By Elliott Denman
More verrry good news by our illustrious Shore AC athletes... !!!!! Competing at the University of South Carolina Invitational Meet in Columbia, SC on Saturday, April 20th, Shore AC stalwart Josh Awotunde unleashed a brilliant winning toss of 21.80meters / 71 feet, 6.25 inches in his first shot put competition of the year!!! What a great way to open the season!! What a great omen of much better things to come this Olympic year !! I believe it was Number One throw in the world early this outdoor season and sixth best in the world this year (five indoor marks on top of a list led by Olympic champion and world-record-holder Ryan Crouser at 22.80). Crouser is the only USA athlete ahead of Josh in 2024) And it wasn't very far off Josh's all-time best of 22.29 he attained placing third in the 2022 World Championships !! Josh is a graduate of New Jersey's Delsea High School and the University of South Carolina. Take note, too, that Shore AC member C.J. Licata, the Princeton University graduate competing as a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, placed second with a tremendous/great throw'of his own, 67feet, 3.5 inches !!! Way to go !! And speaking of USC (South Carolina, not Southern California) be reminded that Shore AC's (and the state of New Jersey's) longest-ever discus throw, the similarly illustrious Art Swarts, is a South Carolina, grad, too. Stay tuned for even better news as the Olympic Year season rolls right alon
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Walter MacGowan served as president of The Shore Athletic Club for almost 25 years. He is a dedicated member of the Jersey Shore Running Club and Ocean County Running Club. During his time as president of the Shore A.C.; Walter covered a lot of ground. He competed in local races and USATF long distance running events. He offered his place of business as a home to the club and directed several board meetings annually out of MacGowan Realty in Spring Lake. Walter managed club-hosted events including the Lake Takanassee Summer Series, the Adult XC Series and the Annual Awards Banquet, while also bringing on board Race Directors to assist with the planning and production of each event. He started a club internship program for student athletes part of Monmouth University’s cross country and T&F team. This plan of action gave young adults professional experience in their sport’s industry. Professional runner, Olympic Trialist and All-American Collegian runner, Allie Wilson, was one of his recent interns.
Walter has been a great ambassador of the sport and club supporting youth initiatives, elite, open and masters USATF competition, local community running events and their working committees. Walter’s vision to encourage operational support has positioned the club to grow and impact lives daily. The club is in an effective state of affairs to deliver on its mission “To develop junior and youth, men’s and women’s open and masters track and field athletes, distance and cross-country runners and racewalkers. We strive to activate the human spirit by providing competitive events for all ages and groups, and to promote the entire sport, in all its categories as lifetime activities.” Walter plans to stay involved and now serves as a Lifetime Trustee on the board. A sincere thank you to Walter for all his time, energy and support over the past two decades. The Shore Athletic Club is and will be forever grateful. By ELLIOTT DENMAN
THE FOUR-DAY USATF National Masters Track and Field Championships in Chicago is now a wrap and our Shore AC delegation, we are oh-so-proud to say, has wrapped itself in glory. With a an amazing total of 237 events in the book, the gathered athletes from all over the nations displayed their speed, stamina, strength and skill in age brackets from 25-29 to 94-99 !! Wow!! A total of 121 club teams broke ino the scoring column and the Shore AC delegation - a rather mini-group with just a fraction of us able to get to The Windy City - covered itself in glory. We placed 9th of the 121 combined men's and women's teams with 139 points, 6th of the men's squads with 93 points, and d, and 14th of the women's teams with 46 points. . Potomac Valley (500.5 points) led over-all scoring, So Cal (465) topped the men and TNT(294) the women- but Shore AC, left a whole bunch of noted teams well behind when all the results were tabulated, which was a chore unto itself. Gold medal performances by Dr. Ivan Black and Spider Rossiter were features of Shore AC's Sunday showing. Dr. Black, who'd previously won the M75 triple jump, added another gold by long jumping 10-10 1/2. And he brought his gold medal total to a brilliant five with legs on three separate non-club relay events, Rossiter, who'd previusly won the M70 mile, added another win with his 2:47.21 800 meters. Maurelhena Walles added a bronze with her 4th place in the W45 200 in 28.54. John Kuhi ran 7th in the M75 800 at 4:52. In addition to Black and Rossiter, Shore AC's double gold medalists in club scoring over the four-day meet were racewalker Israel (Jerry) Soto-Duprey (M50), who struck gold in the Thursday and Friday sessions, while throws superstar Oneithea (Neni) Lewis (W60) won a pair of golds on Saturday. The Shore A.C. Masters teams had a good day at the 2024 edition of the famed Millrose
