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Throwback Thursday - 1993 Mead XC - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Oct 11th 2013, 12:39am
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20 years ago: Mead's cross country nirvana

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Pat Tyson thinks back on the team he coached 20 years ago at Mead High School in Spokane and sometimes it feels seems like it happened last week.

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So vivid were the characters on the 1993 Mead cross country team -- and so dominant -- that the Panthers are on a short list of the greatest of all-time.

This was the peak year for a Mead program that ran roughshod through the decade of the 1990s in Washington, winning nine straight state championships (and 12 total under Tyson).

The 1993 team was second in a row to be ranked No. 1 by Marc Bloom's Harrier Magazine.

Mead 1993 team

It was the team that went 1-2-3 at the Washington state cross country meet. It was the team that set the Woodbridge course record in California that lasted for 17 years, until Arcadia broke it in 2010.

And it was the team that put two runners -- brothers Matthew, a senior, and Micah Davis, a junior -- in the Top 10 at Foot Locker Nationals.

"When that team was running together it was a beautiful thing to watch," said Tyson, now the men's cross country and track coach at Gonzaga University. "Perfect arm motions, perfect strides, they looked collegiate. They just had it."

Mead -- and it's centerpiece, in particular, Matthew Davis -- have come to stand for a particular time period. In the early 1990s, the grunge rock blasting out of amplifiers in Seattle was heard loud and clear across the state in Spokane. Think mosh pits and flannel shirts, and a boys cross country team swept up in its own collective desire do something great as a "band."  

Davis was not a prototypical runner. He was muscled and barrel-chested, an update of the Steve Prefontaine mold. And his coach, Tyson, preached the lessons he learned from his 1960s idols, Gerry Lindgren and Rick Riley, and Pre, his former college roommate in Eugene.

Davis fit in with the skateboarding and grunge crowd. A star at cross country meets, he was approachable and unassuming out of his blue-and-gold singlet. In the halls of school, he often wore headphones plugged into a Walkman that spun the cassette tapes of obscure, full-throttle alternative bands.

As a runner, he set himself apart with three Washington cross country titles and a three-mile best of 14:09 as a senior in 1993 at Sun Willows Golf Course. He ran with the same wild abandon as the music that blared in his head. But he never tuned out his teammates, or his coach.

"I never listened to music while I ran in high school," Davis said. "I always felt like you'd lose your mental toughness."

Mental toughness was an attribute that was frequently attached to Davis. Prior to the Foot Locker regional meet Davis slipped on a sheet of ice in Spokane during a hill workout and injured his knee. He didn't run a step for more than a week prior to the race in Fresno and yet when he got there he won it, beating Meb Keflezighi.

Matthew Davis, circa 1993A week later, and after another lost week of training, Davis ran with the leaders at the Foot Locker Finals through the mid-point before Adam Goucher (the winner) and Keflezighi got away from him.

"He didn't let an injury consume him," Tyson said. "There was no negativitiy, no self-doubt. He just went for it."

In the week that followed, Davis underwent surgery to remove the ilio-tibial band in his injured knee.

But the Mead team was more than Davis. Four runners on that team went on to run for Tyson's alma mater -- the University of Oregon -- during Bill Dellinger's final seasons as head coach.

"It's really rare when you find a group of people who choose to unite around one purpose," Davis said. "There was such an energy between us and Tyson. What he said was it. Period. There was no (needing to) convince of anybody." 

At the state cross country meet Mead's five ran 14:09, 14:46, 14:48, 15:13 and 15:43. Fifth man Skiy DeTray actually had an off day. He would later run 9:06 in the 3,200 on the track and qualify for Foot Locker in 1994.

"I was relentless about not letting the 1960s and 70s disappear," Tyson said. "We carried on (those lessons). We were not going to let up. We were going to carry the stick with the cutting edge stuff but it was all about running the landscape, throwing out the watches and (just) running."

All five of them -- the Davises, DeTray, Rob Aubrey and Greg James -- won at least one Washington state track title in either the 1,600 or 3,200. (That was possible, in part, because Matt Davis was injured in the spring of 1994). All five ran under 4:13 for 1,600 meters.

In the spring of 1995, DeTray beat Micah Davis in a thrilling state final of the 1,600, 4:08.51 to 4:09.15.

