My paper carried the touching story yesterday about a Coronado High School jumper, now 87, who went 23 feet in 1938, a school record — and now cheers on a kid at the same school with a 22-10 PR. Made me wonder: How many of us still hold records at our old high school? I attended two — Valencia HS in Placentia, California, and Harry A. Burke Sr. High School in 1971-72 in Omaha. At both schools, I set records that still stand. I ran the 120 lows in 13.7 at VHS as a sophomore and the 180s (around the turn) in 19.9 at Burke. Of course, it helps that they don’t contest these hurdle events anymore! (But my 14.4 record in the 120HH is still on the books at Burke.) What prep records of yours still stand? Don’t be shy.

Jeff Kingstad, the Cayman Islands resort operator, reports from Wisconsin that last Saturday he drove four hours to Madison and popped an American M55 vault record 4.15 (13-7 1/4) on his opening height, “then with lots of height barely missed new WR of 4.30 (14-1 1/4), so Wolfie better look out!” (Meet results are here.) Jeff, in 2001 the M45 world masters champion, says he’ll make another 4-hour trek to the University of Wisconsin La Crosse tomorrow (Thursday) for some more shots at Wolfgang Ritte’s WR — at an NCAA qualifier meet. “Otherwise no meets within hundreds of miles of here til June 12th. Too bad!” Well then, Jeff, make your jumps count! (And congrats on your record-filled season. Keep rocking back!)

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World Masters Athletics exists as a governing body mainly to hold world championships. But a sideline is encouraging more countries to foster track. One way of doing this is putting on regional championships. This year, our region (formally known as North, Central American and Caribbean) is having a meet in Clermont, Florida, after the USATF masters nationals in Spokane. Usually, the WMA regional meet is held in Canada or Latin (not South as mistakenly posted earlier) America (in 2006, it was in Guatemala), but we host it Aug. 28-31, 2008. The event Web site is posted now. And it notes that M30/W30s (aka submasters) are welcome. They’ll be eligible to win medals. Guatemala also had M30/W30 entrants, but dang few (see results here). So spread the word.

David O’Meara, 45, chose Tarpon Springs, Florida, to kick off his summerlong series of 20 sub-5 mainly road miles. (I wrote about it here.) He detailed the event on his blog. He had some pacers, he suggests: “I followed Anthony down to the Sponge Docks and finished in 4:42. During the closing ceremonies, Tarpon Springs showered us with Greek gifts as we all received unique ‘Art In Granite” plaques to commemorate the mile event and Mayor Beverly Billiris donned each runner’s head with a traditional olive wreath.” Tarpon Springs has been in the news as the place where Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D.C. Madam,” chose to hang herself rather than go to prison. Nice start, David. Glad you made it out of there alive.

Aeron Arlin Genet, 41, of San Luis Obispo made progress toward an Olympic Trials qualifying time Saturday when she ran the 1500 in 4:21.6, a season best and potential W40 American record, at the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles. Her previous season best was 4:24 a month ago at UCLA. The “B” standard for the OT is 4:19.50 — meaning that if she runs below that mark and is among the top 30 entrants, she has a spot in the Eugene Trials. Also at Oxy, Pete Magill, 47, of South Pasadena clocked a quick 4:02.22. a tick off his season best. On the Right Coast, John Hinton at 46 went sub-4 for the third time this season, running the 15 in 3:59.22 at the Taylor Cattle Farm Classic at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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Karl Smith, who once held the M40 world record in the 110 hurdles, handed a rare defeat to the man who succeeded him as record holder yesterday at Modesto Junior College in Northern California. Karl, 48, clocked an amazing 14.61 to edge 45-year-old David Ashford’s 14.75 at the California Invitational Relays. Karl is likely the oldest hurdler to go sub-15 over 39-inch barriers (Pete Mundle’s single-age record book lists 15.4 age-48 bests by Jack Greenwood and Walt Butler. (Karl’s M45 WR remains 14.41 from 2006.) And Aaron Thigpen, 43, ran another sub-11 100l, beating Olympic finalist Jeff Williams 10.96 to 11.31. (And in the open 200, Aaron had a legal 22.47.)

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If posted heat sheets are accurate, the masters 100 and 110 hurdles at today’s Modesto Relays won’t amount to much. No Aaron Thigpen. No Willie Gault. No Jeff Williams. In the hurdles, no Rod Jett or Karl Smith. Sigh. I had been hoping for better. The fastest hurdlers still in the mix are M45 David Ashford and M40 Kerry Sloan. Kerry is in the 100, too. Not much else.

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Denver Smith, 82, is one of a handful of gents over 80 still doing the decathlon. He’s been mentioned in the press before. But his local paper in Ohio finally focused on him last month in the run-up to a local Senior Olympics. Check out this article. I like where he doesn’t apologize for track’s attraction: “You are not backed up and helped out by another 10 or 12 people, team-type group. My goal has been to try to beat the other person individually.”

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Willis Kleinsasser was 40 in July 1968 when he won the “Masters Six” sextathlon and the outstanding athlete award at the first USA masters national championships at San Diego’s fabled Balboa Stadium, which even Sports Illustrated covered. He was the top scorer in a two-day challenge, winning five events: the 220 in 24.0, 440 in 53.1, 880 in 2:09, long jump with 18-10 and shot (40-10¼). He was third in the mile — the final event on Day 2. Today he turns 80, and his daughter, Olympian Ruth Wysocki, graciously brought us up to date on her dad.

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Jack Tregurtha

Jack Tregurtha, well-known to masters racewalkers in Oceania as a record holder and promulgator of the sport, has died in a New Zealand hospice, according to a message board posting and his national federation. Jack was 71, and died Thursday night, local time. His Web site hasn’t been updated for a while, but it shows his dedication to the event. He also was renowned as a 24-hour racewalker, and wrote this to encourage others in that ultra event.

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