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GOLDEN STATE'S BEST HIGH SCHOOL RUNNERS FROM THE '60s THRU '80s KEEP TRACK OF EACH OTHER AT STATEWIDE 'RUNNERS REUNITED II'

Attendees Boast No. 2 All-Time Nat'l Miler Thom Hunt, World X-Country Champ Rich Kimball, Nationally Ranked 2-Miler Ralph Serna & Nat'l Jr. 2-Mi. Record Holder Curtis Beck

FULLERTON, Calif. (Jul. 11, 2009) -- "It was like being at Mt. SAC all over again, with all these top athletes pouring in from across the state for the big invitational," said longtime Anaheim resident and Loara High School Class of '75 star distance runner RALPH SERNA. Except that a few years, actually decades, had gone by. And despite being a little smarter than they were in their teens, the now-middle aged Mercurys, like Serna, were also a little slower on their feet.

But the men and women, ranging in age from early 40s to late 60s, were quick to converge on Roscoe's Famous Deli here tonight for "Runners Reunited II" -- second edition of a rapidly expanding gathering of elite California prep runners from the past -- once they received Serna's invitation.

"They'd either been to our first little get-together two years ago, or heard about how magical it was," Serna said of the 2009 group of 69 renowned runners that quadrupled the inaugural turnout of 16. He called this year's get-together "great, because we saw some people we had never met before. And (there was) certainly a domino effect of people that inspired us or, possibly, (whom) we inspired."

RRII's organizer Serna, undefeated in cross country his senior year at Loara and ranked 14th on the all-time national schoolboy record books in the 2-mile, and event coordinator and cross country runner-turned-filmmaker DAN MARTINEZ-PATTON (Newark, '78) welcomed many first-timers to the Cali reunion, including former indoor mile national prep record holder and current San Diego Mesa College running coach THOM HUNT (Patrick Henry High School, San Diego, '76); 1974 world junior (19 and under) cross country winner RICH KIMBALL (De La Salle, Concord, '74) whose distinction got his picture on the May 1974 cover of Runner's World; and 1972 national junior 2-mile record holder CURTIS BECK (Santa Monica, '73), who also notched a 4:04.2 mile as a junior, representing 2nd best finish in the class behind Jim Ryun's 3:59.0 from 1964 and 6th best prep overall in 1972.

Martinez-Patton is a reunion first-timer himself who teamed with Serna after hearing about the mixer from KEN ERNST, a top runner in the late '70s at El Dorado High School in Placentia. "I heard all these state champs were coming," Martinez-Patton recounted, "and I wanted to be in the room."

Inside Roscoe's, those champions above found themselves posing for pictures with runners they'd either gone up against in high school or never had the privilege of racing, including:

- 1984 U.S. 800 & 1500 meters Olympian RUTH KLEINSASSAR-WYSOCKI (Azusa, '74) and her 10,000-meter standout husband TOM WYSOCKI (Western, Las Vegas, '74)

- Only schoolboy in California history ever to win the distance double (2M/1M) in back-to- back years ('84 & '85) ROMAN GOMEZ (Belmont, Los Angeles, '85)

- '60s 2-mile state initial winners RALPH GAMEZ (two-time champion 1965-66, Berkeley, '66), PETE ROMERO (1967 winner, Reedley, '67, and subject of a 1967 Sports Illustrated article) and RUBEN CHAPPINS (two-time winner 1968-69, Excelsior, Norwalk, '69), and

- 2-miler and 1974 NorCal Runner of the Year ROY KISSIN (San Ramon, Danville, '75), who co-wrote the 1985 Bruce Dern running movie "On the Edge" and, at 51, still runs the mile in sub-5:00.

Reflecting on his athletic career while being videotaped for a highlight reel Serna is putting together, Hunt observed, "Running was my life, and so it affected me in every possible way imaginable. I don't think I am the person who I was without what I put into my running, without the persistence... the effort levels... the consistency that I had to put into my running. Everything that helped make me successful as a runner is what contributed to my life in every other way."

As for the reunion, Kimball said he was "having a blast. I haven't seen a lot of people -- some of them -- in 20 or 30 years. So it's been fun rekindling." Tipping his hat to a now-ubiquitous form of communication that hadn't come to fruition during his teenage years in the Silicon Valley, he added, "The emails have been fun back and forth prior to the reunion. It gets you going 'I want to go back racing again.'"

Gamez, interestingly, credited his back-to-back 2-mile state victories with keeping him out of prison. "I was headed right to San Quentin. And everyone knew it," he said. "Odds are that I would have never gone to college, I probably would have never gone to high school, finished high school, never would've graduated if the two-mile was not put in there. I wasn't on a path where success was obvious. I was headed to prison. And the two-mile opened the door for me. And it gave me an opportunity to excel at something where I had never excelled at anything. It said, 'Ralph, you can do something good' for once in my life.'"

(MORE)

CONTACT: Scotty Dugan Dugan & Story PR, scotty@duganstory.com; Ralph Serna, RS Prods., syfumb@mac.com

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