My Junior/Senior High Track Photos

I (Wayne) decided to turn out for track in 8th grade in the Longview School District. I ran the 880 at the beginning of the season, but switched to the 440 during the 2nd half of the season [when a quarter miler moved away]. In 9th grade I focused on the half mile (aka 880). I won nearly every race that year during the school's Track Season, and finished 2nd at the District Meet (missed the School Record by .1 seconds). Gary [from Kelso school district] won that race (missed the District Record by .1 seconds). When the Junior High track season was over, my Aunt from Portland (Bernice) informed me of a collegiate distance runner at Oregon that I should be aware of. Bernice gave me a program from the Jan 30, 1971 Oregon Invitational Indoor Track & Field Meet, which was held at the Portland Coliseum [Uncle Clair had written some notes on this program]. I was a spectator at this meet during my Junior and Senior years.

Although I lettered in 3 sports in 9th grade (football, basketball & track) I decided to focus on 2 sports in High School (football & track). I did become aware of the aforementioned runner from the University of Oregon. In fact, after my sophomore year in High School, Tom [see Longview->Water Skiing] and I watched the ’72 Olympics 5000m final on TV (live).

After my sophomore year, I was disappointed when my time didn’t drop as much as I expected during my 10th grade season. When I heard that my future Brother-in-law [Mike] was training for the 1973 “Trail’s End” Marathon, I decided to do something drastic during the Winter of my Junior year—I began preparing for the 26 mile marathon that was to be held in Seaside, OR on 24 February 1973 (see Note 2 also).

On 18 Aug 1973, I participated in the 7 mile 733 yd Seaside Beach Run, just before turning out for my Senior year of football. During this run, it seemed good to stretch my legs one more time before the Fall practices began. The event was won by former Oregon runner Steve Savage. I was impressed that a High School 2 miler named Norm from Kelso had posted a fine time (for a High Shool runner). And former Kelso distance runners John, Graham and Joe posted good times too (for a College runner); and of course Mike had a fine time also. Although most of the race was on hard beach sand; part of the course was on soft sand, and this caused the pace to be slower than normal. A photographer from Seaside Photo took pictures of the participants and mailed them to the runners upon request. It might have been the same photographer who took similar photos for the Trail’s End Marathon.

From Wayne's High School journal: January 26, 1974: I drove the Rambler [car] to Portland to see the Oregon Invitational Indoor Meet, along with High School classmates Ken [football team-mate], Dave [tripple jumper], Randy [miler], Scott [2 miler], Mark [music] and Larry [half miler]. It was a great meet! Prefontaine broke his indoor 2 mile record from last year--8:22.04 (unofficial time). Note: Not sure how we fit everyone in "The Rambler" station wagon--no doubt every seat was filled.

Note 1: The “Sport of Track & Field" web page can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->Sport of Track & Field from menu bar at top.

Note 2: Part 2 of this set of pics can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->Sport of Track & Field->My Junior/Senior High Track Photos (Part 2) from menu bar at top.

Note 3: The “Sport of Football" web page can be viewed by selecting Sitemap->Sport of Football from menu bar at top.