by RBR Admin
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country–November 25
1908–The dramatic ending to the Olympic Marathon in London in July drew worldwide attention. Italian Dorando Pietri staggered across the finish line in first place, but was disqualified for receiving aid from well-meaning officials. American Johnny Hayes was declared the winner and the clamor for a rematch began almost immediately. One was arranged–but it would be held indoors on the small track at NY’s famed Madison Square Garden! The race would require the runners to circle the Garden’s 10-laps to-the-mile track a mere 262 times!
The Garden was packed with supporters of both runners, with national pride evidenced by American and Italian flags flying all over the place.
Pietri led for most of the race, and when he crossed the 26-mile mark in the lead, his fans thought the race was over and swarmed onto the track. Emotions were high, with fights breaking out as police and officials did their best to allow the runners to complete the final two laps. A path was finally cleared, with Pietri winning by less than a minute over Hayes (2:44:20-2/5 to 2:45:03-1/5). The NY Times called it the “…most spectacular foot race that New York ever has witnessed” and the event was so popular that a number of similar professional races ensued, with Pietri beating Hayes a 2nd time before taking on other challengers.
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/how-new-york-city-made-the-modern-marathon
1956—This was an “off-day” at the Melbourne Olympics
X-Country
1940–Ashland’s Gil Dodds, later known as “The Flying Parson”, won the individual title (4-Miles), while Indiana edged Eastern Michigan (known as Michigan Normal at the time) for the team title (65-68) at the 3rd NCAA X-Country Championships in East Lansing, Michigan. Dodds would go on to become one of America’s best milers, setting a U.S. Record of 4:06.5 in 1943, three World Indoor Records, and winning three Wanamaker Miles at the Millrose Games. He won the Sullivan Award, given to the nation’s top amateur, in 1943.
2nd in the race was Notre Dame’s Ollie Hunter, who would win the 1942 NCAA title.
Results:
(10 teams, 90 finishers)
Dodds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Dodds
1944–After a year’s hiatus due to World War II, the NCAA X-Country Championships were back on the schedule, with Drake’s Fred Feiler winning the first of his two titles. Teammates Ashley Hack and Howard Johnston finished 2-3 as Drake started a 3-year winning streak under the guidance of future Hall-of-Famer Bill Easton, who later coached Kansas to the 1953 team title.
Results: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1944-men.pdf (Only 6 teams, 43 finishers)
1946–Ohio Wesleyan’s Quentin Brelsford (20:22.9) was the individual winner at the NCAA X-Country Championships in East Lansing, Michigan, while Drake won its 3rd-straight team title. Penn State’s Curt Stone, a future 3-time Olympian, was a close 2nd (20:24), and 2-time defending champion Fred Feiler (Drake) finished 6th (20:56).
Finishing 59th for Oklahoma was future TV star Bill (Dennis) Weaver, who went on to play Chester on Gunsmoke and later the title character in McCloud!
Brelsford, a WWII Veteran, sat with Gary Cohen in 2017 for an interview (see link).
Led by Frank Dixon’s 8th-place finish, NYU placed 2nd in the team scoring with 98 points. That’s still the highest finish ever by a member of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Conference (Iona also finished 2nd in 2007 & 2008). Dixon was the 1942 U.S. X-Country Champion and the 1943 U.S. Indoor Mile Champion.
Results: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1946-men.pdf
(20 teams, 147 finishers)
Gary Cohen Interview: http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Brelsford.aspx
https://www.wkrn.com/news/97-year-old-wwii-veteran-visits-memorial-at-bicentennial-mall/1057512297
Race highlights (in color!): https://digital.lib.ku.edu/ku-video/68
1957–After three runnerup finishes the previous decade, Notre Dame won its only NCAA team title, beating host Michigan State by just 6 points, 121-127. The individual race featured many “names”. Southern Cal senior Max Truex, a 1960 Olympian(10k), was the winner, while Minnesota junior Leonard “Buddy” Edelen, who would become one of America’s best marathoners, finished 4th. In 5th was Michigan State’s Crawford “forddy” Kennedy, who would win the title the following year, and back in 20th place was Miami University sophomore Bob Schul, who went on to win the gold medal in the 5000-meters at the 1964 Olympics.