Games in New York. The club this year entered men’s teams in both the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s age group races of the 4 x 400 Relay, with all four teams doing very well. Best of all was the 60’s team comprised of Keith McQuitter, Bill Hughes, Rick Lee and Matt Wallack outracing all other 60’s teams to score a win in 4:30.91, outlasting the second place team, CPTC Tracksmith, who clocked in a 4:31.64. It was the second year in a row that the 60’s team won this event. In a hot race in the 70’s 4 x 400 Relay, the Shore A.C. went head to head with the pre-race favorites, the Houston Elite, an all-star team based in Texas, only to loose due to a baton mishap. The team of Spider Rossiter, Rick Lapp, Harry Nolan and Ken Wilson were running head to head with Houston, with Nolan having passed there runner on the third leg, only to have a lapped runner who Nolan passed on the homestretch stumble and knock the baton out of his hand, loosing valuable seconds in recovering the baton, and allowing Houston to gain a lead that the Shore A.C. could not reduce. The club clocked in with a 5:20.04 to Houston’s 5:13.79. In a second section, the clubs 40’s and 50’s teams were in a hot battle with teams in each age group. The 40’s team, with Matt Colman, Dan Cambell, Jason Bavaro, and Rich Alexander landed a fifth place in good field in 4:27.37, while the clubs 50’s team also ran to a fifth place in 4:22.48. The 50’s runners were Brian Hill, Paul Henry, Ron Brock and Greg Calhoun. In the open club Distance Medley event, the clubs open runners outdid themselves by claiming a third place in a fast 10:07.89, just out leaned by the Pacers/GRC New Balance team, who were timed in 10:07.89 for second place. Brian Hill, Jr., Micheal Twist, Michael Zurzolo, and Jack Shea comprised one of the best DM teams the club has entered over the years at Millrose. The team was organized by club Vice-President Coach Joe Compagni In the invitational One Mile Race Walk, the clubs one entry had a good day. The race, billed as the USATF men’s Mile RW championship, was won by Nick Christie of the New York AC, in 6:01.14. Top club race walker Rich Luettchau clocked in with a good 5th place in 6:58.99. Sitting trackside once again for over seventy years, was the Shore A.C. founder and 1956 Olympian Elliott Denman. Denman, now 90, has been a fixture at this an many other major track events, as both a competitor, sports reporter and spectator going back to the 1940’s. THE PRIDE AND JOY OF WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT HIGH SCHOOL:THE LATE AND TRULY GREAT CHITA RIVERA.2/2/2024 By ELLIOTT DENMAN
I am totally saddened to learn of the passing of the really-truly lithe-limber-lovely-luminous Ms. Chita Rivera, a star of all stars on Broadway, Hollywood, London stages and screens – and lots and lots more, over her seven-decade-plus career in limelights everywhere. You may be saddened, too. We've lost one of the greatest of all. One particulary pertinent reason for me to be writing all this is because we are both alumni of William Howard Taft HighSchool in the Bronx, New York City, that large edifice off the Grand Concourse at 170-172 Street, about a mile from Yankee Stadium. She was as great at her art – singing, dancing, acting – as any of the great Yankees were at theirs. This line from Robert D. McFadden’s tribute in the Jan. 31 New York Times puts it this way: “To generations of musical aficionados, Ms. Rivera was a whirling, bounding, high-kicking, elemental force of the dance, a seductive singer of smoky ballads and sizzling jazz, and a propulsive actress of vaudevillian energy.” Wow! But a further McFadden sentence was more powerful yet: “Critics thumbed thesauruses for hyperboles to rhapsodize about her pyrotechnics.” What a four-pronged supply of superlatives in a single sentence. I never did know Chita Rivera in my Taft years…She was a year after me (I was class of 1950, graduating at 16 1/2; she was Taft ’51.) I did get to write for the Taft newspaper – but just sports. I was that shy, very skinny little kid-manager of Coach Samuel Goldberg’s Taft track team, too. Kind of ironic, because William Howard Taft was the most obese president in American history. But also the only president to serve in another major office (chief justice of the supreme court) after his presidential term. I actually ran just one race for the Taft track team. Taft had 11 willing candidates to run the mile relay the day of the dual meet with Cardinal Hayes. So I volunteered, dropped my manager’s clipboard, and got to anchor the C team that finished half a lap back. The great Taft track star of the day was Merrill Kolbe – the big, lean and verrry fast, Bronx sprint champion and city champion we were sure would dash his way to Olympic stardom. Didn’t happen, didn’t even come close. But a strange million-to-one turn of events did evolve. That skinny team manager and C team mile relay anchor always did love walking. Fourteen mile hikes with the Boy Scouts. Long exploratory strolls around the boroughs on his own. Much fun. Long and short of it, walking (50 klometers of it) became his ticket to Melbourne 1956. But, far as he ever knew, no one at Taft ever noticed. No problem, either. The