By MARK MOSCHETTI
For spufalcons.com
 
SEATTLE – He was delighted to have his name atop one of the entries in the Seattle Pacific men's track and field record book.
 
Jim Hilliard was just as delighted when someone – or rather, four someones – took his name off of that top spot in the 4-by-100 relay …
 
… 58 years after he helped put it up there.
 
On April 11 at the Central Washington Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg, Falcons sophomore Robert Joshua, freshman Tawaf Aboudou, sophomore Justin Brooks and freshman Ben Rojas finished their four legs of the 4-by-100 relay in 41.46 seconds.
 
That bettered the record time of 41.9 set by Glen Miller, Roger Hansen, Hilliard, and John Glancy in May 1968 during the NCAA Division II nationals in Hayward, California.
 
"That's too long for that record to stand," Hilliard said. "I'm thrilled for those kids. I appreciate the hard work they put in. I know how hard it was for us."
 
"Those kids" to whom Hilliard was referring were just as thrilled after they had just teamed up for the first time.
 
"At first, I didn't know what the record was – I don't think any of us knew," said Aboudou, who ran the second leg. "When we went out there at Central, we started off and I thought, 'Oh yeah, this is going to be good.' We got the baton all the way around and we ended up breaking the record. Karl (Falcons head coach Lerum) mentioned that we broke this long-standing record, and I was like, 'Yeah, we can go way faster – just keep going."
 
Added Brooks, the third carrier of the baton, "It felt pretty good just to get a decent time in April. We hadn't practiced the relay that much at that point. Ben was just getting here (after transferring from Benedictine University in Illinois). We had practiced handoffs a few times. It was nice to get a time with just a little practice.".
 
The 41.9 was a hand-held time, and back in 1968, the distance was 440 yards (4-by-110 yards). Applying the internationally accepted conversions for yards to meters and for hand-held to fully automatic timing, the time for the current Falcons to beat was 41.64.
 
"Just getting here, I didn't even know the records by heart," said Rojas, who arrived at SPU as the outdoor season was getting started. "When Coach told us we broke a record, it was a nice feeling. It really showed me how good this team was and that I get to be surrounded by fast athletes and athletes who train with heart."
 
QUICK RESET … AND THEN SOME
While that previous standard stood for 58 years, the one established in Ellensburg on that Saturday in April lasted just 24 days.
 
This past Tuesday at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships – on that same CWU Rec Sports Complex oval in Ellensburg,-- those same four Falcons not only broke the record again ….
 
… they also broke a barrier.
 
With Joshua again leading off, followed by Aboudou, Brooks and Rojas, the watch stopped at 40.95 seconds.
 
"For me personally, I was overjoyed," Joshua said. "I was pretty confident in each of our skillsets that contributed to this. That meant a lot for us as well to be able to be on the podium compared to last year. (Joshua and Brooks were part of the team that finished sixth in 42.41.) It was an awesome opportunity to compete at GNACs at such an intense level."
 
"It meant a lot to Karl, as well," Joshua added. "After the race, we ran over to him and he had this big ol' smile on his face and he said, 'What did you guys run?' We said '40-point-9-5' and he said, 'You guys absolutely crushed the record.'"
 
Now early in his third decade at the Falcons' coaching helm, Lerum has his own perspective on the accomplishment..
 
"It's emotional for me to see these things happen because I've been here for 21 years," he said. "To know all the people before them who have not run this fast – we've had some great kids over the years, but never had four at the same time.
 
"It's an obvious treat for me to be witnessing that," he added. "But all the credit goes to those guys. They obviously have talent and they worked hard and they've been able to put it together."
 
Glancy, who drove over from Seattle, and Hilliard, who made the short trip from his home in Yakima, were seated on the metal bleachers watching. And how's this for irony: Their performance with Miller and Hansen at those 1968 NCAAs made them the first Seattle Pacific foursome to beat 42 seconds.
 
No Falcon team had even done that again – until Joshua, Aboudou, Brooks and Rojas clocked their 41.46 in April..
 
Then on Tuesday, Glancy and Hilliard witnessed the first SPU team to break 41.
 
"It was truly impressive. They competed very, very well," Glancy said, "and they're all just sophomores and freshmen. Really fun to watch – proud of the Birds."
 
The two sophomore-two freshman combo caught Hilliard's attention, too.
 
"It seems like a good group of kids, and I couldn't believe how young they are," he said. "There wouldn't be any records if they weren't there to be broken. That's really cool, especially for a small school. To be able to put four kids of that caliber on the track and do what they did was just phenomenal. Kudos to them."
 
RECORDS HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE
The two former Falcons – Glancy is now 77 and worked in various positions at SPU for 47 years; Hilliard is also 77 and retired after a career as a self-employed contractor – saw half a dozen school records go down during the two days of GNACs.
 
Aboudou had his feet in five of them and won three individual titles, making him just the third male in conference history to claim that many at the same meet.
 
On Monday, he won the long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 6¼ inches. That broke the 56-year-old school standard of 24-4 ¾ set by the late Steve Gough in 1970. It was his second 24-footer of the season, and he is one of just three Falcons all-time to top 24.
 
Aboudou started off Tuesday by winning the triple jump at 48-5¼, the fourth-farthest mark on the all-time SPU list. Then he ran the second leg on the 4-by-1. About an hour after that, he broke his own school record in the 100-meter dash with a 10.45 – beating the 10.46 that he ran in Monday's prelims – and became the first Falcon man ever to win a GNAC sprint title.
 
