Breaking Mental Block Is Riesinger's Big Task
Breaking a mental block is the biggest task facing a young runner on any good track team. That is the opinion of a sophomore who ought to know, Kansas' Ted Riesinger.
On successive weekends he's ripped 10 seconds off his previous best mile time and :06.5 off his former 880 low. It isn't often anybody cuts their personal bests in such big hunks in such a short span.
FOR THE RECORD. Riesinger's lows now rest at 4:07.7 and 1:49.7, although you can't write the latter in the book yet since it was unofficially clocked in the two-mile relay at Texas.
"Everybody can get in pretty good shape," Riesinger ponders. "But when you get in a race you've got to cross a mental barrier to really get your times down. Some people say 90 per cent of running is mental. Your body can be ready, but your mind won't let you punish yourself enough to run well.
The reedy Tulsan "stayed with 'em" pretty well in a race that saw Spartan sophomore Ben Tucker upset KU captain Bill Dotson, 4:03.6 to 4:04.3. Riesinger never had run better than 4:17.7.
"I crossed my barrier at Stanford (running third against the Indians and San Jose State). I didn't know I could run that fast, but I made up my mind to stay with 'em."
Running against Jim Dupree, Southern Illinois' NAAU 880 champion, at Austin. Riesinger cut four yards off a nine-length handicap to keep Dotson within range for the anchor carry. The latter out-chested Saluki Bill Cornell at the twine for
a new meet record of 7:27.7, and the swiftest time ever by a Big Eight two-mile combine. Earlier in the day, Riesinger had fired 3:01.3 in the threequarters to help the Jayhawkers to a new 9:46.4 Distance Medley record.
"Before a race," continues Riesinger, "you think of 4:05 maybe. And you might be dreaming. But if you don't think you can do it you never will. It's going to hurt when the pace gets tough. That's when you've got to push the hardest if you're going to run well.
"When you finally do this you get a lot more confidence and you try to improve from there."
This outlook, terrific workout logs with Dotson, and "being hungry to run after missing last year" because of scholastic griefs, have combined to rocket Riesinger from comparative obscurity.
He gave an inkling of what was to come during the Big Eight Indoor. He opened with a 4:17.7 Mile for third place behind Dotson and Nebraska's Ray Stevens, then came back for fifth in the 1,000. This is a wicked double for a veteran, let alone a rookie running on boards for the first time.
Riesinger was an outstanding prep at Tulsa Will Rogers. Running for Coach Bill Eubanks, he set state records in the mile (4:19.0), and half (1:55.8). As a freshman here he clocked Indoor races of 4:22 and 9:29. He was sidelined by an appendectomy during the outdoor season. Then the scholastic scythe the fell.
Now Riesinger is the crown prince of another great Mt. Oread distance crew, which is running faster relay times than even those Wes Santee-hubbed units dared dream about.
O'HaraLeadsLoyola'sDistanceCorps
(Continued from page 2)
Even the world's best at two miles or 5000 meters."
Says assistant Don Amidei, who developed Villanova fresh great Tom Sullivan at Chicago's St. George high school . . . "O'Hara's the outstanding middle distance runner now in college. I agree that he can break four minutes this year. Brought along properly, he'll be a record holder. I won't predict how fast he will go, though I feel he may have the potential someday to get under
the 3:54.4 record. It's a matter of building endurance. With classwork, he doesn't get to run as much as he should."
pus, and outdoor track, is nine miles from the commerce college site.
Classroom work isn't O'Hara's only time consumer. Since Loyola doesn't have an indoor track, O'Hara was obliged to travel about seven miles from the downtown commerce college—he's a business accounting major—to the University of Chicago field house to work out each day, points out Rambler publicist Denis Quinlan. It's worse now that he has moved outdoors. Loyola's main cam-
Loyola will need all its guns here since it will face Texas Southern and Emporia State in what should be one of the weekend's most furious baton hauls. The former returns anchorman Major Adams, a near 1:50 Half-Miler, plus spinner Homer Jones from a team that ran second here last year, then reversed the decision at Drake a week later in 3:22.4. Later in the season the Tigers scorched 3:19.0, second-best collegiate clocking in the land for 1961.
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Friday, April 20, 1962 University Daily Kansan Page 14
Kearney (Neb.) Excells In Distance Medley
The two most difficult names to write and pronounce on the Midlands' relays circuit last spring were Socrates Bagiackas, obviously a Greek, and Hylke Van der Wal, a Dutchman from Canada. Both ran for East Texas State.
Neither is carrying Lion colors this year. Bagiackas (pronounced Bo-jeck-us) has graduated. But the ink-stained ragnamuffins of the press box won't escape Van der Wal, who's name was misspelled last season as many different ways as Shakespeare, either the old Notre Dame halfback or the older English poet-playwrite. He's now anchoring one of the finest Distance Medley teams that ever came out of the small college ranks at Kearney (Neb.) State.
The Antelopes raised some eyebrows by winning the Kansas State Invitational in 10:07.7, 14 seconds under the college division record. In with the big boys at the Arkansas Relays three weeks ago, they whipped Oklahoma, Wichita, Missouri and Air Force, in that order,
clocking 10:06.2.
This is seven-tenths under the current Kansas Relays college class record at which Kearney will be shooting here this weekend in the 37th running of the Mt. Oread Olympics. That mark is the oldest baton standard on the books so far. It was established in 1939 by a North Texas State unit which featured the famed Rideout twins, Wayne and Blaine, in the final two carries.
Nobody has approached it up to the last two years when Emporia State, then East Texas State, with Van der Wal anchoring, clocked successive 10:09.3's. Now Hylke (pronounced Hike) has opportunity to run on two successive title units for two widely separated schools.
Van der Wal clocked a 4:11 anchoring Mile at Manhattan; a 4:12.8 cleanup carry at Fayetteville.
"He's about ready for 4:05," enthuses his coach, Charlie Foster,
(Continued on page 15)
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