7/19/2019 – Reprinted from USATF
INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Larsen, longtime UCLA coach and co-founder of the Mammoth Lakes High Altitude Training Group that spurred the resurgence in American distance running in the early 2000’s, is the 2019 USATF Legend Coach, USATF announced Friday.
Larsen will be recognized by USATF on Saturday, July 27th at 2:52 p.m., during the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, followed by a private reception that evening.
His 20-year career at UCLA included back-to-back NCAA outdoor titles in 1987 and 1988, 11 PAC-10 Championships and four NCAA National Coach Of The Year Awards. He’s a member of 10 halls of fame including USATF, USTFCCCA, and UCLA.
In a brilliant career that has spanned six decades, Larsen (and his staff) coached 13 athletes to a total of 25 national championships while in the collegiate ranks. As UCLA’s head coach, he held a 118-3-1 record in dual meets and was selected PAC-10 Coach of the Year eleven times.
Larsen guided marathoner Meb Keflezighi to four NCAA titles, Olympic silver at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, and World Marathon Major victories at the 2009 New York City Marathon and the 2014 Boston Marathon.
He was a two-time Team USATF Coach as an Olympic Distance Coach in Athens in 2004 and World Indoor Championship distance coach in Doha in 2010.
He founded and coached the Jamul Toads club team to the AAU National Cross Country title in 1976. He is featured in the documentary City Slickers Can’t Stay with Me and the book Running to the Edge.
The USATF Legend Coach Award is in its sixth year and is selected by the USATF Coaches Advisory Committee. The inaugural award was presented to Hall of Fame Tigerbelle Coach Ed Temple in 2014, followed by Dr. Joe Vigil in 2015, Tom Tellez in 2016, Clyde Hart in 2017 and Brooks Johnson last year.
This year’s Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships, July 25-28, will serve as the selection event for the Team USATF roster for the IAAF World Championships to be contested September 27 – October 6 in Doha, Qatar, and the USA vs. Europe Match held September 9-10 in Minsk, Belarus.
2019 USATF So Cal Cross Country Grand Prix series dates announced – starts Aug 8 with High Desert XC. More races this year with 16 events currently on the schedule.
SoCal Track Club won it’s 17th National Team Title this past weekend at the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships on July 11-14 in Ames, IA. SoCal scored 518 points to out pace TNT International T.C. out of Philly (365 pts), and Potomac Valley Track Club, from Washington D.C. (347 pts). Over four days of competition SoCal had 12 National Champions of which 7 were multiple Champions:
National Champions from other USATF So Cal Masters teams:
SC Striders had 4 National Champions of which 3 were multiple Champions:
USATF So Cal Masters team places and point totals:
Congratulations to all athletes that competed. Apologies if anyone was left off this list. We only listed National Champions from USATF So Cal.
The Youth Committee of USATF Southern California is granting a “USATF Youth Cross Country Camp” Scholarship to a current youth member within the Southern California Association who is involved in the sport of distance running. The grant will cover the admission cost of the camp, plus airfare for the athlete. The gender of the scholarship recipient will alternate from Female to Male respectively. In 2018 a male recipient was chosen, therefore in 2019 the recipient will be female. Applicants must be age 13-18 at the time of the camp and must have parental consent.
The USATF Youth Cross Country Camp will be held at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado. Camp dates will be from July 1st – July 4th, 2019. Applicants must provide proof of membership with age verification, attach a letter of approval/support from a parent or legal guardian, and compose a 300-word essay on how running has positively influenced their life. Please be sure to include current contact phone numbers and email information for the applicant’s parent(s). All applications must be submitted by May 20th, 2019. Applications will be reviewed by the SCA Youth board and a recipient will be chosen by May 24th, 2019 and will be notified.
For more information on the camp itself, please go to:
http://www.usatf.org/Camps.aspx
Please submit your application to:
“USATF Cross Country Camp” Scholarship
youthxc@scausatf.org
(909) 260-6962
The USATF So Cal Road Running Championships and Grand Prix offer opportunities for USATF members to compete at the mile, 5K, 8K, 10K, 15K, half-marathon, and marathon distances in some of the best road races and fastest courses in our region. In these events, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers in 26 men’s and women’s 5-year age groups receive USATF Championship medals. The overall men’s and women’s winners also receive a handsome plaque.
No additional entry fee is required to participate in the So Cal Road Running Championships Series. USATF members will have their results automatically included in the Grand Prix. If members do not see their results on the Grand Prix website, they can manually submit their finishing time to the Grand Prix organizer. Prize money is provided by the race organizers only and is available to all runners in the race – with or without USATF membership. This is the only prize money – there are no matching funds or additional cash prizes.
