Dr. Woodhall Alumni Update (XC Nationals)

Today, November 24th was a cold and windy day (wind chill in high teens) in Terre Haute for the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Cross Country Championships.  The site is wonderful and has been used for a least four years in a row.

It is impossible to know how many former, or current EIU runners or friends of cross country attended, but some of them made it for a photo or two.

Back (l to r) John McInerney (79) still teaching at EIU,  John Nietfeld (92) teaching and psychological research at North Carolina State Univ. (Raleigh)
Middle (l to r) Jim Acklin (79) Superintendent of Schools at St. Joe Ogden, Bob Marshall (8?) Paint Contractor and above average competitive bike racer who recently teamed with Joe Sheeran (Joe flew in from Washington) to win a team Duathlon (bike and run) and Don Fredericks (82) cross country coach at Geneseo...had a runner, now a Soph at Harvard University take 42nd place today (top 40 are desigsteeplewebd All-American)
Front (l to r) Dike Stirrett (70) still coaching at Unity-Tolono HS and will travel to Scotland to see his son receive his MS degree in mid December,  Jeff Wagner (?) working in the Chicago suburbs and still the walking/jogging encyclopedia of distance running facts,  Tom Woodall..enjoyed everything about the day.. rekindled relationships and very competitive racing.

Now living in the “south” Nietfeld wanted to show off his North Carolina State “running gloves”

Late for the picture  Ken Klipp (Dean of Central Illinois HS Cross Country Coaches...35+ years...still at Bishop McNamara)..always smiling.

A former Indiana University runner introduced himself as Mr. Micknick and said he is the one who humbled Tim Warneke to quit running....a doubtful story

Jay Dirksen has coached at the University of Nebraska for many years.  Prior to that he coached the distance runners at Illinois and a long time before that, he ran for Coach Woodall at South Dakota State University (1964-65).   In 1969, he finished 28th at the Boston Marathon and four days later, he won the Drake Relays Marathon.  Here is Jay (now age 63) with three of the girls that represented Nebraska at the meet today.

There are always some “crazies” (fans whose elevators don’t quite go all the way to the top).  Here are some student supporters of IONA College (New York).   They were freezing but were running around cheering for their team.  It must have worked for Iona finished second behind Oregon for the men’s championship.

 

 

The meet was telecast on a Jumbotron, so spectators could watch it all an not have to run around the course if they didn’t want to.  Most of them did run and the continuous cheering was quite a spectacle.  Each runner had “chips” in the shoes, so team scores were electronically calculated and announced after each mile.  

At 5000 meters these men were 100 meters ahead of the field with Galen Rupp (13th in the Olympic 10,000 meters) was tagging the lead runner from Sam Chelenga (Liberty College in Virginia) who always takes the race out very fast.

With 400 meters to go, the eventual champ (Rupp) from Oregon, out kicked Chelenga to the tape winning the 10K race in 29:04

The top four men’s teams were:  Oregon, Iona, Stanford and Wisconsin (they are almost always in the hunt)