On this day 50 years ago, Peter Randall won the Eastern States Cross Country Championship, duplicating the feat first accomplished by Robin Lingle on the same day in 1959. In the process, Randall obliterated the course record at Van Cortlandt Park by an astounding 21 seconds. His teammate and fellow Stony Brook Hall of Famer, Glenn Ogden, came in 3rd, also smashing the previous meet record. As a team the boys took 3rd out of twenty schools, trailing only the Class A powerhouses of Essex Catholic and Ossining.

Only two other Brookers would go on to win the Eastern States title as Richie Shay accomplished the feat in both 1968 and 1969 and Laura Whitney in 1979.

Here is the account of the race from the next day’s New York Times:

Peter Randall of the Stony Brook School won the individual title and Essex Catholic of Newark captured team honors in the 18th annual Fordham University Eastern Interscholastic Cross Country Championships yesterday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Randall, running in the powerful “A” varsity race, traversed the 2.5-mile course in 12 minutes 42.2 seconds. This was an “A” varsity meet mark and erased the 13:03 time set by Tom Benedict of New Canaan, Conn., in 1961.

Randall’s victory was his third of the season. He won the New York University meet two weeks ago and caused a deliberate deadlock with his teammate, Glenn Ogden, in last week’s St. John’s University run.

Randall broke forth from the pack and was 12th entering the hill. He took the lead in the last half mile and was an easy winner, leaving Greg Ryan of Essex Catholic 30 yards back.

The meet attracted more than 125 schools and 306 teams from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

Top Five Results

1.	Peter Randall	Stony Brook	12:42
2.	Greg Ryan	Essex Catholic	12:48
3.	Glenn Ogden	Stony Brook	12:52
4.	Kevin O’Brien	Power	12:54
5.	Fred Lane	Essex Catholic	13:05

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