former skinny team manager was the luckiest of all guys to get that far. But Chita Rivera? Far-far-far-far different story. She had all that it took – “All That Jazz” - from Day One. The world of show biz soon took note. She was Anita in “West Side Story,“ Rosie in “Bye Bye Birdie,” Velma in “Chicago.” She played the title role in “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” She belted out such classic tunes as “America” in “West Side Story,” Spanish Rose” in “Bye Bye Birdie,“ and, yes, “All That Jazz” in “Chicago.” And she’d earn two Tony awards and be nominated for eight more. In 2009 President Barack Obama presented her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony. Yes, Taft High did have such other alumni notables as Stanley Kubrick, Eydie Gorme and Luther Vandross. But the school has come upon harder times in recent years. The one big high school has been sliced into the mini-academies of the Taft Educational Campus. Principal Lisa Luft is at the Taft helm these days. So this suggestion to Ms. Luft: Please, please, call an assembly, do a seminar, invite some historians, do what it takes to remind them all that The Great Chita Rivera once walked these same hallways. Oh, did she have “All That Jazz” – and a whole lot more ! //////// Why this story? Just wanted to invite friends and kind folks out there to share some of my high school memories. Elliott Denman (Taft HS ’50.) Robert Pedersen Jr. of Santa Rosa, California ran off with the 2023 installment of the 60th annual Asbury Park Polar Bear 5K Road Race in brilliant fashion on Saturday, Dec. 30th. First staged in 1964 by Shore Athletic Club, the 60th edition proved one of the best in the long series.
A graduate of Brick Township High School and the University of Oregon and home for the holidays, Pedersen won by a wide margin and broke the tape in a fast 14:49 time, besting his own Polar Bear record of 15:15 which he set in 2021.Never a top finisher in Shore Conference races in his days at Brick, or collegiate events at Oregon, where he ran on the U. of O. club team, Pedersen, representing the McMillan Running Company, where he is a team coach, has burst into stardom at 25. The five-foot-eight, 125-pounder is on the brink of national-caliber status and has a a 29:46 10K and 2:26 marathon to his credit. “I love coming back to the Jersey Shore,” he said. “It always brings back so many memories.” In a hot race for second and third, Michael Zurzolo (15:26) edged Michael Bond (15:28), with fourth going to Brian Hill Jr. with a fine 15:30. All three are teammates with Shore AC and with top college credentials, Zurzolo and Bond with The College of New Jersey and Hill Jr. at Michigan. Zurzolo, Bond and Hill all moved into the top ten best Polar Bear times ever in 5th, 6th and 7th place all-time over a revised and fast one lap course on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, into Ocean Grove and Bradley Beach, out back and return.. Among those knocked out of the all time top ten was former four time winner and 1968 U.S. Olympian Bill Reilly, the Long Branch High School graduate from Oceanport.. . In the women’s race, Nicolette Mateescu of Kendall Park, the former Rider University star and Olympic Trials marathoner, finished first with a wide lead, clocking in at 18:34, placing her in the sixth spot of the top ten all time best times for women. Shore AC member Emma Cary, former Sacred Heart University star (19:22) and Katie Deslere (19:50) were second and third place finishers. For Emma and her mother, Nora Cary, the famed National Masters champion for Shore AC, this was definitely a family affair. Nora Cary was a notable 22:26 winner in the women’s over-all Masters and 65-69 categories and placed eighth over-all.. But the day’s loudest cheers were saved for the greatest Polar Bear of all. Running in the race for the 60th time, having never missed a Polar Bear race, was Dr.Harry Nolan, of Shore AC and Middletown. A nine time winner of the race over the years – no one is even close to that distinction – he won the 75-79 age division race in 28:29. “This is just a very special race,” said Nolan, who also serves as official Polar Bear historian. “Nothing will ever keep me away.” Honoring the race’s grand history, four other past men’s winners were in the field, too. Justin Scheid (the 2016-2018 winner and 2017-2019-2022 runner-up), ran sixth this time. Joseph Amoresano (2012 champion) placed 14th, Nolan Kus (2020 winner) was 17th and Jeremy Stratton (1994 winner) 108th.. “Great to be invited back,” said Stratton, a former top runner in Great Britain. “Glad to be back. This race has such tremendous history.” Men’s over-all Masters (40-up) champion was Marc Blanco, new Shore AC member from West Long Branch, ninth in 17:24. In the companion 5k racewalk, Shore AC star Rich Luettchau of Bridgewater, former USA 10K racewalk titlist and twice previous Polar Bear champion, returned to the winner’s circle in 24:11. Walker-up to him was Emesh Fernando of Clementon ( 31:11). Maria Paul of Shore AC and Long Branch, led the way in the women’s 5K, taking her eighth all-time Polar Bear win with a 35:14 clocking. Twenty –six walkers crossed the line. The day‘s program opened with the 1-mile run and saw Michael Rivera of Chatham (5:20) lead the boys and C. Thieme of Manasquan (6:38) the girls. The race drew a best-ever 548 entrants, runners and walkers, taking part in the event considered to be the oldest road race in the Jersey Shore and one of the oldest in New Jersey and the nation. The race was began by then-Asbury Park Press sportswriter Elliott Denman in 1964, with the assistance of Asbury Park recreation chairman William “Butch” Bruno, and the city’s famed publicist, George Zuckerman. Denman, a 1956 and a 1956 U.S. Olympian in the 50-kilometer racewalk, will mark his 90th birthday on Jan. 23. “I had health issues last year and had to miss the Polar Bear Race,” said Denman. “So it was great to be back and able to cheer everybody on.” . The race was conducted by the Shore Athletic Club, under the direction of Erin O’Neill and Coach Joe Compagni, and their team of enthusiastic volunteers. “Absolutely awesome that Harry (Nolan) finished his 60th in a row,” said Compagni. “ I don’t know where one would go to find out who might have a similar streak, but it has to be one the longest/best such accomplishments, especially since Harry also has so many wins and top ten finishes and age group wins in that streak. “And a big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who helped out to make the race a big success! “ “Santa Claus” – alias noted ex-Rutgers distance star Dave DeMonico, a frequent winner on the Shore Area racing circuit over the years – was on hand for the event, too. After leading the 5K runners with his trumpet rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner” at the start, DeMonico encouraged them with trumpet salutes along the way. And when that was done, he peeled off his Santa suit and led a small group of runners in the traditional Atlantic Ocean dip. “Sure it was cold, and I got knocked over by a rogue wave, but that’s all part of the Polar Bear event, too. Never want to miss it.” Serving as official starter was Shore AC trustee Wayne Baker, assisted by the honorary starter, City of Asbury Park councilwoman Eileen Chapman. With its slate of 2023 events in the books – all successes in participation and enthusiasm – Shore AC now looks ahead to a big 2024 calendar. The club’s annual Awards Banquet is set for March 10 at The English Manor, Ocean Township. Its first competitive event will be the 59th annual Capt Ronald Zinn Memorial Races, April 14 at Dorbrook Park, Colts Neck Township. For details on all Shore AC events: www.ShoreAC.org. For full Polar Bear results: Runsignup.com. For the official Polar Bear video. (With story assistance of Elliott Denman.) 12/30/23
Robert Pederson of California ran off with the 2023 installment of the 60th annual Asbury Park Polar Bear 5k Road Race. He broke the tape in a fast 14:48.47 time, breaking his own record of 15:14.18 which he set in 2021. In a hot race for second and third, Michael Zurzolo (15:27. 26) edged Michael Bond (15:27.86). Fourth place finisher Brian Hill Jr. also figured into the race with a fine `15:29.32. Zurzolo, Bond and Hill all moved into the top ten best times ever in 5th, 6th and 7th place over a revised fast one lap out and back course on the Asbury Park Boardwalk. Among those knocked out of the all time top ten was former four time winner and U.S. Olympian Bill Reilly. In the women’s race, Nicolette Mateesou finished first with a wide lead, clocking in at 18:33.38, placing her in the sixth spot of the top ten all time best times for women. Emma Cary (19.21.65) and Katie Deslere (19:34.72) settled for the second and third place finishers. Running in the race for the 60th time, having never missed a Polar Bear race was Dr. Harry Nolan. A nine time winner of the race over the years, he won the 75-79 age division race. In the 5k Race Walk, the winner was Rich Luchaw in 24:11, followed by Emesh Fernando ( 26:11) and the veteran John Fredricks (37:20. Maria Paul took the womens race in 30.14. Over 500 runners and race walkers took part in this years event, which is considered to be the oldest road race in the Jersey Shore and one of oldest in New Jersey. The race was began by Elliott Denman in 1964, now 90 and a 1956 U.S. Olympian. The race was conducted by the Shore Athletic Club, under the direction of Erin O’Neill and Coach Joe Compagni. · ASBURY PARK - “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” · That, of course, is the historic creed of the nation’s mail carriers, and it’s the · message inscribed atop the entrances to the solid-block main · General Post Office building at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, New York City, directly opposite Madison Square Garden. But it can be paraphrased to the philosophy of the Asbury Park Polar Bear Race Carnival runners and race walkers, too, who are gearing up for the 60th annual edition of the boardwalk classic, to be held on Saturday, December 30th. Their version might go this way: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor cold nor sleet nor impending blizzards nor any other weather challenges you can think of have ever stayed these athletes from the swift completion of their appointed Polar Bear rounds.” While a big field will gather on the boardwalk Dec. 30 (for the special 1-mile race at 9:30 a.m., the featured 5K (3.1-mile) run at 10 a.m., and the 5K