Just to follow up on Garry's 1976 NCAA 1500 observations ... I am channeling my boss and cannot take credit for the anecdotes below.
I'm told that the 1976 1500 meter final at the NCAAs was the one and only time that they only took 10 to the final (because of the "narrow" Penn track). Masback was outleaned for the final qualifying spot from his heat by Randall Markey, a Tasmanian who ran for Oregon. His recollection is that all the Americans that ran in the NCAA final (the foreigners were Coghlan, Waigwa, Markey, and more meaning that there were precious few Americans IN the final) ran personal bests and qualified for the Olympic Trials. Yours in turkey, cranberry and all that jazz, Jill Jill M. Geer USATF Director of Communications [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone/fax: 508-695-0595 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of ghill Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 8:07 PM To: track list Subject: t-and-f: Of Gibson and short tracks A note that combines two disparate threads. Yesterday we were talking about the 3-generation Gibsons in NCs and I was hoping to find a place for middle-member Greg in the Cross, but couldn't, so apparently he was only ("only"!) a track competitor. In looking for his record I found that he competed three times, never made a final. In '76 he was 11th in his heat, beating Tom Byers. More interesting (to me at least) was looking up at the top end of his heat and seeing that 4th was one Craig Masback, in 3:42.9. This is germane because this was a *non-qualifying* time. Obviously the tracks were indeed much shorter then. That was the year that NCAA switched from 1500 to mile (bad choice, but that's a topic for another rant another time). Here's the stats for all the NCAA 1500s since. The "Q" is what the slowest qualifier ran to advance to the final (if no prelims, no Q listed). Note that Masback was faster than the slowest qualifier in '76, but he didn't advance because in those days--as god intended--place was more important than time. At any rate, note that his non-Q mark from a quarter-century ago would have made every final since that had a Q, save for one: 1976 (Philadelphia, June 5) (36 contestants, 9 finalists; Q‹3:43.44) 1977 (Champaign, June 4) (39 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:45.83) 1978 (Eugene, June 3) (47 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:46.83) 1979 (Champaign, June 2) (29 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:49.01) 1980 (Austin, June 7) (30 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:49.62] 1981 (Baton Rouge, June 6) (27 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:44.76) 1982 (Provo, June 5) (14 started, 13 finished) 1983 (Houston, June 4) (13 started and finished) 1984 (Eugene, June 2) (37 contestants, 14 finalists; Q‹3:43.80) (Austin, June 1) (22 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:43.3) 1986 (Indianapolis, June 7) (10 started and finished) 1987 (Baton Rouge, June 6) (28 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:44.28) 1988 (Eugene, June 4) (13 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:46.71) 1989 (Provo, June 3) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:48.15) 1990 (Durham, June 2) (19 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:46.28) 1991 (Eugene, June 1) (17 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:48.47) 1992 (Austin, June 6) (23 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:44.32) 1993 (New Orleans, June 5) (22 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:43.59) 1994 (Boise, June 4) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:48.70) 1995 (Knoxville, June 3) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:44.52) 1996 (Eugene, June 1) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:42.39) 1997 (Bloomington, June 7) (18 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:49.43) 1998 (Amherst, June 6) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:43.03) 1999 (Boise, June 6) (10 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:49.38) 2000 (Durham, June 3) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:45.44) 2001 (Eugene, June 2) (19 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:44.73) 2002 (Baton Rouge, June 1) (20 contestants, 12 finalists; Q‹3:45.19) gh (stats drawn from my someday-to-be-published-but-don't-hold-your-breath book, a statistical history of the NCAA Champs)
