ERIC HULST OF LAGUNA BEACH HIGH SCHOOL
RALPH SERNA OF LOARA HIGH SCHOOL, ANAHEIM,
nominated by John Loeschhorn

The California State High School Championships, Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield, California, Fri.-Sat., May 31-June 1, 1974

Rich Kimball of DeLaSalle High School in Concord, California completed and impressive double, wining both the Mile in 4:06.6 and the 2 Mile in a State Meet Record breaking performance of 8:46.5. (The previous mark of 8:52.3 was set by Santa Monica High School's Curtis Beck in 1972. The State Meet Mile Record of 4:05.4 was set the same year by Mark Schilling of Garden Grove High School. To date no California High School runner has ever run faster for the mile or an equivalent distance).

Against this backdrop, our local heros, Junior Ralph Serna placed fourth in the Mile running 4:09.2 and Sophomore Eric Hulst finished second in the 2 Mile running 8:50.5, also breaking the old meet record.

The California State High School Championships, Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California; Fri.-Sat., June 6-7, 1975

Eric Hulst and Ralph Serna engaged in an exciting battle in the 2 Mile with Hulst winning in Meet Record breaking time of 8:44.9. Serna's time of 8:45.9 was also under the previous meet record. To date, no California High School runner has ever run faster than this for 2 miles or an equivalent distance. Serna attempted a double in the Mile, which was run later the same day, but struggled to finish 9th in 4:22.6.

May 28, 1976

Eric Hulst sets the National High School record for 2000 Meters running 5:23.3. That record still stands today.

The California State High School Championships, Edwards Stadium, Berkeley; Fri.-Sat., June 4-5, 1976.

Eric Hulst won the 2 Mile in a slow time for him of 8:57.3 to become the third performer in the Meet's history to win back-to-back 2 Mile titles, joining Ralph Gamez (1965-66) and Ruben Chappins (1968-69). Second place went to Kevin McConnell of Edision High School in Huntington Beach in 9:00.5, with Mark Spillsbury of Foothill High School in Santa Ana finishing third in 9:01.6. These performances demonstrate the strength and depth of Orange County Distance runners and their dominance at the State level during the 1970's.

Running on dirt and clay tracks, these runners hale from the Golden Age of track in California and in the United States of America. Today, high school runners compete at 1600 meters about 10 yards short of a mile and 3200 meters about 20 yards short of 2 miles and yet, even with superior shoes and finely tuned all weather tracks, they can scarcely match the perfomances of the Champions of the 1960's and 1970's.

Eric Hulst was trained by the legendary Len Miller during High School and by the same coach later at the University of California, Irvine. (Len Miller discovered and developed Steve Scott, one of the greatest milers in the history of the world. Steve was the first runner to run more than 100 sub-four minute miles.)

Rumors at the time were that Eric was running up to 140 miles per week in high schoorl and Ralph was running up to 90 miles per week. When I coached high school track and cross country in 1985 and 1986, distance runners were running about 30 miles per week. That is about the same number of miles we were running in the early 1960's, could that be the reason why the runners in the 80's ran the same times we ran in the 60's?

Source: The California State Track Meet, by Donn B. Kirk and David M. Cooper