racewalk (and walk) at 10:05, no athlete exemplifies the Polar Bear spirit better than Dr. Harold Nolan of Middletown Township. Now 76, Nolan has – incredibly – run all 59 previous editions of the Polar Bear Races. And, for sure/for sure, he’ll back running his 60th on December 30. Nolan, a charter member and now lifetime trustee of the host Shore Athletic Club, is hugely proud of all that history. This event is one of the very few in the nation – or anywhere – that has been held that long without interruption. All those weather variations - bitter cold or surprising heat , snow or sleet or perfectly dry - have been Polar Bear experience since the very first of them in 1964. Covid couldn’t cause a halt, either. A mini-group of the most determined showed up anyway. “ The Polar Bear event has always meant something special to me, as it was the first major road race I had ever run,” Nolan tells you. “ Being a 17 year old (Middletown Township) high school senior, all of my races had been at the high school level. “ It would open his eyes to a whole new world in the sport. He met many more of these early-days running pioneers and he’s kept running…and running…and running. Yes, and winning the Polar Bear men’s championship title nine times, and recording some of the event’s all-time top times, too. “Polar Bear is the oldest road race in the Jersey Shore, and one of the first of its kind in New Jersey,” said Nolan. “Through injury, illness, and travels from Nebraska and Utah and New Hampshire in past years, I have somehow managed to make it to the Polar Bear starting line. Understandably, Nolan has a vast and nostalgia-filled collection of Polar Bear memories. Some of them: “Racing there as a high school student, then as a college runner home from Nebraska on holiday break, running as an open (post-college) athlete, my son being born the evening after I had run in the 1986 Polar Bear, and later as a Masters (40-up) runner. Over all of these decades, I have always looked forward to seeing old running friends who often show up either to run or just to say hello, and talk about our past races.” Along with weather situations, there have been many changes over the years. The featured run started as a 5K, moved up to five mies, and now is back at 5K. One year blizzrdy year, it was cut to two miles. The companion racewalk has been a 10-miler for most of its history, and now is 5K. Courses have varied, too – depending on conditions - and now it’s an out-and-back 5K on the boardwalk. Many greats of the sport – Olympians, national champions, internationalists, collegiate and high school stars, etc. - have been Polar Bears. Very first 5K run winner was John McDonnell, later to become the most successful track coach in the nation at the University of Arkansas Very first 10-mile walk champion was Ron Daniel, now of Clinton, Ct., who in 1984 served as director of racewalking events at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Top all-time men’s 5K clockings have been Robert Pedersen (15:14) in 2021. And these four, all in 1975: Marty Liquori (15:23), Vince Cartier (15:25), Harold Nolan (15:27) and Tom Aspel (15:35) Fastest ever 10-mile walker was Andres Chocho of Ecuador (1:10:18) in 2009. Fastest women over the years have been runner Kerry Dyke (17:35 5K in 2019) and walker Stella Cashman (1:27:50 in 1988.) In addition to running in all 59 prevous Polar Bear races, Nolan is also the event’s chief historian. His annual resuts/history compilations are yet another Polar Bear feature. The Polar Bear story began in 1964, as joint effort of the then-new Shore AC (and its first president, Elliott Denman), the Asbury Park Recreation Committee (chaired by famed APHS football coach Wiiliam “(Butch” Bruno, and the storied Asbury Park public relations director, George Zuckerman. Denman, a 1956 USA 50K Olympic racewalker and retired Asbury Park Press sports writer and columnist, competed in many of those early Polar Bear races, and had been on hand – in a variety of capacities - for the first 58 of them, until illness kept him away in 2022. But he’s on the rebound and promises to be back for the 2023 edition. As Nolan sums it all up, “this event has survived for many years, where other races have come and gone, and I hope to be continuing to run in it for the years to come…and with Elliott still cheering everyone on the sidelines.” Want entry information? Go to: www.Runsignup.com/race/NJ/AsburyPark/sburyprkpolarbearraces. . Or www.shoreac.org. By ELLIOTT DENMAN