"We combined our energies," DeTray told the Seattle Times. "We're a part of each other. We use each other. It's just a spiritual experience."

That's the way it felt back then. In Greater Spokane League dual meets, the Mead team of that era practically flew over courses like flocks of Canadian geese, connected and yet free at the same time.

The Mead dynasty was influential throughout the Northwest, but particularly in the history-rich Greater Spokane League. Teams like North Central, Ferris, University and Central Valley all found ways to step up and respond to the challenge of competing against Mead.

"I was still getting started then, and wet behind the ears," said coach Jon Knight of cross-town rival North Central, whose team won the 2008 NXN title. "I remember getting whipped by them. I love Pat Tyson. He's one of the few guys that can go 1-through-7 on you and make you feel like you've had a good day."

Tyson's way with his runners was also a big reason why his teams were special.

"Especially for young guys, he has that weird sense," Davis said. "He believes in you more than anyone else can. He's casting a vision for you and you start to see the vision for yourself. He's very smart when it comes to his ability to coach." 

Mike Lee, who coaches Lewis & Clark High in the Greater Spokane League, is a 1995 Mead graduate who witnessed and ran with the 1993 team every day.

"Dream Team is a pretty good descriptor of it," Lee said. "It was group of guys that had a few things going for it. One was natural running talent. Two, was a great coach. And three, they bought into it and worked together to accomplish their goals. Sometimes we see these great pieces but it's not often when we see all those things come together."

Davis' injury problems lingered after his final cross country season, not only ruining his senior track season but diminishing his long-term potential. (He was, however, an All-American at Oregon several times over).

During his three years at Mead he was widely regarded as the best athlete in the school. The football coach once told Tyson, "He's the greatest competitior in our school. I wish he could have played football for me."

But what Lee remembers about him is that he was also the coolest kid in school. (Today, Davis is the CEO of a creative agency in Michigan).

A month after the 1993 Foot Locker final, where he got third, Nirvana played at the Spokane Coliseum on Jan. 6, 1994.

"I was there and Matthew was there," Lee said. "Nirvana was very big and this was their last show (in Spokane). But I remember him saying 'Nirvana is way too mainstream for me. I'm here to see the (opening act) Butthole Surfers.'

"Such a cool guy," Lee said. "Just when I felt like I had something in common with him, and he was ahead (of the curve) into something else."

 

1993 BOYS HARRIER NATIONAL RANKINGS​
1.Mead HS, Spokane, WA
2.Kingwood HS, Kingwood, TX
3.Thousand Oaks HS, Thousand Oaks, CA
4.Gallup HS, Gallup, NM
5.Mountain View HS, Orem, UT
6.York HS, Elmhurst, IL
7.St. Ignatius HS, Cleveland, OH
8.Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, NJ
9.Council Rock HS, Newtown, PA
10.Carmel HS, Carmel, IN
11.Pioneer HS, Ann Arbor, MI
12.Suffern HS, Suffern, NY
13.Jesuit HS, Carmichael, CA
14.Southview HS, Sylvania, OH
15.Mission Bay HS, San Diego, CA
16.MacArthur HS, Houston, TX
17.Bear Creek HS, Lakewood, CO
18.Westwood HS, Mesa, AZ
19.Monroe HS, Monroe, MI
20.Santa Ana HS, Santa Ana, CA
21.St. Francis HS, Toledo, OH
22.Buchholz HS, Gainesville, FL
23.McCullough HS, The Woodlands, TX
24.Cherry Creek HS, Englewood, CO
25.Wayzata HS, Plymouth, MN



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12 comment(s)
Noah Skocilich
I ran for LC and was the same year at Micah and Skiy. It was an honor sharing the track and the cross country course with those guys for four years, and with Greg, Rob, and Matt for the two years I was running in the some meets as them.

They made everyone better, and Tyson exuded such positivity to everyone who was a part of the sport.

Sidenote just for fun - I was at the Nirvana concert described in this post and remember seeing the Mead guys there. They were legends even then, and in my mind that was almost as cool as seeing Nirvana themselves.
Caviezel
I had a daughter running for Ferris around this time. Mead actually gave her an award at one time. I was shocked, a competing school recognizing a runner from another school. That was the greatness of Pat Tyson.
dkap
Hayward, that article reminds me of Grote always saying to never count Matt Davis out, even if he showed up to the meet on crutches. A stretcher, maybe.

