| This past Cross-Country season saw a whirwind team of girls from Bingham HS in South Jordan come down from altitude in Utah to take apart the nation's best a couple of times. Their margin of domination in a series of meets left observers often aghast at the impressive quality and depth of Coach Jeff Arbogast's 1999 crew! Natural comparisons were made off of their seasonal results, with this author, involved in team rankings in the sport for the last twenty years, feeling confident in making the judgment that this year's Bingham team, ranked #1 in the Final Harrier Magazine poll, is the country's best team ever!! |
| That is a big mouthful, but let's try to indicate why. The nation's finest distance group is felt by many to be the University High School (Irvine, California) team of the 1981-82 school year. The team was led by Polly Plumer, who still has the National Prep Mile Record of 4:35.24. Plumer anchored the still standing National Record Setting Distance Medley Relay team for Uni, with the squad's 11:43.53 still standing from the Mt. SAC Relays the spring of that year, with an 18:52.5 for the 4x1500 distance the next day at Walnut, a 4:43 1500 meter average for four that is a tad better or at least equal to the equivalent current 4x1600 (20:20.87) or 4xmile (20:34.4) national records. During the Fall of 1981 Uni set the still standing Team Time Course Record at the popular Mt. SAC facility used for Invitational and Southern Section Championship competitions of 92:25, an 18:29 average on the tough course that measures out just short of three miles, but contains a series of three hills that will slow down the act of even the best harriers. No team has ever come within forty seconds of University's team time at Mt. SAC, with some number one ranked teams from the area having a couple of good shots at it each fall since the early 80's. |
| Bingham this year traveled to the Great American Cross-Country Festival in late September, as Meet Director Rick Hill shot his affair out into the stratosphere the first year, with the best ever gathering of highly ranked teams in U.S. History. From New York to Texas, from Ohio to Wyoming, basically "nationwide," the Bingham crew had a chance to show how they could do! In a simply stunning effort Bingham had all of its scorers inside the top fifteen of a field frightening in quality through the early running, with twins Laura and Jackie Ziegle up pressing the pace in the front. With one expecting a fall eventually from such mighty heights early on against a truly super field, it simply never happened, as the Miners went 2-3-10-11-19 (then 29-33) to total 45 points against the best group of prep teams ever gathered! By comparison, a slightly deeper Boys team contest had the winner, The Woodlands (Texas) score 108. In reviewing the meet results, which included a couple of teams from the area I am from, I concluded that the course at McAlpine-Greenway Park seemed to run very close to the Mt. SAC facility in time. Interestingly, upon my arrival back in California after the meet, Richard Gonzalez, who does the current Southern Section rankings in the sport, indicated quickly that the North Carolina course seemed to run very close to times run at Mt. SAC for comparison purposes. Bingham's team time at North Carolina was a "big-gulp" 91:05, an 18:13 average! They basically average for their scoring five a minute back of Felicia Guiliford, the winner at the Great American Classic, who was ahead at the Foot Locker Nationals before taking a fall with asthma problems. Wow!!! |
| After a stunning State Meet run in Utah to win the title there with 19 points (!), there was a significant time gap of six weeks until the Western Regional at the very Mt. SAC facility where University had done its championship running the year of their all-time consideration. One could hardly expect the Bingham girls to hold their form during this period of well over a month after the regular, scholastic portion of their year was over. The facility at Mt. SAC that is used for the Foot Locker Regional is a 5000 meter course that is 250 meters longer than the regular high school course, with athletes running past the finish line at the regular course, then racing around a straightaway, turn, and half a straightaway on the track to the finish to make the entire 5k distance. With the University Girls averaging roughly 6:10 per mile for their pace on the Mt. SAC course, and Bingham racing 250 yards past the regular course finish line at roughly the same pace (6:10 per mile is about 46 seconds per 200 meters plus 11 more seconds for 50 meters (1/4 of the 200 meter distance if you are still with us--subtract 55-60 seconds to compare the two courses from longer to shorter), if they could run somewhere under 19:30 for their average on the 5K course they would be very comparable to University. Again, keep in mind that Bingham was racing well over a month past their state meet, the biggest team competition for almost every team in America, so we could not expect too much! Well, the girls did not let us down, as Laura Zeigle raced to a fourth place finish to make the Foot Locker Nationals at 18:16, Jess Winters was 21st at 19;23, Jackie Ziegle was 29th at 19:34, Charity Catmull 32nd at 19:37, and Lisa Paxton 48th at 19:57--pretty impressive to put five inside the top fifty of the region that would later win the Foot Locker Nationals team contest! The 96:47 team time was a 19:22 average, with the group appearing capable of racing an average somewhere in the 18:20-25 range on the regular Mt. SAC course some six weeks after their state meet and fully two and a half months after their stunning North Carolina effort! What can you say---------! Not much, except that this is undoubtedly the finest female high school cross-country team in U.S. History! |
| Coach Arbogast talks about dreams formed over summer camp fire pits. Nice start to a fairy tale season that really came true with top races from coast to coast that helped to make the 1999 prep harrier season a truly special one for all of us! |
| Congratulations to all the team members Laura, Lisa, Jackie, Jess, Charity, Stacie, Lynette, and Angie, Coach Arbogast, and the wonderful Bingham support crew of alums and parents! |
|
 |
| Coach Arbogast being interviewed by Doug Speck at GACCF |