On this day 36 years ago, Andy Whitney won the State Championship in the 3200 meters with a time of 9:10.2, earning a fifth State Title for the Whitney family in two years. His older brother Mark won the cross country title in 1977 while Andy captured his own crown in 1978. His younger sister Laura captured the first two of four eventual cross country championships in 1977 and 1978.

Andy’s win in the two mile capped one of the greatest individual years in the history of Stony Brook Athletics. During the fall he won his first New York State cross country title and posted a remarkable 15:43 at the famed Sunken Meadow State Park course, a time that remains second-best in Long Island history. In the spring he reset his brother Mark’s records in the mile (4:14.9) and two mile runs (9:02.9). He also became our first individual Penn Relays Champion when he took the two mile title at Franklin Field in 9:06.2. He went on to win the State Championship in the two mile run to set the Suffolk County record.

He closed his career at the Golden West Invitational in California, a meet akin to the National Championship, where he took third in the two mile in a time of 9:05.9.

Whitney would go on to run for the College of William & Mary where he became a Conference Champion in cross country in 1982.

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