Results: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1957-men.pdf
(17 teams, 124 finishers)
Other Notable Finishers-6.Peter Close (St.John’s), 42.Ed Moran (Penn State), 54.Cary Weisiger (North Carolina), 124.Cliff Cushman (Kansas)
Truex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Truex
Hall of Fame Bios
Edelen: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/leonard-buddy-edelen
Schul: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/bob-schul
1968–The NCAA Championships moved East for the first time, with Manhattan College serving as the host of the meet at Van Cortlandt Park. The Air Force Academy’s Mike Ryan (29:16.8), a x-country “specialist”, won the individual 6-mile race over Georgetown’s Steve Stageberg (29:28) and Holy Cross’s Art Dulong (29:39). Finishing 8th was Tom Donnelly, who led Villanova to its 3rd straight team title. He and teammate Frank Murphy (47th) ran on all 3 of Villanova’s winning teams. Donnelly earned his 4th NCAA title 42 years later as a coach when he led Haverford to the NCAA Div.III Men’s title in 2010.The Wildcats won on this day without the injured Marty Liquori.
This was the first of 3 National Championships to be held at “Vanny” this fall (AAU, USTff)
Ryan, who passed away in 2014, is remembered in this tribute at Once Upon a Time in the Vest:
http://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2014/02/vol-4-no-11-passing-of-another-legend.html
Results
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1968-men.pdf
(24 teams, 217 finishers)
Other Notable Finishers: 6.Jerry Richey (Pittsburgh), 9.Sid Sink (Bowling green), 19.Frank Shorter (Yale), 22. dick Buerkle (Villanova), 25.Brian Kivlan (Manhattan), 39.Don Kardong(Stanford)
Donnelly:
http://www.haverfordathletics.com/sports/mtrack-out/coaches/donnelly_tom
https://www.ustfccca.org/awards/tom-donnelly-ustfccca-class-of-2014
VCP-100 Years—by Marc Bloom (2012): http://tinyurl.com/VCP100Years
1972—The setting was the U.S. X-Country Championships in Chicago, conducted in brutal conditions (cold, sleet, mud), and the headline in T&F News said it all—“Cusack Runs Shorter, Shorter Runs Longer, Longer Shorter Wins”!
Irishman Neil Cusack(East Tennessee State), the winner of the NCAA title just 5 days earlier, led the race from start to finish, but inadvertently cut about 200-yards from the course in the last ½-mile of the 10k race. Frank Shorter, the winner of the Olympic Marathon earlier in the year, initially followed Cusack down the wrong path, but back-tracked to get back on the right course.
When officials discovered Cusack’s error, Shorter (30:42), who crossed the line in 2nd place, was awarded 1st place (his 3rd straight title), while Cusack, who had an insurmountable lead when he veered off course, was arbitrarily placed 4th, behind East Tennessee State teammate Ed Leddy (30:46) and Shorter’s Florida T.C. teammate Jack Bachelor (30:50). Finishing an impressive 13th was Illinois prep Craig Virgin (31:13).
Other Notable Finishers: 5.John Lunn, 9.Mike Keogh, 10.Tracy Smith, 14.Carl Hatfield, 16.Sid Sink, 19.Jeff Galloway, 21. Dick Buerkle, 27.Barry Brown, 34. Glenn Herold, 42. Pete Squires, 45.Jack Fultz.
1978—After an early mis-direction by a race official at the U.S. X-Country Championships in Seattle, leaders Greg Meyer and Alberto Salazar, unsure of how much distance was left in the race, were content to run together at a moderate pace. That all changed when they spotted the finish line only 200 yards away. At first, they contemplated trying to finish in a tie, but then Salazar said to Meyer, “We better sprint. One-two-three, go”! And so, the 10,000-meter race turned into a 50-yard dash, with Meyer (29:36) earning the title by a stride over Salazar (29:37), who had won the NCAA title 5 days earlier.
