Craig Virgin...

[mrcoachdude]

Got to talk to one of my all time favorite runners today...he was in town to catch the State Meet at Detweiller...a young man had a chance to break Virgin's record, I heard he missed by 3 seconds...Lukas Verzbicas was the young man with the chance...

Class guy....congrats Craig on keeping your 38 year record safe!

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/sportscolumns/x742802072/Wessler-Running-in-Virgin-territory

[tornado]

Not many IHSA cross country & track and field records have lasted that long but most of the all time records surprisingly are from the 1970's and 1980's!!
Maybe it's just that running still isn't as glamorous as football or basketball..but I have yet to see a really valid explanation why almost every record in every other sport from swimming to baseball -- has been broken and re-broken many times in the past 30 years, yet a substantial majority of all the IHSA cross country and track & field records are intact going all the way back to the 1970's & 80's.

but none are as longstanding as Craig's cross country time on that course from 1972.

Greg Thompson's 9.9 in the 100m in 1976 is a 34 year old record
Mike McFarland' 1974 200m record has been around 36 years
and Craig Virgin's own 1973 record in the 3200m is 37 years old


..in fact 10 of the 18 different event records IHSA lists in track & field stand from 1985 and earlier, and only 4 of the 18 have been touched in the last decade (and two of those were set by the same guy in shot & discus)..

[Dallas Brave]

Craig Virgin was a hero for me growing up. I watched him win the state meet in '72 and it was thrilling to witness him run. I actually got to race against him (if you want to call it that) when I was at Bradley in the early '80's. Craig came into town to run a weekend 10K race. My brother and I ran, but we went a little overboard on the carbo loading the night before. I had to stop about around the 5 mile mark and spent a minute or two heaving on the grass between the street and the side walk. I then put it in high gear thru the end and finished 15th. I had to lay down afterwards for about 5 minutes. My brother ribbed me about that for years.