The Long Red Line
Boys cross country began at Pinkerton Academy in 1968 under Coach Ed Degenhart. Art Cross took over coaching duties the next year and remained coach through the 1981 season. By 1982 Mike Clark arrived as coach and soon after introduced the idea of The Long Red Line. Forty years later Coach Clark is still coaching, and The Long Red Line is still running strong.
I thought I understood the Long Red Line during the 1993 JV race of the Bobcat Invitational. I came through the 2 mile split, a string of teammates in front of me and behind. I clearly heard one bystander say: “They really aren’t kidding when they call it the Long Red Line.” We took the top 7 spots in that JV race, and 15 of the top 25, which included me. I took pride in being part of that.
Years later, I felt the historical aspect of the Long Red Line. It runs from year to year, not just within a race. The Long Red Line came before me, went through me, runs now through others. I hope I’m being a responsible steward.
The Century Club is taken from Mike Clark’s listing and should be a comprehensive match to his. This is great: 16:17 got you 13th on the home course list in 1990. It doesn’t get you #100 now. The Top 50 lists are taken from my own database. The database is rather solid for Derryfield from 1990 forward. For all other courses and races, it is good for 1990-1995, sparse for a few years, and then gets major invitationals from 1999 (thanks, Lancer Timing!) to about 2014 when I started collecting races straight from the teams.
If you have any historical race info or even photographs from cross country races, I’m here for it and would love to see it and get it recorded. No race too small or too old. The goal for this page is to provide access to that database so anyone can look up any race, any runner.
Go Red.
449 athletes
495 competitions
4,845 individual performances