Dan
hayward102
I had the original of this cut out of the paper and always enjoyed it. As it relates to Matt Davis and touches on the Mead connection, I thought I'd share it.

http://www.spokesman...s-from-shining/


Thanks for the additional information Doug. I also did find the new spacing easier to read. Thanks again for the article.
DougB
A little bit extra about Mead ...

After a week of trying to reach Matthew Davis I finally got a text from him late yesterday afternoon and then talked to him on the phone a few hours after that. I had already posted the story in its original form but I talked with Davis for about an hour and it was time well spent.

He has re-located to Michigan in the past two weeks and is the CEO of a creative agency. He's got a family now and sounded like he was doing great despite the upheaval of a move.

I thought I knew quite a bit about Mead, particularly after working on that book Tyson for the past year and a half. For instance, many people may not realize that Mead was preseason No. 1 in the summer of 1993 and then promptly went to Vale, Oregon for the first meet of the season and got thumped by a team from Utah. (Davis was not in the lineup that day). That loss put a bitter taste in everybody's mouth that was part of that Mead travel party. They were camped out in the gym at Vale High School and at midnight, Tyson took everyone out into the parking lot for a team meeting. It was a moment that sort of galvanized the team and re-focused it. Up to that point, things had been a little too easy.

As a result, Mead lost its No. 1 ranking. The way the Panthers got it back was by going to Foot Locker West (at Woodbridge Park in Fresno) as a full team and crushing the course record there. By then they had already scored a perfect '7' at Sunfair and gone 1-2-3 at the Washington state meet, among other achievements.

One story that I did not know until I talked with Matt last night .... prior to his sophomore year the team went to the White Pass summer running camp. The Mead kids were a bit wild, pulling pranks and perhaps misbehaving a bit. A coach at the camp cornered them at one point and cussed them out, told them they were "losers" and that Mead wouldn't amount to anything. So Davis et al, went back to Spokane ticked off at this particular (college) coach. And for a year straight, they wore their White Pass T-shirts where they had crossed out the words on the front with markers. They used that coach's words as motivation ... as if they needed any more with Tyson as their coach ... and preceded to dominate the state (and Davis won three titles in a row). At some point at the state meet, that coach approached the Mead runners and apologized.

But what's fun to me about that particular era of Mead cross country is that in a small way they sort of made their stamp on Northwest culture ... they got to be about as big a deal as a cross country team could realistically hope to be.

And it makes you wonder ... did those Mead teams factor in to the creation of BorderClash? Did debate about Mead (92-93) and other incredible programs like York and and a few others lead to the creation on Nike Team Nationals?

I'm not sure I could have made those leaps in the story I wrote yesterday but I think they are worth considering.
dkap

Chardongirls1978, on , said:

It's amazing how much overlap there is with the rankings in 1993 and the rankings in 2013. So many schools still have a team in the field.


I noticed the same thing. Impressive staying power.

Dan
DougB

hayward102, on , said:

Great article and a great team. A very enjoyable read.

One quick comment. Is there anyone to change the font/spacing on the website? The articles are pretty hard to read relative to most websites.


OK, maybe that spacing is a little bit better. I would like to see the "article pages" evolve to something a little bit better.
DougB

hayward102, on , said:

Great article and a great team. A very enjoyable read.

One quick comment. Is there anyone to change the font/spacing on the website? The articles are pretty hard to read relative to most websites.


Yeah, I sort of feel the same way. It's something I'm going to try to improve soon.
Chardongirls1978
It's amazing how much overlap there is with the rankings in 1993 and the rankings in 2013. So many schools still have a team in the field.
DontStopPre
Great article. Great team. Nice to "hear" from Davis, Tyson, and Lee looking back on those years from the perspective they have today. And there was no better place than the NW to live in the grunge years! Such an energy! While the music has changed the great running lives on in the NW today.
hayward102
Great article and a great team. A very enjoyable read.

One quick comment. Is there anyone to change the font/spacing on the website? The articles are pretty hard to read relative to most websites.
Coach Bennett
They were the best team during the years I ran XC in HS. We were #8 in 1993. But, Mead was in a class by themselves. Terrific team and a great coach.
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