Who is Pete Romero?

[DrJay]

Front page article. Never heard of his 8:42 HS 2 mile.

[DrJay]

OK, I find him #70 on this alltime HS two mile list, last updated 2003:

70 8:54.6 Pete Romero Reedley CA '67

http://www.cs.uml.edu/~phoffman/nats/gods.htm

What's this 8:42?

[tc]

Pete Romero was an exceptional runner in high school, 2nd and 1st in the CA state two mile in 1966 and 1967. However, his best two mile while at Reedley HS was an 8:54.6, run in a dual meet at Reedley on March 10, 1967. That made him, at the time, the third-fastest in history. The national record was 8:48.4 by Rick Riley (Spokane, WA) in 1966. And his fastest mile was 4:08.0, run on June 10, 1967. The times in this story are wishful thinking.

[gh]

8:42 never happened (headline corrected).... but he was No. 3 ever at the time of his 8:54.6 (behind Lindgren & Riley)

[gh]

Zat0pek asked this on another thread which I've folded into here
'
<<Okay stats guys, historians and fans, why was this 8:42 not certified as a record and why doesn't it appear on all-time lists? >>

[Zat0pek]

Zat0pek asked this on another thread which I've folded into here
'
<<Okay stats guys, historians and fans, why was this 8:42 not certified as a record and why doesn't it appear on all-time lists? >>

Thanks, gh, I hadn't seen this thread. I had a feeling it was something like this.

Can you imagine what would happen if a newspaper reported someone's career batting average as .352 instead of the actual .329?

[no one]

ran on 1971 NCAA Indoor championship relay team in 4X880 for UTEP &:37.4

[no one]

also - a lil huntin sez PRs of 4:04 and 1:50.0 while at utep and was pretty much the central cali's dominant distance runner his jr and sr yr.

pretty good range for hs

[dj]

I found an LA Times story from March 8, 1967, which mentions a Romero triple win in Reedley HS's Interclass meet, earlier that week (no day or date mentioned).

Within less than three hours he ran 8:53.0, 1:58.6 and 4:15 (no tenths mentioned).

Obviously this was merely a practice meet. I wonder if somewhere along the line the 53 became 42 as a typo and never got corrected. Or possibly the writer has it wrong and the 8:42 is a college 2M.

Some more digging turns up the fact that Romero's HS PR 8:54.6 was actually 8:54.5.

[no one]

my 'impression' of the triple cited was that it was time trials - all the more impressive. He really was somewhat of a boy wonder (I think 4:16 as a soph) - who ended up being more of a 880/mile guy. I also saw an article where he ran a 9:10.x indoor two mile barely losing to Liquori in an indoor 2. (same time), as a Sr.

[dj]

my 'impression' of the triple cited was that it was time trials - all the more impressive.

I'm sure you're right. An intrasquad meet at Reedley probably didn't produce any competition for Romero, although it is possible the runs were handicapped in some way, or perhaps paced.

One can certainly imagine the 2M being run against the school's 2MR B team.

[stillrunning]

Romero

I had posted the following, taken from various T&FN issues over on Let's Run on a parallel thread:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read. ... ad=2852836
Note one article says his GOAL was to run 8:42...

Some info from the '67 T&FN:
Feb '67 - Article states Marty Liquori ran 9:06.2 in the Gerry Lindgren National Two Mile Championship race in the All Americas Invitational at the Cow Palace. Later in the article, notes that Romero ran the same time in that race; and that he later ran 4:13.6 in the Golden Gate Invitational in SF.
March '67 - "Peter Romero of Reedley, CA (also the alma mater of former prep mile record holder Bob Seaman), made major news during an interclass meet... 3:40PM, ran two miles in a blistering 8:53.0 (first mile in 4:25); 4:15PM ran the 880 in 1:56.6; 5:20PM, ran a mile in 4:15.0, going through 880 in 2:05. Also during the same afternoon ran a leg for the senior class 440 relay team."
"Romero, who trains up to 150 miles per week, also has an official 8:54.6 two mile, which came after the interclass meet. He's pointing for 8:42 for two miles.... A four-minute mile and sub 1:50 half are reasonable possibilities, judging from that single afternoon interclass meet."
May '67 - HS List shows him with a 4:09.4 mile (4th) and 8:54.6, top two mile mark.
July '67 - won GWI in 9:02.6 (Liquori won mile in 4:08.0).

[EastBayprepoftheweek67]

my 'impression' of the triple cited was that it was time trials - all the more impressive.

I'm sure you're right. An intrasquad meet at Reedley probably didn't produce any competition for Romero, although it is possible the runs were handicapped in some way, or perhaps paced.

One can certainly imagine the 2M being run against the school's 2MR B team.

Dave, I doubt Romero needed any pacing.

The first of two times I recall running against him, he just started at his pace and kept at it. Unfortunately for me, I tried to stay with him. It was at an all-comers high school 2 mile race at Edwards Stadium, Berkeley, December, 1966, which had been announced as a qualifying race to get into the San Fancisco Examiner's upcoming "Gerry Lindgren" Invitational HS 2 Mile at its indoors meet in early 1967. At Edwards, Romero ran his first lap in 65 secs, and I was tucked in right behind him. He ran his first 660 in 1:37, and I was tucked in right behind him. He ran his next 220 in whatever, and I was tuckered out and not anywhere near him. He got an invitation to run against Liquori, where he came second in a great battle to the finish in 9:06.

My next race against him was the HS Distance Medley Relay at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, in May, '67. I have no idea what pace he ran his mile leg, I just knew he was way behind me when I began the last leg for my school. I knew I was too far behind to win, but I hoped to hold him off. The announcer, however, kept me informed that my hope was probably not going to be. Romero finally roared by me, with the announcer's and the enthusiastic Fresno fans' help, in the last lap, and went on to either catch everyone else, or fall just short - I can't recall my team's finish place, let alone the team winner.

I never met him personally. I read about his intramural triple mile-2 mile-880 in T&FN. I heard the rumors about his prodigious training – 3 times a day at a time when I couldn't fit in two a day. It was said he had access to his high school locker room for a mid day training session. I didn't have a coach.

Still, he was in a different stratosphere than anyone else running high school two miles in Central and Northern California in 1967. A great high school racer.

[no one]

Eastbay -

Was he as smooth a runner as I recall - one of those ultra efficient guys?

[tc]

The interclass meet was 27 February at Reedley: 1:56.6, 4:15.0, 8:53.0. The 8:54.6 was in a dual meet against McLane (Fresno), also at Reedley, on 10 March. He had only two more sub-9:00s in 67, on 21 March and 4 April.