Regional Championship in Phoenix Arizona

After my Junior year I qualified for the Regional Junior Olympic Championships in Phoenix Arizona in July of 1975.   I was happy to go.  All the runners who qualified got on a bus in Salt Lake City and we rode to Phoenix Arizona.  When we got there we were excited.  We got to stay in a hotel(good air conditioning).  It was hot (over 100 degrees)  as luck would have it the mile was to be run at 10 pm.   The gun fired and we were off.  I ran in the middle of the pack and felt pretty good.  About half way through a runner took off and surged on the 3rd lap.  I went with him but no one else did.  We were going fast and I was ok with the pace,  we had a good 20 yard lead on the rest of the field.  With about 330 yards left he started to fade so I took over the lead.  I ran pretty well however I started to fade a bit with 100 yards to go.  Randy Stoneman the top mile runner from Colorado caught me and beat me.  I remember being so angry because I should have won had I not gone with the other runner.  Randy won and since only one runner goes to nationals per event he got to go and I got second.  I was not a happy camper.  It was a fun trip and I stayed with a friend on the team before catching a bus to Las Vegas  to meet my family on their way to California.  I did get to stay in a hotel though. Very cool.

Running in Newport Beach.

During the Summer between my Junior and Senior year our family drove to Southern California to visit my  relatives.  We stayed at their home in Costa Mesa.  My cousin Bill and Cindy worked at Disneyland and took us with them to the park.  It was a lot of fun.  We went to the beach and enjoyed our visit.  One day I went for a 5 or 6 mile run and come across a track meet in progress.  I signed up for the mile run and ran.  There were some good runners from Southern California.  We took off slowly coming through the half mile in 2:18.  Me and this other runner then took off.  We ran the last half mile in 2:01 which was fast given it was on a dirt track and I had no racing shoes.  The other runner barely beat me and he was in racing spikes.   He must have been a good runner because of his time.  Also,  I met some other runners including Mark Shilling the NCAA champion in the mile from San Jose State and Ralph Serna who went on to run for UC Irvine.  It was a fun run and unexpected as well.  It was nice to spend a week in California having fun and working out.

1975 AAU meet in Salt Lake City, Utah

After our season ended in Track and Field I heard about an allcomers meet held at the University of Utah stadium.  It was on a Saturday so I drove up to run.  It was the weekend before school got out for the summer.  I was excited to run.  I wasn't sure who I would run against.  The state record for high school runners was 4:16.4 and I had run 4:21 at our region meet.  I was hoping that by the end of my next year I could get close to this time and break it.  There were only about 5 or 6 runners when we took off.  One was running for the University of Utah.  I followed him and we took off.  we ran the first lap in 65 seconds, the next lap in 65 for a 2:10 half and another lap in 65 to hit 1320 in 3:15 so I was running slightly faster than when I ran 4:21.  With 330 yards to go the college runner started running faster.  I took off with him,  I stayed close all the way around the track.  With 100 yards to go or the whole straightway I passed him and ran as hard as I could to the finish.  I won.  was very surprised and finished with a time of 4:16.6  Just  a few tenths of a second slower that the state record for high school runners. I had run the last lap in 61 seconds.  I was elated.  Bob Wood a coach and long time agent for running was there and he was very excited.  I see Bob from time to time and he still remembers that race.  I do not think I have had a more exciting race before or since.  I had taken 5 seconds off of my time for the mile run

1975 Track Season Continued

In 1975 I was undefeated in the 1 mile run as a Junior.  My times kept improving.  Also there was a runner who was a senior in our league who was the top returning runner in the state.  Mark Robison,  he was the  son of the head BYU coach and Olympic runner Clarence Robison.  Each time we raced in our dual meet, at our region meet and at the State Meet I would run with the Provo High runners and when we came off of the last turn I would surge ahead and win.  They were frustrated needless to say.  At our region meet I ran a personal best of 4:21 which was a region record and I ran 4:23 at the state meet to win.  I ran the 880 as well from time to time usually on our Sprint Medley relay team.  We won the state meet in the sprint medley relay as well.  Our team won our region team title beating rivals Orem and Provo.

1975 Track and Field

In the spring of 1975 I started the season much better than expected leading with a 4:26 mile at the BYU indoor Track meet in January.  A full 10 second improvement over my previous best of 4:36.  Throughout the season I was undefeated in the Mile run.  At the BYU invitational 4 runners from our team gave up our usual events to focus on the Sprint Medley Relay.  The state record was 3:33.  The relay consisted of run 4 runners.  2 running 220 yards, one running 440 yards and one running 880 yards.  Each of us were in the to 10 in the state in our events.  Clayton Dumus ran the lead 220 in 22 seconds Gary Sorensen ran the next 220 between 22 and 23,   Matt Montoya ran the 440 in 49.8 seconds.  I took over and had to run 2 laps which was half the race.  I took off fast with 27 for the first 220 27 seconds for the second 220,  coming through one lap in 54 seconds.  It was too fast I pushed hard the 3rd 220 and ran about 28 seconds.  I was flying along way under the record.  The last 220 turned out to be a bear.  the last 220 I ran 34 seconds coming in with a time of 1:56.  I had slowed considerably however we broke the Utah State Record in a time of 3:31.7  We had taken the state record down by 2 seconds.  We were pretty happy about our efforts.  Our time that year put us on the US Track and Field Honor Roll for the 1975 season.  This was to honor the top 10 performances in the nation in each event.
Now 36 years later we still hold the Utah Sprint Medley relay record for the 4A classification.
It was exciting to trying for something and achieve our goal.  Very chariots of fire.

1974 State Track Meet

Back in 1974 I ran in the Utah High School 4A State champioship 2 mile race.  It was held at night at the University of Utah stadium.  Back then the track was in the football stadium  We took off and I ran with the pack as long as I could it was fun running with these runners I looked up too.  The top runners broke away with Mark Despain winning and setting a state record.  I finished in 6th place the top sophmore in the race.
After the race a coach from Utah State University came up to me and asked where I was planning to go to school the following year.  I told him Hillcrest High.  He was surprised when I told him I was a Sophmore.
This finished my year with best times of 4:36 for the mile and 9:59 for the 2 mile.

Stories

I was talking to my nephew Garrett Neilsen and he gave me a good idea.  Just start telling stories from my life.

back in 1974 I was a sophmore at Hillcrest High school in Salt Lake City, Utah.  My father was encouraging me to run as well as perhaps do the pole vault so that I might letter as a sophomore.  I went out for the team and ran a few early races.  I started with a 2 mile in 10:52   each race after I kept improving.  I went with the team to the Snow College invitational and was entered in the 2 mile run.  A senior on my team Alma Hansen was the defending state champion for the 2 mile. He ran the mile and I got into the 2 mile.  I ran most of the race in a pack of runners.  The best runner in the state was named Mark Despain and he was running easily in the lead.  I stayed in the pack and with one lap to go Despain took off and I went with him.  With 100 yards to go I made a move and passed him.  He was surprised and I kept going and hit the tape in first place.  My time qualified me for the state meet the time was 10:14 loping 30 seconds off of my best time.  I was elated.  My coaches were in shock.  How did this sophmore win this big high school track event with people from all over the state.  It was fun.