Other Notable Finishers: 3.Craig Virgin (29:57), 4.Don Clary, 5.Wilson Waigwa…10.Bill Donakowski, 11.Dan Dillon…14.Bob Hodge…19.Herb Lindsay…21.Tony Sandoval…25.Thom Hunt…27.Steve Plasencia…29.Gary Bjorklund, 30.Rudy Chapa… 37.Tony Staynings…40.Ted Castaneda, 41.Don Kardong
(From T&F News)
The Women’s Championship was held 2,300 miles away in Memphis, with Julie Brown (16:32.6/5k), 2nd the previous year, upsetting defending champion Jan Merrill (16:35.1). Brown, a student at Cal.State Northridge, was the 1975 World X-Country champion.
NY Times Coverage: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/11/26/112814512.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1985–Tim Hacker’s individual win (29:17) sparked Wisconsin to the NCAA Div.I Men’s team title on a snow-covered course in Milwaukee, beating defending champion Arkansas, 67-104.
It was a sweep for Wisconsin, which also won the Women’s title over Iowa State, 58-98. North Carolina State’s Suzie Tuffey (16:22) was the individual winner over Stanford’s Regina Jacobs (16:29).
Sports Illustrated Vault:
http://www.si.com/vault/1985/12/09/622648/over-hill-and-over-dale-but-not-on-a-dusty-trail
Results
Men: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1985-men.pdf
(22 teams, 181 finishers)
Women:
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1985-women.pdf (16 teams, 129 finishers)
Other notable finishers
Men-2.Yobes Ondieki (Iowa State-29:29), 3.Keith Hanson (Marquette–half of the Hanson’s coaching team), 7.Joe Falcon (Arkansas), 14.Bob Kempainen (Dartmouth), 19.Brian Abshire (Auburn), 65.Patrick Sang (Texas), 78.Doug Consiglio (Arkansas), 102.Jeff Atkinson (Stanford),
Women-4.Polly Plumer (UCLA) 16:31, 7.Stephanie Herbst (Wisconsin), 8.Angela Chalmers (Northern Arizona), 12.Lisa Welch (Boston University), 25.Bonnie Sons (Iowa State), 54.Tina Krebs (Clemson), 75.Vicki Huber (Villanova), 88.Cathy Schiro (Oregon), DNF-Kathy Franey (Villanova), Kathy Ormsby (North Carolina State).
Iowa State’s women were thrilled with their unexpected 2nd-place finish, but the day would end in tragedy when one of three small planes carrying the men’s and women’s teams home crashed in a residential neighborhood in Des Moines, killing all on board, including coaches Ron Renko and Pat Moynihan, pilot Burton Watkins, student athletic trainer Stephanie Streit, and runners Sue Baxter, Julie Rose and Sheryl Maahs, who had been the 3-4-5 scorers for the Cyclones.
A memorial was unveiled in 2018 outside the Temple B’Nai Jeshurun, which is across the street from where the airplane crashed at 535 Country Club Blvd.
Memorial:
https://twitter.com/cyclonetrackxc/status/1067098731441344512
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a25381917/iowa-state-cross-country-plane-crash-memorial/
Remembering 30 Years Later
http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=210511207
https://www.facebook.com/cyclonesxcw1985/?fref=ts
1989—Pat Porter won his record 8th consecutive U.S. X-Country Men’s title in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Lynn Jennings won the 3rd of what would be her own streak of 7 wins in the Women’s race.
How T&F News covered Porter’s streak
https://trackandfieldnews.com/pat-porters-8-year-xc-nationals-win-streak-revisited/
1990—One streak ended and another continued at the U.S. X-Country Championships, which were held on a muddy Van Cortlandt Park (NY) course.
Pat Porter (30:35) seemed well on his way to winning his 9th straight Men’s title, but Dartmouth grad Bob Kempainen (30:23) gradually caught up and then pulled away to win by 12 seconds.
Lynn Jennings (19:07/CR) had no problem winning her 4th straight Women’s title, finishing 26 seconds ahead of runnerup Shelly Steely (19:33).
