How good was Prefontaine at Cross Country?

Everyone by now knows that the name Steve Prefontaine is synonymous with true American distance running gret he aided in inspiring a generation of us Runners to take advantage of their talent and to run their hearts out no matter how the race would unfold however a lot of focus on prefontaine's Legacy has primarily been recognized from his expertise on the track which is fair given the latter part and main highlights of his career were track oriented although PR's cross country prowess is highly underlooked even today and perhaps a bit underdocumented as well as on YouTube You'll struggle to find more than a few seconds of him running on the grass even though this will primarily be a story told through newspaper articles only I figured it'd be a fun idea to delve into the newspaper archives and tell the story of prefontaine's journey to becoming not just one of the most prolific Track and Field Runners but also one of the most prolific CrossCountry Runners of the 1960s and' 7s pri's first cross-country season would actually be his first formal running season contrary to what some might think as while he had a vested interest in running early on it wouldn't be until he enrolled at Marshfield high school that he joined the cross country team his freshman year under the guys of Walt McClure Jr back then teams would not only log every athletes as mileage but would even make it a public ordeal publishing these records to the newspaper every so often originally pre was simply mentioned as a general asset to the team but would find himself quickly climbing the ranks of the Pirates ladder placing seventh at the Gold Beach Invitational as their number three guy by late October coach McClure alluded to pre potentially becoming their number two runner and this prediction would slowly start to look true as he placed as a number three guy again with a top 20 finish at their District meet at the state meet however PRI would have his first breakout performance where he not only came through as their second best runner but almost placed in in the top 50 as well with the senior stud of the group Jim Villa NOA graduated Tom Huggins would seem to take over as the head of the pirate Squad as he would win the first dual meate they entered with pre trailing not too far behind in third place pre's development as an athlete though would almost Skyrocket from here on out as he won a quad meet a week later where he out kicked Huggins placed second at another meet and then won two Tri meets in a row where he gapped the rest of the field by over 30 seconds as the district's meet arrived again PRI would likely enter himself into the lead mix to try and win the entire thing and he would come fairly close grabbing a bronze medal to help the Pirates win a district title this year's state meet would put pre on the map not just for KZ County but the entire state of Oregon for the first time because a sixth place finish hinted at a level of greatness many were curious about by the time he raced on the grass again next fall PR's junior year of cross country can likely be attributed as the birth of his aggressive and dominant running style coming into full fruition unfortunately not many results from the Pirates are recorded from this specific year but we do have documentation of his District's race and well he he destroyed the entire competition of course the real deal would be the state championships but the thing was he made the rest of the field look like he was racing a dual meet there too winning his first State title by 12 seconds and even setting a course record along the way senior year is perhaps the best documentation we have of pri's High School cross country Mastery likely because at this point he was was inching his way into becoming a national superstar in the High School running world with the aid of his last track season the gaps he would win meet after meet by was quite frankly pretty comical one was 48 seconds another was 44 seconds you can really just keep counting them off one after the other so it wouldn't come as a surprise that pre won yet another State title but not without someone contesting him a little bit in hindsight it is a shame that something like Foot Locker or Nike Cross Nationals didn't exist at this point in time because PRI probably would have competed there and would have loved to have challenged his contemporaries at the national level thankfully after enrolling at the University of Oregon following a phenomenal senior year in track PRI would get the chance to indulge in the D1 NCAA realm and to see just how well his high SCH dominance would translate over to the Collegiate side of things PR's first Collegiate cross country season as an Oregon Duck was a fairly conservative approach either at the discretion of his coach or perhaps that the team in general approached the season this way regardless there were three key meets that the team prepared for no matter what which were the division championships the conference championships and of course the prestigious D1 NCAA championships PRI was set to make his debut in early November for the Northern Division ones where in a shocking turn of events would upset two-time National Champion Jerry lingren from Washington State and would also beat the Six Mile course record by over a minute at Gates however it was as strict of a stride for stride Showdown as it could get as the race between PRI and lingren was so dramatically tight that it was officially declared a dead heat meaning they tied it down to the 10th of a second however the officials would eventually give