“Running has been an amazing/amazing sport to me,” the Masterful Rick Lee tells you. And a growing list of Masters long distance running devotees will tell you that Rick Lee is an “amazing, amazing runner.” Has there ever been a stretch of Marvelous Masters Marathoning (and stardom over other distances, both longer and shorter) to match Rick Lee’s in 2023? By year’s end, he’ll have run in (appropriately) 52 races and meets. They’ve been spread over three continents and were as long as 55 miles and as abbreviated as 400 meters. And, almost always, as USA Masters 60 number one . Look at these sizzling 2023 clockings: Most recently, 7:55.24 at the brutal JFK 50-mile road-and-trail test of heart and soul –and sole – from Boonsboro to Williamsport, Maryland on November 18. And, just before that, 2:55:18 : at the TCS New York Marathon Nov. 5; 3:29:30 (an American record) at the Marine Corps 50K in Arlington, Va. Oct. 29, passing the marathon mark in 2:54:48; 2:48:17 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Oct. 8, and 2:51:46 at the BMW Berlin Marathon Sept. 24. Add ‘em all up and that’s about 152 miles miles of brilliant racing. He wasn’t exactly resting on his laurels on his “off” marathoning weekends this fall, either. Not at all. He’d run a 1:15:06 in the USATF National 20K in New Haven Sept. 4, 43:25 in the Hook Or Crook USATF Masters National 12K at Sandy Hook on Sept. 17; and 1:22:22 in the Atlantic City Half Marathon on Oct. 22. And for a little “speed work,” he blazed a 5:10 to win his age group title in New York’s Fifth Avenue Mile Sept. 10. By current American standards, all those performances would have been quite excellent for any younger guy. But Rick Lee, a five-foot-five, 107-pound, gingerly-striding resident of Bayville, Berkeley Township, New Jersey, is 62 years old. The solid majority of those performances represented USA M60 (men’s 60-64) divisional triumphs. And for those rare occasions he didn’t get to beat his domestic and international contemporaries, he was right on their heels. Marvelous, sizzling, brilliant. He’s clearly earned the right to toot his own horn, as they say. But you’ll never, ever catch him doing that. “Rick Lee loves to run and challenge himself,” said USATF Masters guru Paul Carlin, the man universally known as “The Running Professor.” Rick Lee will tell you that it’s all just labor of love, a pastime he first took up seriously little more than three years ago…and look at him now -- virtually unbeatable by his fellow senior runners. He’s also the very-very proud representative of the Shore Athletic Club, a club whose roots date back to the 1930s, whose rosters have included three USATF National Hall of Famers, John Borican, Eulace Peacock and Maren Seidler, and a long array of Olympians, National champions, and Masters Hall of Famers. While Shore AC has a record dating back nearly 90 years, its new and shining star is a relative newcomer to this distance running game. Many of Shore AC’s other stalwarts have been “ around the block” a few times, as they say. Comparatively speaking, Lee (who’ll mark his 63rd birthday March 10, 2024) is a novice to many of his clubmates. Some of the club’s age-group-racing kids have been at it longer than he has. He’s tireless. He’s terrific. He’s never lost stamina. His calendar just runs Into occasional gaps - out of marathons to run. “It’s never been a chore,” he tells you. These days, on the World Marathon Majors level, the planet’s top-echelon 26.2-milers almost always limit themselves to two big marathon starts a year. And just a handful to three of them. Well, Rick Lee ran five of them (and two were “ultras”) in a stretch of eight weekends this autumn. “I understand perfectly why those guys (the elite professionals, many with roots in East Africa) do that,” he tells you. “They get paid for what they do. They’re already pushing their limits. To many of them, too. they’ve been running (or walking) long distances all their lives. As kids, to go to school and back. If they’re asked to go out and get firewood, so they can cook dinner, they get it. If they’re asked to fetch grass, so they can feed the cow, they get it. “I totally respect these runners.” But it’s not him. Born in South Korea, he came to America at an early age. A graduate of Elizabeth (N.J.) High School, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, he’s had to work long and hard, up the societal ladder, finding his way in the world. He used his engineering background to establish his own firm, focusing on formulation, calibration, instrumentation and quality control in the petrochemical field. So, as his own boss, he can now plot out his own working hours and travel schedule. Early mornings are for training hours. A typical week sees him running 70 to 90 miles – comfortable miles - either on the trail runs he prefers – usually wearing a weighted vest – or in a weekend race. “I am not a picky eater,” he says. “I love to cook. But no hamburgers, no French fries, and like that. But most everything else.” In appropriate servings. And periods of fasting. His major recreation for many of those pre-running days? Leisurely piloting his 32-foot sailboat around nearby and historic Barnegat Bay. His “significant other” for the past five years has been Clarina Azarcon. She’s been his traveling companion and running partner, too – and shares this marathoning passion with him. With all this running under his belt, it’s not as if he’d been twiddling his thumbs on those non-marathoning weekends, either. He simply turned sprinter – relatively speaking. And kept on winning…and winning (almost always in the M60 bracket but quite often against the younger guys, too.) In between, he stuck to home cooking in leading the Masters parades at Shore AC’s historic Takanassee Lake 5K Races in Long Branch in July and August. But the July 20-23 weekend was a little different. All he did was enter seven M60 races at the USATF National Masters Championships in Greensboro, N.C. and take golds in five of them. He was totally tireless, in the