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Hoka One One Postal Nationals - The 1972 Lompoc legacy

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DyeStatCAL.com   Nov 19th 2014, 4:47pm
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Lompoc 1972

Lompoc's 1972 boys cross country legacy, including CIF Southern Section title and Postal Nationals records, is stronger than ever

By Erik Boal, DyeStatCAL Editor

There might not have been a California state championship for the Lompoc boys cross country team to pursue in 1972, but there were national records to chase and a legacy to secure.

With the recent revival of the HOKA ONE ONE National High School 2-mile Postal competition across the country, that Lompoc dynasty continues to stand the test of time more than four decades after one of the greatest seasons in prep cross country history.

From 1958 to 1982, Track and Field News and the United States Track and Field Federation organized 2-mile postal events held on tracks throughout the nation. A team's five fastest times from the races were used to rank the top prep programs in the country.

Perhaps the highlight of that era was the Nov. 4, 1972 performance of Lompoc's lineup on the dirt track at Westminster High School in Southern California.

"It was set up for us to break a record," said Jim Warrick, who has remained connected with the Lompoc program following his graduation as the Braves' coach for the past 33 seasons.

"We knew if we all ran to our potential, we had a great shot at the record."

Competing in flats against a field of more than 50 athletes, Terry Williams, Alvin Gilmore, Jim Schankel, Tony Nunez and Warrick all ran faster than 9 minutes, 30 seconds in the 2-mile competition.

With Williams leading the way at 8:58.4, Lompoc set a postal national record of 46:21, smashing the previous standard of 47:11 set by Maine East of Park Ridge, Ill., in 1970.

"I think we knew we had the opportunity to do something big," Williams said. "We wanted to go for all of these things, but when we started, we didn't know it would all happen the way it did."

Gilmore clocked 9:15, Schankel ran 9:17, Warrick finished in 9:20 and Nunez completed the race in 9:29 to help Lompoc defeat runner-up Merced by more than one minute.

Lompoc's effort remains the fastest collection of five 2-mile times by a California high school team and one of the top five in U.S. prep history, including 3,200-meter conversions. Steve Galbraith, Lompoc's No. 6 runner at Westminster, further demonstrated the team's depth by clocking 9:37.

"We ran every day. Even if we had a meet that day, we ran before school. We ran a lot of miles and a lot of quality miles. Terry said it best when he said that we were doing what the Kenyans were doing, we just didn't know they were doing it," Warrick said. "We had nine guys go on to run in college. Sometimes our best races were when the varsity would run Tuesday to determine who would be on the line for the meet that week. You had to give it your all just to be in the varsity lineup every week."

There were also 3-mile postal national races held from 1969-78 and after capturing its fourth consecutive CIF Southern Section title, Lompoc again rose to the occasion Dec. 9 on a windy day at Allan Hancock College in nearby Santa Maria.

Williams again led the way in 13:53.8, followed by Schankel (14:27.8), Warrick (14:54.8), Roger Fabing (14:58.8) and Galbraith (15:09.8) to set the national record of 73:25, despite facing no outside competition.

"We had a plan. (Terry) had a plan and the plan was all about Nov. 4 and Dec. 9, and breaking those records," Warrick said. "It was not an easy day. Gilmore didn't run. Nunez didn't run. It was hard to stay motivated, but we knew we had to run 73 minutes to have a shot at it."

It was a demanding schedule, but with Williams as a master motivator, one Lompoc was ready to embrace in an effort to validate its status as one of the nation's elite distance programs.

It was a foundation established by coach Frank Hiatt, who led Lompoc to a CIF Southern Section Division 2-A title in 1969 and a Division 3-A championship in 1970 before leaving for Indiana.

Dick Johnson was Hiatt's successor, but the guidance of Williams and a close-knit bond among the student-athletes were instrumental in Lompoc adding Division 4-A titles in the section's large-school grouping in 1971 and '72.

"We were just a bunch of kids who were just running as hard as we could. Terry led us, but he also expected a lot out of us. He was our coach," said Fabing, who has coached for seven seasons at nearby Orcutt Academy.

"It's pretty amazing because it was such a long, demanding season. Back in those days, you had dual meets every week, so we had 11 meets before CIF, including Postal Nationals. But we ran hard and we ran to win in every one of them."

In between the national records, Lompoc secured the most lopsided victory in section history with a 26-118 victory over Palos Verdes in the Division 4-A final at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

Williams, who captured the Division 3-A championship in 1970, won the Division 4-A individual title by covering the old 2-mile Mt. SAC course in 9:48, with Schankel fifth in 10:22, Warrick sixth in 10:23, Gilmore eighth in 10:29 and Fabing 10th in 10:33. Lompoc's sixth and seventh runners were Nunez and Galbraith in 16th and 17th, both ahead of Palos Verdes' top finisher.

"We came into a program that had high expectations. In cross country, you think it's a group of individuals, but we were really a team," said Gilmore, the 1973 state champion in the mile (4:11.4).

"It was the atmosphere we lived in. There was an expectation of greatness. No team is successful without a legacy to live up to."

Lompoc's impact on the sport is still present today, with its Oct. 21 induction into the Mt. SAC Hall of Fame, becoming the first team to receive the prestigious honor. The group has already been recognized in the National High School Federation Hall of Fame.

"To have a team that could all run 9:20 or better from five guys that started out as freshmen and couldn't run 11 minutes or 11:30 is incredible," said Williams, a 4-year All-American at University of Oregon.

"It was about being competitive. We did a lot of competitive racing in practice and it was a big deal to have a competitive race to see who ran that week, so we got really good at that competition side."

And without a state title to strive for, or the Kinney or Foot Locker National Championships to race in, and long before the creation of Nike Cross Nationals, Lompoc knew the 2-mile and 3-mile Postal Nationals were the barometers to determine success nationally in prep cross country.

"I see a lot of people going through the motions and I don't know how you teach that. I kind of wonder how it really worked at our place, but we did run hard together and we pushed each other to set records," Williams said. "We just had a confluence of special events happen back in those days."

More than 40 years later, high school runners in California and across the country have an opportunity to measure themselves against Lompoc by participating in Hoka One One 2-mile Postal competitions, including Dec. 4 at Cerritos College.

There is another Southern California event Dec. 12 at Carpinteria High, not far from where Lompoc established its legacy. To sign up your team, go to http://www.hokaoneonepostalnationals.com



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