Lindgren the win but Oregon would still take the team title at the D1 NCAA championships priest condition early on into the race was reported to be subpar as he had allegedly been coughing up blood as early as half a mile in he would grd his way through the national tier competition and would ultimately come out with a hardfought bronze medal which to say the least was pretty phenomenal for a freshman sophomore year was the same deal in terms of scheduling same three meets and the same three opportunities to make some Oregon magic happen with ly Gren graduated this made his work at the Northern Division meet a much easier task to win and in the same breath would display the same type of ease at the pack 8 mate winning his first conference Title by about 14 seconds even though these titles were practically a walk in the park for pre the sophomore duck would still have his work cut out for him with the likes of Villanova Superstars Donald Walsh and Marty Lori or top rury from Texas El Paso who is the same class as pre John bednarski in one of the quickest battles scene at a cross country Championship ever PRI would end up reigning Supreme demolishing the course record by over a minute and a half and helping Oregon win their first team title in history okay maybe not the second part initially they had actually won gone home with the trophy the whole nine yards but after a film review via a protest from Villanova their fifth Runner had actually been miscounted due to him falling after the finish line and the wild cats would be the ones to steal the title back by just one single point anyways going into pri's junior year of cross country he had an obscene amount of momentum behind him as per usual the division title was nothing short of an easy win his conference time title beat the course record by over a minute and his showing at Nationals would result in yet another individual title except this time would get to celebrate with his entire team capping off the perfect junior year senior year however would effectively be delayed due to pre forgoing his eligibility temporarily to partake in the 1972 Olympics getting to the finals in the 5,000 m pre would finish his debut in a very admirable fourth place and would eventually return to Oregon for one final hurrah and despite being granted essentially an extra year of training this year's Nationals though were looking to be his most difficult one yet for the 1973 NCAA D1 cross country championships PRI would be thoroughly challenged for the first time ever in this sport since his freshman year as the first mile is recorded Ed at 420 and Western ky's Nick Rose would lead the first two miles of the race keeping the pace hot at an 857 the pack at this point in time is PRI Rose and John Neo of Washington state while pre is known to front run just about any race you put him in this is perhaps one of the rare photos where the tempo was actually too harsh for him for once as halfway through Rose seem to have a healthy Gap Rose would also hold the lead for about 4 miles in but about a half mile later is when PRI would enter himself back into the mix to threaten a future move pri's first bouts of a healthy lead wouldn't take place until about a half mile to go and with a final effort up the final Hill of the course and a roaring crowd chanting his name The Oregonian legend himself would pull off the legendary 3p being the second person next to lingren to put his place in the cross country history books PRI would later go on records stating that it was his hardest fought battle yet but was as usual confident in his abilities to bring it home when it mattered Oregon would also celebrate yet another Victory on top of pri's win as a result as well unfortunately this is where pri's cross-country Endeavors come to a close he would win a European styled 12K over his Oregon Track Club teammates but when it came to the dou Au national championships PRI had unfortunately not shown up to these while the iaf had just taken over the international cross country scene with their own championships PRI simply decided that track was much more dear to his heart and would ultimately try to to train for the upcoming 1976 Olympics of course with the unfortunate passing of pre in 1975 the chase for gold would not come into fruition but he would be remembered as one of the most prolific American distance Runners to ever live pri's history as a runner is one that resonates with many but his cross country achievements and career were fairly underlooked All Things Considered because there were quite a few gems where some athletes proved he wasn't exactly Invincible at times but then in typical Prefontaine fashion he theatrically counteracted that notion by his sophomore year of college and his knack for pushing the pace at every meet he could breaking course record after another will forever be revered by hardcore pre fans because he truly deeply cared about racing with pure guts regardless of the sport at hand thank you to all my patrons for supporting the channel and if you want to support the channel for more content like this come on over and become a patron drop a sub and check out my other links below I'll see you on whatever video I upload next and take [Music] care [Music]

Channel: RunnerBoi

Views: 36,787

Keywords: prefontaine, prefontaine xc, prefontaine cross country, steve prefontaine, steve prefontaine high school, steve prefontaine race, pre xc race, pre xc, pre cross country, ncaa cross country pre, prefontaine ncaa, prefontaine olympics, pre olympics

Id: 2E_FTHPHtvo

Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 04 2023