meet that was open to athletes of all ages, from 25 to a century-plus. His firsts came in the 1500 meters (4:52.41), 5000 meters (18:00.5), 10,000 meters (37:22.29) and in his debut as a 2,000-meter steeplechaser, that event, too (7:33.36) For good measure, he ran on the winning M60 4x800 relay team (9:31.06.) He placed seventh in the 800 (2:26.44) and only in the 400 (1:04.13) did he miss the top echelon. Backtracking further, June 9 saw him take on his biggest 2023 challenge of all, the classic 55-mile double-marathon-plus Comrades Marathon race in South Africa, Durban “down” (net altitude loss) to Pietermaritzburg, with its starting field of 16,000. Those final miles were a huge challenge but he still battled home in 7:48:55 to place fourth over-all in M60. Only one other American M60, Avi Moss, had the courage and get-up-and-go to enter this one, As expected in this race – the African continent’s biggest event – Africans led the way. The Comrades champion: South Africa’s Titi Dijana in a course-record 5:13.58. April? That was Boston time, of course. In his third straight Boston M60 win, he cruised home in 2:46:36. His 2022 campaign was brilliant, too. After leading Boston M60s in 2021 (his rookie year as a 60) in 2:49.57, he led all M60s again in 2022 (2:47.58). But his big-big-big one of 2022 surely was late March’s seven-day, not-for-Boy Scouts 160-mile Marathon Des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) through the Moroccan Sahara. As would-be entrants are formally warned: “Finishing it – or simply running in it – is no joke.” Its most brutal descriptives: “Temperatures well over 100 degress (Fahrenheit.) Plenty of blistering sunshine.” Not a man to be scared away, Rick Lee still ran the legendary MDS (cumulative time) in 12 hours, 38 minutes, 7 seconds. One primary Rick Lee target remains: Californian Brian Pilcher’s USA M60 marathon record: 2:42:42 at Chicago 2016. Some bottom lines: Does Rick Lee have any special running gifts? What are his secrets? How long can he do all these things? Answers: (a) None. (b) None. (c) Hopefully forever. By ELLIOTT DENMANQuestion: Over the years, which college town in America stands atop the podium as home to residents and guests coursing serious track and field through their veins?
Eugene, Oregon? Ann Arbor, Michigan? Des Moines, Iowa? Gainesville, Florida? Austin, Texas? Let me tell you they’re all Johnnies-Come-Lately on the collegiate track and field block. Let me remind you that they’ve been doing this running-jumping-throwing thing in Princeton, New Jersey for a century and a half. And they’re still very much at it. Princeton University has been fielding track and field teams since 1873. The Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America - you know, the IC4A – staged its first meet in 1876. The first team champion: the Princeton University Tigers. The first Tiger individual winner: J.W. Mann, champion in both the shot put…and baseball throw. Team USA at the first Modern Olympic Games – Athens1896 – was almost all men of Princeton (oh, with a handful of Harvard guys) and organized by Princeton professor William Milligan Sloane. The Games’ first double winner: Princeton’s Robert Garrett , in the shot put and discus. The second Olympic 100-meter champion: Princeton’s Frank Jarvis in 1900. America’s first great outdoor-meet spectaculars: Those sensational Princeton Invitationals of the 1930s (featuring such greats as Glenn Cunningham, Jack Lovelock, Sydney Wooderson and Princeton’s own Bill Bonthron) racing before vast crowds at Palmer Stadium. Jesse Owens?? His route to quadruple golden glory at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was built on his epic performances at the ’36 National AAU’s at Palmer Stadium. Over the years, Palmer Stadium had been the scene of nine world record performances. All this while Princeton’s own varsity teams (coached by such notables as Keane Fitzpatrick, Matt Geis, Pete Morgan and Larry Ellis) kept their Tigers in the sport’s highest echelons,for years and years more. All this, too, is by way of saying that the last 46 years of Princeton men’s track – under the expert guidance of Fred Samara, successor to Ellis, his own mentor – have been among the finest of all. With the Heptagonal Championships – now featuring the eight Ivy League schools, and formerly, Army and Navy – the team’s primary focus, the Tigers have been by far the over-all “Heps” dominators in Samara’s tenure. The “Heps” box score through The Samara Era at Princeton: 10 triple crowns (cross country, indoor track, outdoor track), a total of 51 team titles, along with a whopping 502 individual titlists. Samara, inducted into the National Collegiate Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017, has guided Tigers to nine NCAA individual titles, and nine of his top pupils made it to the Olympic Games (as he did, too, in 1976.) Among the most notable: multi-national high jump champion Tora Harris, two-time Olympic steeplechaser Donn Cabral, and celebrated pole vaulter Sondre Guttormsen, whose credentials include three NCAA golds, one Eurpean title (for his homeland of Norway) and 2021 Tokyo Olympian. But Samara’s last two Tiger teams may have been the best of them all. Sondre Guttormsen, along with brother Simen, were