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| Winning the 2011 Pat Boros Trail 10k |
Today, January 24th, is my Dad's Birthday. His name recently came up in a discussion of great runners in Minnesota's High School history. While not among the top-10 ever, my dad was, and is, a great runner. His greatest high school achievement was winning the 1982 State Cross Country Meet at the U of Minnesota Golf Course. He defeated Bob Jirele of Rochester Lourdes by 13 seconds, then a record for the largest margin of victory. He was nearly undefeated that year, losing only to an eventual Iowa state champion from Sheldon. On the track he recorded PRs of 4:29 and 9:27. After high school, my dad ran for Mankato State University and had a successful career. Today, he still runs regularly and is a cross country and track coach at Hutchinson High School. Happy Birthday Dad!
4 comments:
Very Nice!! Belated birthday Wishes Jeff!
Kyle: Neat running blog. One thing that caught my eye however was the name Bob Jirele. You see, that is me!! What you may not know about the 1982 race which your father won in 13 seconds was that I was in third place the entire race and passed a runner from Sauk Center in the last 200 meters to finish second. I was "rated" about 7th or 8th going into the race so I was elated at my second place finish. I returned the following year to again finish second but running 15:48.3 in the "closest" race in history losing by .5 seconds. Those were some great times to be sure!! It is interesting now that my son now is a 9th grader and running for Worthington High School. Our school this year was moved up to class AA so we actually were in Hutch this past October running in sectionals against your fathers team!! I still run and will enjoy doing so for as long as I am able too....Bob J
Bob, it is cool that you found my blog. It is also great that your son is running, my dad is one of my big influences in my running career. Best of luck to him and thanks for reading!
Kyle
I also stumbled across your post on Tracktalk and saw your blog and determined I too know your father. I ran with Jeff at Mankato. I also have a daughter and son running cross country and started reading up on the various sites.... Mike Schweizer
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