The Summer Developmental Meets at Mepham H.S.

[SEAURCHIN]

Yes Paul, it's me Andy Urchenko alias "SEAURCHIN". I have great memories of running in your summer developmental meets at Mepham High School. It seems like just yesterday, even though it was over 20 years ago! All the races were very competitive and some of LI's greatest distance runners showed up quite frequently-Odis Sanders, Tom Camien, Tom Grimes, Ira Meyers, Phil Reilly, Don DiDonato, etc...the list is endless. However, I'll never forget that summer evening in either 1981 or 1982 when the great Mark Belger showed up and attempted to run the first ever sub 4-minute mile on Long Island soil. He put on quite an amazing show for us even though he fell short of his goal by about 2 seconds. Still to run a 4:02 mile on that track, with no competition, on a hot and humid evening was quite an accomplishment. Afterwards, it was great to shoot the breeze with Mark and
among other things, recall his X-C days when he would walk up Cardiac Hill at Sunken Meadow and still be able to beat everyone in the race except Gary Lindquist. Those meets always had great comraderie amongst the competitors and I'll never forget them as long as I live. I must thank you for that. MILE...AGAINST THE FENCE....TICKETS...TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AMBULOPHOBIA]

nostalgia at its finest

but now mepham hs=naughty lil football boys having a lil too much fun

[RushyT]

recall his X-C days when he would walk up Cardiac Hill at Sunken Meadow and still be able to beat everyone in the race except Gary Lindquist.

how come he walked up Cardiac Hill?

[palimmer]

<<great memories of running in your summer developmental meets at Mepham High School.
I'll never forget that summer evening in either 1981 or 1982 when the great Mark Belger showed up and attempted to run the first ever sub 4-minute mile on Long Island soil. He put on quite an amazing show for us even though he fell short of his goal by about 2 seconds. Still to run a 4:02 mile on that track>>>
Urch,
Those Tuesday night meets were an amazing social event.. everybody showed up.. many HS CC teams showed up each Tuesday night and either ran some races or just gathered for a long run... one summer we had a total of 9 Olympians come by.. including Al Oerter who threw often and didn't always win...
back to Belger's attempt at breaking 4:00 on LI soil.. he had run 3:57+in Boston, I believe, during the previous indoor season.. it had never been done on LI soil.. not even sure if it has been done to this day... after all these years I need to confess something.. if Mark had come within a tenth or two of breaking 4:00
he would have done it as I had 3 watches already preset at 3:59.7, 3:59.8 and 3:59.9.... there was no FAT available... but he was too far off at 4:02+.
We had him rabbited at 57.5, 1:58 but to no avail..I think the rabbit was Mike Collins.... might have been the only time I fudged results..LOL!
Unfortunately, as it turned out, we agreed to switch the meets to Mitchel Park and it was never the same and the summer series died out.. it was a ton of work....

[palimmer]

<<how come he walked up Cardiac Hill?>>
T,
He hated Sunken Meadow.. wasn't particularly fond of CC either... he walked up faster then most could run it.. he bent over at the waist, put his hands on his knees and shuffled up Cardiac pretty quickly... he rarely lost any places on the hill and usually caught anyone who did pass him... he really was a beast... in those days Cardiac came right after Snake..

[PeterQuince]

in those days Cardiac came right after Snake..

Why isn't it like that anymore? That way always seemed much easier to me. [Maybe I just answered my own question].

[Homer Simpson]

on the 2.5 at sm cardiac hill is right after snake, however the 5k you have to do that damn picnic loop after snake then hit up cardiac