- Oregon Daily Emerald Sports
Track great recalls Oregon career
By Erick Studenicka
C**Qot' rWy fmrWJ
Fur o brief hut brilliant two
\ear span in th«i late 1970s. Iht»
bust American distant;# runnvr
was Rtitiy Chapa. a University
student who was barely 20 years
old.
Looking bet It at the highlights
o! his career. it's not difficult to
understand how Out pa attained
"legend” status among Oregon
track fans
May 20, 1978 — Chapa wins
the Pac-H 1,.500-meter title in
3:38.9, a now meet record. Otss
than an hour Inter, he runs 5,000
meters in 11 44. breaking up the
Washington State trio of Henry
Kono. Joel Cheruiyot and Joshua
Kimeto to give the Ducks second
place in the moot.
June 3. 1978 —- With the Hey
ward Field crowd shouting in
unison. "Rudy. Rudy. Rudy,”
Chapa takes the lead from world
retard-holder Samson Kimomb
wn with less than a mile to go in
the NCAA 5.000-motor champi
onship. Chapa cruises to the fin
ish in 11:35, five seconds ahead
ol the second-place finisher
Chapa's win was the Inst time an
Oregon athlete won the 5,000
meter title at the NCAA track
championships
May 10. 1979 — Paced hy
teammate Allierto Solazar for the
first mile. Chapa erases Steve
Prefontaine's Inst remaining
American record as he clocks
7:37 7 for 3.000 meters at Hay
ward Field. Running his final
lop in 57 seconds. Chapa shat
tered the old record hy six sec
onds.
"I really can't remember the
individual performances.” said
Chapu. now an executive with
Nike. "All I really remember is
the wonderful dual meet season
we had in 1979. It was a special
group of people who worked
hard to compete at a high level.”
Competitive at every distance
from not) to lO.QOO meters. Cha
pa was the rare combination of
speed and endurance He
derived his speed from his
gra< eful, "on-the-toes" style of
running — a form that would
eventually prove to ho his
downfall
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Former Oregon die fence runner Rudy Chapa woe one of the top run
non In the nation while with the Ducke from 1979-90.
Because of stresses on hi* logs
uiiimmI by hits running form and
the constant curve of the track.
Chapa developed tendon
injuries that caused him to mis*
the 1980 Olympic Trials He
recovered enough in 1981 to
place ninth in the NCAA 5.000
meter final, but the now chronic
injuries essentially prevented
him from continuing his run
ning i.areer on the track.
Oregon men’s track coach Bill
Dellinger said that Chapa
accomplished more during his
collegiate career than his famous
teammate. Alberto Salazar.
"During their great collegiate
careers. Alberto didn't match
what Rudy did.” Dellinger said
"1 would hate to lie the judge of
who had more natural talent;
they both had a lot of talent But
in terms of saying who accom
plished the most on the track
while in college, you would
have to say Rudy did."
Former teammate Ken Martin,
the Oregon school record-holder
in the steeplechase, said true
track fans recognize Chapa as
one of the best distance runners
of all time.
"You wonder what Rudy
could have done if the injuries
hadn't prevented him from con
tinuing his career." Martin said.
"It's possible he's overlooked
bet ause his career wasn't very
long, but the real truck 'nuts’
know how great he was
TmiVJ I
Slower times prevail
for distance racers
By Erick Studcnicka
Oegon
In 197H, the Oregon track team had five runners who ran less
lhan 14 minutes in the 5.000-meter run. The slowest of the five.
Art Boileau. would go on to make the Canadian Olympic team
and win the los Angeles Marathon twice.
The fastest of the group. Rudy Chapa, would go on to break
the American ns ord in the 3.000-meler run at the age of 20.
This vear. the fastest time recorded by an Oregon athlete this
season in the 5.000 is 14:26. set by Karl Keska at the Pepsi Invi
tational last week, Keska s time is 1:12 slower than Bill McCh
esney's school record of 13:14.
Does this mean the Oregon distance runners are digressing
rather than progressing?
"I don't think that's necessarily the case,” said Chapa, now
an employee of Nike. "What you have at Oregon now is a lot of
young runners. Be patient and one of them is going to start
competing at a higher level, and he will cause the whole group
to move to a higher level."
Chapa said the Oregon runners in the late 1970s hod to run
some extraordinary times just to compete with Washington
State's Henry Ronoand Joshua Kimeto.
"Without the Washington State runners, none of the fast
times would hove happened." Chapa said. "You hod to run
world-class times just to be competitive in the Pac-10. All of
the world's best runners — Africans, Englishmen, the Irish —
were in the collegiate system. Sometimes a 13:30 5.000
wouldn't get you anything.
"Collegians today don't have to think about competing at
that level." he said. "You don't have to ran a near world record
to compete at the collegiate level today."
Ken Marlin, the Oregon record holder in the steeplechase
and the 19H1 Pacific-10 Conference 5.000-meter champion,
also said fast times are the result of tou£h competition.
"The league isn't as strong today as it was back in the late
'70s," Martin said "Distance running is cyclical and the league
is just in a down cycle right now.”
Martin said the Oregon runners may be overtraining, but
Keska said ho believes the slow times may be a result of not
enough training.
"Not as many people today train as hard as they did in those
days." Keska said. "The emphasis is going away from high
mileage and that's where I think a lot of people are going
wrong. Generally speaking. I think a lot of people would ben
efit from more mileage."
Keska agreed with the former Oregon runners' observations
on the importance of the competition when going for fast
times.
"If you've got other guys running a sub 14-minute pace, of
course you're going to try to go with them, and eventually one
of the (iays, you're going to be able to hack that pace," Keska
said "In those days it was so competitive: you could just hang
on and go sub-14 race after race."
Chapa said slow collegiate times may. in the long run. be a
blessing in disguise.
"I had my best races when I was 21 years old, and by the
time 1 was 23 I was finished because of injuries." Chapa said.
"It's better not to have that rush to run fast early on in a career;
it's better for runners to bring themselves along gradually.”
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