Finally, Aboudou anchored the 4-by-400, once again combining with Joshua, Rojas and Brooks to rewrite their own SPU standard in that one with a time of 3:11.71. Their previous mark of 3:12.10 came on April 18 at the Brian Clay Invitational, shattering the old record of 3:18 05 that had stood for 21 years (2005).
 
"I didn't expect any of this," said Aboudou, who during the winter broke SPU's indoor 60-meter dash record three times, along with the indoor long jump record and was part of the indoor 4-by-400 record-setting team (with Joshua, Brooks and Alex Vaneable). "I just came in, put my head down, and was ready to work. I didn't really know what the season would be like. I feel like I did see (setting some) PRs coming in, but I didn't think it would be this good.".
 
When Brooks wasn't helping the relays set records, he was busy setting one of his own in the 400-meter dash. Coming into the spring, he already had the standard of 47.84. He bettered that with a 47.26 at the Bryan Clay. Then, after posting a 47.60 in Monday's GNAC prelims, he went a blistering 46.44 in the finals for second place.
 
"When I crossed the (finish) line, I was not expecting it to say 46," Brooks said. "I was still feeling kind of tired from the relay right before, so I didn't have too high of expectations. But I was very happy with the result."
 
Joshua made the finals of the 200 dash, securing one team point with an eighth-place finish. That point factored into SPU's final total of 67.33, its second-highest score all-time in GNAC meets.
 
"We don't like taking the bare minimum. We want to run and excel and go above and beyond," Joshua said. "I think us scoring (that many) points speaks loudly about our desire to win. We're big on holding each other accountable and that adds a lot to us trying to score points as a team. At the end of the day, it's the pride you have when you're an athlete. You don't take 'no' for an answer."
 
Rojas competed for Benedictine during the indoor season. Hailing from nearby Granite Falls about 40 miles northeast of Seattle, he decided he wanted to get back closer to home, so made the transfer to SPU. In addition to his spots on the relays, he was a regular in the 400 dash throughout the spring.
 
"Based off my past 4-by-1s or my school's 4-by-1s, that's a pretty big accomplishment – overall, not just from an SPU standpoint," Rojas said of the 40.95 clocking. "That's a milestone for sure. We have a lot of room to improve for that, but from what we've done together, I'll take it."
 
ONCE A FALCON TRACKER, ALWAYS A FALCON TRACKER
John Glancy, Jim Hilliard, and Roger Hansen have all continued to keep tabs on SPU track to varying degrees over the years. (Glen Miller, the leadoff runner, passed away several years ago.)
 
Hansen, a teacher for 43 years and a track coach at different high schools for 50 years (including Juanita, Sammamish, and two stretches at Lake Washington, all of those just east of Seattle) had a hunch that their relay record was probably going to fall.
 
"I looked a few years ago and saw it was still there," said the 80-year-old Hansen, who ran the third leg on that 1968 foursome. "I've kept in touch with one of my former athletes who's now running for SPU (freshman sprinter Brooke Mosby). I went to one of her indoor meets and talked to (Lerum) a little bit.
 
"I saw the guys side looked like a pretty good group of sprinters. I thought, 'I'll bet (the record) is in jeopardy,'" added Hansen, now living in Bothell just northeast of campus. "I would check on Brooke's mark for her meets then flip over to the boys and check that 4-by-1. I looked on the day they broke the record then looked up the marks and said, 'Oops, there it goes' There's an 'Oh shoot, I don't own the record,' but on the other hand, I'm really happy for the guys to break it."
 
Of course, handing off the baton is crucial in either of the two relays, but monumentally more so in the 4-by-100. There is simply no margin for error. Period. Exclamation point.
 
"The precision that it takes, we put in a lot of hours working on handoffs," Hilliard recalled of being guided by legendary coach Ken Foreman. "We had Dr. Foreman, one of the greats. He had it down to a science, and we worked on it and worked on it and worked on it."
 
While watching the talents that Aboudou, Brooks, Joshua, and Rojas all bring to the track, Glancy – still among SPU's top 10 for the 200 and 400 (the 220 and 440 back then) also vividly remembers what relay teammates Miller, Hilliard, and Hansen brought to their record-setting run.
 
"Glen was the leadoff, and he was an intermediate hurdler and a long jumper, as well," Glancy said. "I remember Ken Foreman saying that if his body size would match his desire and ability, he'd be phenomenal. Jim was the second runner, and he was 6-foot-6 and a basketball player. Once he got moving, he could really motor, because his legs were so long. With the running start, he did really well. Roger was our third runner and ran the 100 and 200. He was the closest thing we had to a true sprinter."
 
"None of us had blazing speed," added Glancy, the anchor runner. "That year, we started together, we ended together, and we practiced a lot." (He, Miller and Hansen ran on a then-school record 4-by-440 relay in 1968, clocking 3:20.6; Glancy and Miller were on another unit that also clocked 3:20.6 that very same year. Both of those teams remain among the program's all-time top 10.)
 
Hilliard said that when coming to events in Brougham Pavilion, he sometimes would head to the bottom floor of Brougham to check out the records.
 
"I've gone down and looked at that board over the years and thought, 'There's gotta be some kids who can come up and do it," he said.
 
"I'm still amazed that it stood that long."
 

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