Other Notable Finishers
Men(10k):3.John Nuttall, 4.Aaron Ramirez, 5.Reuben Reina, 6.Mark Coogan…9.John Scherer…12.Tim Hacker
Women(6k):3.Annette Peters, 4.Gina Procaccio, 5.Gwynn Coogan…12.Margaret Groos…18.Anne Marie Letko
2002–Following a natural progression, Colorado senior Jorge Torres, 3rd in 2000 and 2nd in 2001, moved to the top of the victory stand in Terre Haute, Indiana, after edging Arkansas’ Alistair Cragg for the Div.I Men’s title (29:04.7-29:06.0). Eduardo, his twin brother, finished 10th.
Back in 194th was Texas’ Mark Floreani, the co-founder (with his brother) of FloTrack.
A year after struggling to a 22nd place finish, North Carolina junior Shalane Flanagan (19:36) won the first of her two NCAA women’s titles.
Brigham Young won its 4th women’s team title in the last six years, while Stanford won the men’s title.
Results Men (31 teams, 251 finishers) Women (31 teams, 254 finishers)
Other notable finishers
Men:7.Boaz Cheboiyo (Eastern Michigan-2001 Champion), 11.David Kimani (Alabama–1999 Champion), 12.Matt Tegenkamp (Wisconsin), 14.Daniel Lincoln (Arkansas), 15.Richard Kiplagat (Iona), 20.Jason Hartmann (Oregon), 22.Nate Brannen (Michigan), 28.Nick Willis (Michigan), 30.Ed Moran (William&Mary), 37.Ryan Hall (Stanford), 38.Simon Bairu (Wisconsin, 2004/2005 champion), 64.Steve Slattery (Colorado), 211.Chris Lukezic (Georgetown)
Women:2.Kate O’Neill (Yale-19:45), 3.Alicia Craig (Stanford), 4.Lauren Fleshman (Stanford), 6.Molly Huddle (Notre Dame), 9.Megan Metcalfe (West Virginia), 12.Johanna Nilsson (Northern Arizona), 13.Laura O’Neill (Yale), 16.Christin Wurth (Arkansas), 32.Julie Culley (Rutgers), 35.Marina Muncan (Villanova), 43.Amy Mortimer (Kansas State), 58.Treniere Clement (Georgetown), 91.Erin Donohue (North Carolina), 92.Amy Hastings (Arizona State), 112.Laura Jakosky (Arkansas), 119.Shannon Rowbury (Duke), 140.Alice Schmidt (North Carolina), 150.Desiree Davila-Linden (Arizona State),
Videos
(Men): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSTrSkY5j3c
Highlights (includes post-race interviews with Flanagan and Torres): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrdQU8IxUsM
Historical Links
Div.I Women Men T&F News Archives USTFCCA
Div.II http://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/meet-history?series=3370
Div.III Kirk Reynolds Archives
NAIA Past Winners: https://www.naia.org/sports/wxc/2024-25/Files/program
Results from 2009 to 2023–Men Women
Great Pictorial History of the NCAA Div.I Championships(Men)
http://www.runningentertainment.com/runningshots35.html
Born On This Day*
Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan 22 (2003) 2024 NCAA Indoor & Outdoor Champion—Shot Put (Ole Miss-‘26)
2025 NCAA Indoor Champion
Other NCAA Placings:
2023: SP (11th indoors & Outdoors), Weight Throw (3rd), Hammer Throw (8th)
2024: WT (5th), HT (7th)
2025: SP (3rd), HT (3rd), WT (5th)
2022 U.S. & World Junior/Under-20 Champion—Shot Put
H.S.: 2022 New Balance Outdoor & Nike Indoor Champion (SP)
8th in the Shot Put, 6th in the Hammer, at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials
PBs: 69-3 ¼ i (21.11/2025), 68-10 (20.98/2024) 79-10 3/4i/wt (24.35/2025), 251-11 (76.78/2025)
https://olemisssports.com/sports/track-and-field/roster/tarik-robinson-o-hagan/5515
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jn10dn-gM
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