There was definitely a little drama regarding the men’s team title drama at this year’s NCAA XC with an unprecedented tie between NAU and Oklahoma State (decided in NAU’s favor after tie-breaker rule was applied). In 1970 the team title determination had a LOT of drama.
Steve Prefontaine won the first of his three NCAA XC titles. This special day for Pre got even better as he and his teammates celebrated Oregon’s close team title win over Villanova (86-88).
But…
A presumably forlorn Les Nagy, Villanova’s 5th man in 67th place, looked at the printout of results when they were posted after the title announcement. “He noticed that several runners he knew he had beaten were listed ahead of him on the list. Nagy claimed that after having crossed the finish line he had fallen to the ground, and several runners had passed him in the finish chute prior to the runners getting their place cards.”
Les convinced his famed coach Jumbo Elliott to file a protest and the Villanova team reportedly refused to leave the site until the 8mm film of the finish line was reviewed. (This is of course well before chip timing technology had been invented). Sure enough, Nagy was correct. After reviewing the film Nagy was moved up 3 places and awarded 62nd place and the team score changed in Villanova’s direction. Villanova was declared the the team champion BY ONE POINT (85-86) over Oregon. Wow.
Oregon coach Bill Bowerman filed a protest, but the decision stood. It was Villanova’s 4th win in 5 years and it delayed Oregon’s collection of wins that occurred in two of the next three years.
Villanova’s scorers were Donal Walsh (2nd place behind Pre), Marty Liquori, who had been injured most of the season and was a doubtful starter, finished 9th, Wilson Smith (23rd), Chris Mason (37th) and Les Nagy (62nd).
After the smoke cleared assistant Villanova coach Jack Pyrah commented: “We were really surprised to win it. UTEP had everyone back and Oregon had its usual fine personnel. We really don’t have a cross country runner except for Walsh. The rest of our runners are half-milers and milers who are more suited to the track. Marty doesn’t like cross country. He doesn’t like to run hills. He has muscle problems in his legs and a hilly course aggravates it. But the course at Williamsburg, VA was pretty flat.”
Pretty flat?!? AthleteBiz/FanHubTF is based in Williamsburg and the course at Eastern State Hospital has a vey steep hill that was likely traversed by the NCAA field 2-3 times that day. Local high schoolers dread that hill!
