.aspx?id=1329
2023—Huntington sophomore Addie Wiley (21:04.2) pulled away from The College of Idaho’s Ellyse Tingelstad (21:16.1) after the 5k mark to win the Women’s 6k race at the NAIA Championships in Vancouver, Washington. 3 of Tingelstad’s teammates also finished in the top-10 to lead the Coyotes to the team title.
Wiley emerged this year as one of the best middle distance runners in the U.S., running personal bests of 1:57.64 and 3:59.17.
Winners on the Men’s side were Rocky Mountain’s Jackson Wilson and Milligan, which edged St.Mary’s (KS) for the team title (93-98).
https://live.athletictiming.net/meets/28631/xc-events/1033427/results
X-Country Links
NCAA Div.I: https://trackandfieldnews.com/historical-results/ncaa-division-i-mens-and-womens-cross-country-archive/
NCAA Div.III: https://www.sagehens.com/sports/wxc/HistoriansReport/Report
NAIA History:
Men: https://www.naia.org/sports/mxc/Records/MXC_Championship_Records.pdf
Women: https://www.naia.org/sports/wxc/Records/WXC_Championship_Records.pdf
Born On This Day*
Ruth Jebet-Kenya/Bahrain (2013) 29 (1996) 2016 Olympic gold medalist—Steeplechase
2014 World Junior Champion
Set a World Record of 8:52.78 in 2016 (since broken)
PBs: 8:47.24i (2016), 14:53.41 (2017),
Hit with a 4-year ban after testing positive for the use of EPO in December, 2017.
The case before the Athletics Integrity Unit took more than two years to resolve, with accusations against an
outside party and a change of lawyers delaying a decision (which wasn’t announced until March, 2020).
Returned to competition in 2022—had a steeple best of 9:41.72. Turned her attention to the roads in 2023…
won 4 “lower level” marathons in 11 months (Dec. 2023-Nov.-2024)
PBs: 1:08:22 (2023), 2:23:08 (Dec.-2023); 2025 SB: 2:25:43
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/129374
Ernest John “EJ” Obiena—Philippines 30 (1995) 2-time World Championships medalist in the Pole Vault (silver-2023,
bronze (2022)…qualifying round-2019, 2025
4th at the 2024 Olympics…2021 (11th)
3-time Asian Champion-2019, 2023, 2025
Met Sergey Bubka in Italy in 2014…Bubka suggested he train in Italy with his former coach, Vitaly Petrov, who has
trained Obeng ever since. Obeng had previously been coached by his father.
In late 2021, he became embroiled in a dispute with the Philippines T&F Association over alleged non-payment to
Petrov. It became a national scandal, with Obeng eventually being cleared of any wrongdoing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJ_Obiena–PATAFA_dispute
PB: 19-8 ¼ (6.00/2023); 2025 SB: 19-1/2 (5.80)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJ_Obiena
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/philippines/ernest-john-obiena-14522941
Feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBXovqd1-4
https://www.rappler.com/sports/homestretch-episode-pole-vault-ej-obiena/
Marquis Dendy 33 (1992) 2016 World Indoor Champion—Long Jump (Bronze 2018 & 2022)
7-time NCAA Champion (Florida, aka “Jump U.”)
2013—Long Jump (i)
2014—Long Jump, Triple Jump
2015—Long Jump, Triple Jump (Indoors & Outdoors)
2015 & 2023 U.S. Champion—Long Jump
Winner of The Bowerman in 2015
Qualified for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team with a personal best jump 27-7 ½(8.42), but an injury
suffered at the Trials in Eugene kept him from competing in Rio. Got a 2nd chance in 2021, finishing 2nd at the U.S.
Olympic Trials, but didn’t make the final in Tokyo; 11th at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials
2nd in the long jump at the 2017 U.S. Nationals, but failed to make the final at the World Championships in London
6th at the 2022 World Championships, 12th in 2023
2011 National Scholastic Indoor Champion—LJ,TJ (Middleton,DE)
Nephew of Terri Dendy, who was a gold medalist in the 4×400 relay at the 1993 World
Championships in Stuttgart (Ran the first round for the U.S.)
PBs: (LJ) 27-7 ½ (8.42/2016 & 2018i); (TJ):57-5 (17.50/2015); 58-1 1/4w (17.71/2015);
2025 SB: 26-10 (8.18)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_Dendy
2015 NCAA:
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2015/06/historic_performances_by_flori.html
Bowerman: https://www.secsports.com/article/14391926/marquis-dendy-wins-bowerman-trophyMarquis
http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/147338
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_Dendy
Still Making Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7u5Uftx6cg
Alex Rose-Samoa 34 (1991) Bronze medalist in the rain-plagued Discus at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo
(the first Samoan to medal in T&F at a global championship)
It was his 7th appearance at the Worlds: competed in the qualifying round in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019…8th in 2022,
12th in 2023
12th at the 2024 Olympics, qual.round in 2016 & 2021
All-American at Central Michigan….was 5th at the 2011 NCAA Championships
Born in the U.S., he has dual citizenship with Samoa, the birthplace of his father.
PB: 234-6 (71.48/2024); 2025 SB: 221-6 (67.52)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rose_(athlete)
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/samoa/alex-rose-14389747
WC Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPW5_yDiYcm/?hl=en
Technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffNRPIi1b3E
Greg Rutherford—Great Britain 39 (1986) 2012 Olympic gold medalist—Long Jump (2016-bronze)
2015 World Champion; 2-time European Champion(2014,2016); PB: 27-11 (8.51/2014)
Was part of Super Saturday at the London Olympics when he joined fellow Brits Mo Farah (10k) and
Jessica Ennis (Heptathlon) as gold medalists in their respective events
Injury kept him out of the 2017 World Championships in London
Announced his retirement after the 2018 season
Had hoped to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics as a member of Great Britain’s bobsled team, but they didn’t
meet the qualifying standard
2012 London Video (includes interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGoVVPO08Q
WIki Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Rutherford
http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/116925
Retirement: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jun/12/greg-rutherford-retires-sean-ingle-athletics
Derek Clayton—Australia 83 (1942) Considered big for a marathoner (6’-2”, 160), he set two world records
in the event: 2:09:36.4 (1967-Fukuoka/1st sub-2:10) and 2:08:33.6 (1969-Antwerp/1st sub-2:09), 7th 1968
Olympics Marathon, 13th-1972
Self-coached, he ran as much as 250-miles a week… “It was all experiment,” he says now. “I didn’t
have books or magazines back in my day. I was flying blind. “No-one had done what I did. There
was no-one to talk to. No-one knew anything much about marathon running, had a lot of experts
on 1500m and 5000m but not on marathon running. I was a bit of a pioneer. I was shooting in
the dark a bit, so I tried 250 miles a week later in 1969.”
A Look Back:
