Four-mile squad-best yet
Bu Ron Hanson
KU has always had a great four-mile relay team, but this year's group of John Lawson, Lowell Paul, Allen Russell, Tom Yervogich and Curt Grindal have proven themselves the best of the best, sweeping the Grand Circuit of Relays for the second year in a row.
In the big three relay meets that KU enters, the Texas, Kansas and Drake relays, the Jayhawk four-mile team not only won its event in each, but also set records for all three meets.
At the Texas Relays, KU won the four-mile in a time of 16:40.2 to set a meet and a Big Eight Conference record. The former Texas Relays record for the four-mile relay was 16:45.0. The former Big Eight best was 16:40.5 run by KU last year at the Drake Relays.
KU'S FOUR-MILE team took the Big Eight mark even lower with its best time ever at the Kansas Relays. The fourseason ran the distance in 16:36.8, winning the race and breaking Missouri's 1964 Kansas Relays record of 16:41.6. The team consisted of Lawson, Paul, Russell and Yergovich and was the same team which ran at Texas.
Yergovich became ill for the Drake Relays and had to be replaced by Grindal, who sided his mates to their second grand-slam in a row. KU's time at Drake was 16:38.7; second place went to Abilene Christian with 16:40.0.
Last year, KU also won the grand-slam, but the times for the three races were much slower than this year's record breaking performances. Only 11 times in the history of the big three meets has a team won the four-mile relay in each of them. KU has done it eight of the 11.
Lawson, co-captain of track squad and anchor man on the four-mile relay team, said each mile of the race is an individual effort and baton handoffs are no problem because the runners are not running with tremendous speed when they pass it. He said baton handoffs are much more important in a shorter relay.
Lawson had the best times of any man on the four-mile team
this year, running his mile leg in 4:05.5 at Texas, 4:05.0 at the KU Relays, and 4:05.8 at Drake.
KU'S GREATEST opposition this year in the four-mile relay came from Abilene Christian which finished second to the Jayhawks at both Texas and Drake Relays, Ironically, at the Kansas Relays in which the KU four-mile team ran its fastest race. Abilene Christian was not entered.
At Drake, a bit of concern developed over the announcement that Yergovich, the regular
Clay asks Army for reclassification
FRANKFORT, Ky. —(UPI)—It was disclosed Thursday that Cassius Clay, world heavyweight champ, has asked to be reclassified as a conscious objector.
At present he is 1-A, making him eligible for immediate draft.
Lt. Col. Marshall A. Sanders, the deputy director of the Kentucky Selective Service System, said that if Clay were reclassified 1-O, making him eligible for some type of assigned civilian work, he probably would be asked to work two years in a mental hospital.
leadoff runner of the four-mile team, could not run because he was sick. Track coach Bob Timmons selected Curt Grindal to replace him and Grindal admitted he was a "little scared" because he had run the event only once during a time trial in practice.
Another possibility is that Clay would be classified 1-A-O, whereby he could be drafted for non-combatant duty in the armed forces.
"When the leadoff runner for Abilene Christian ran a 4:07 mile I wondered what was I doing there," he said.
The Jayhawk substitute responded with a 4:14.3 himself and according to the other members of the four-mile team, did a "great job."
Although the running is all over for this year's four-mile team, prospects for next year look even better. Lawson and
Paul will be graduated, but the team will still have Russell, Grindal and Yergovich plus freshmen Jim Ryun, Mike Petterson, and sophomore Gene McClaim to form the four-mile squad. Ryun is the proven miler supreme in the United States and Patterson and McClaim can run the mile around 4:10.
It is said that great teams reproduce themselves. With the case of KU's four-mile relay team, it has happened in the past and will probably occur in the future.
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Daily Kansan Friday, May 13, 1966
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