vital ingredients in the success of his 2022 Tigers: fifth at NCAA’s indoors, seventh at NC’s outdoors. . Then again, nothing is forever, a fact of life Samara, 73, admitted back in June in announcing his retirement. There came a time and this was it. But all his Princeton colleagues, athletes and friends were not about to let him simply disappear from the Tiger scene without a big, buoyant goodbye salute, either. And they did it in style, too, last Saturday night (Oct. 21, 2023) at the Westin Forrestal Village Center. Over 280 crammed the ballroom – festooned with “Farewell to Fred” signage and presented with “Fred’s Fans” pins - to say their formal goodbyes. At tradition-laden Princeton, this was truly an historic event. No Princeton person had ever been accorded such a sendoff. Not beloved basketball coach Pete Carril. Not even Albert Einstein. An array of Tiger alumni, colleagues, friends and admirers took turns at the dais. Ivy rivalries often criss-cross. Samara, a two-time national decathlon champion and 1976 Olympian, is a Penn graduate Penn coach Steve Dolan is a former Princeton staffer. Said Penn grad Frank Harrison (a two-time Olympic Trials decathlete, himself. who followed in Samara’s shoes as a top-flight all-arounder) put it, “Fred has had a huge role in so many lives.” Augie Wolf was a big raw talent when recruited out of Minnesota by Samara. Said Wolf: “He took a chance on me and turned my life around. I went from 47 feet in the shot put to 67 feet in four years, and the 1984 Olympics. That’s Fred.” Said former Tiger long jumper Jay Diamond: “It took a lot of work by all of us. Nothing happened by accident.” He’ll never forget one Heps meet. “Cornell won it and was celebrating all over the place.” “That’s the way a champion wins, Fred told us. It’s too bad they won’t know how to win again. He made us better men.” Sure enough, Samara’s athletes dug down, won the next edition of the Heps and have been dominating the meet for decades. Diamond’s well-supported vision: A statue of Samara to be installed at the first-class Weaver Stadium facility (erected in 1998 as successor to the historic Palmer Stadium.) “He belongs there,” along with such other Princeton as basketball’s Bill Bradley, football’s Dick Kazmaier and hockey’s Hobie Baker. Diamond’s motion passed by unanimous (alas, unofficial) vote. “We had the best coach in history,” said shot put star C.J. Licata. “We all know you (Samara) were the best. We all wanted to go where you had been.” No speaker was more passionate than Brad Urschel. He’d been voted the best athlete at his Texas high school in 50 years. He came to Princeton. He, too, blossomed out as a world-class decathlete. He’d been an Olympic Trials candidate. But the life he’d known came to a shattering close one night on a West Texas road. Driving with his Dad – to a track meet – their car overturned and Urschel was thrown from the back seat. Despite the crippling injuries after years of rehabilitation, despite a life of obstacles and challenges, there he was this night, on hand to honor Samara. “We can all learn from these events,” Urschel said softly. Urschel has often said he no longer experiences “fear, heaven or hell, states of being.” “We can all learn.” And the full house on “Fred’s night” rose to salute perhaps the most courageous of all these Tigers. Like so many others here, Robert Mack (class of 2000) had been a Samara pupil – and a 10-time Heps titlist at 200, 400 and relays. Now, he’s the university’s director of athletics, a post he’s often said “is truly a dream come true, 25 years in the making.” So it was Mack’s job to confirm Jason Vigilante as Samara’s successor. “Vig” has been a brilliant distance coach with Samara (after previous successes at Texas and Virginia) and will now take the full reins of the men’s track and feld program. “How do you follow in the footsteps of a coach as great as Fred Samara?” he asked. “He truly loves helping people. He loves everyone here, It’s a love he shares with all of us.” And then it was Samara’s turn to say goodbyes. Over the years, he’s coached USA teams at the Olympic Games (Barcelona 1992), along with Worlds, Pan Ams and more. When USA national status in the decathlon seemed to sag, he rallied the USA deca-team back on track to world No. 1 status. He’d traveled the world, but his heart was always in Princeton, N.J. He credited his Princeton predecessor – “I owe everything to Larry (Ellis).” He credited his wife Lorraine) and son Ben (the outstanding coach at Princeton High School.) He lauded the multi-member-strong alumni support group, Friends of Princeton Track. He saluted the coaches and staffers he’s worked with (from predecessor Ellis to Peter Farrell to Marc Anderson and current colleagues Vigilante and Robert Abdullah, and many more.) “I have a thousand stories,” he said. But he couldn’t tell them all. The evening was rolling along. Luggage – for future travels perhaps, and other tokens of appreciation - were presented, Then again, Samara, a resident of nearby Cranbury, may never be too far from this campus. The doors will always be open. And, just in case, Vigilante promised there’d always be desk space in their Jadwin Gymnasium office quarters. |
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