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Golden West Invitational History
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This Weekend's Sacramento Area Meet at Folsom HS
Golden West Invitational - 20 years ago 1987 1987 Golden West Invitational - Doug Speck Twenty Years ago the Golden West Invitational had some super efforts that included two Prep All-Time bests that electrified the day’s affair. Kamy Keshmiri (Reno, Nevada) had blasted the old Prep Discus Record of 213-06 by Cling Johnson of Kansas from 1980 with a bombing 224-03 at Arcadia in early April. After a couple of times coming close here Kamy finally took down that mid-season mark as he tossed 215-2, 223-10, then 225-02, and followed with 212-00, 221-01 and 212-11, averaging 218-04 for the series! Keshmiri indicated that he had never had three throws over 220 feet in one competition, so it was truly a special day for the Reno star. George Kersh from Pearl Mississippi had some fine local times,
and quickly left a great national field behind here, blazing a
51.6 opening 400 that had him far ahead of the pack. He simply
never came back with a 1:17 at the 600 on the way to a super 1:46.58
Prep All-Time best, taking down the 1:47.31 run by Pete Richardson
(Berkeley) from that great 1981 State Meet at Cerritos. Kersh indicated
after the race that the record was kind of a surprise, and he was
looking forward to the USATF Jr Champ meet in Tucson, Arizona to
run a quick time.
Jason Pyrah (Willard, Missouri) had been rumored to run unreal early splits in 1600 races, and he followed suit here, racing out at 55.6 (440) 1:56.4 (60.8-880) and 2:59.6 (63.2-1320) on the way to a 4:04.25 win (#10 All-Time prep four lapper). No top high-schooler before or since has ever used Pyrah’s style of distance running.
There were a number of other really fine efforts in the meet. Steve Lewis, who would go Olympic Gold the next year at UCLA, was 46.14 for American HS of Fremont to easily win the 400. Eric Henry (McCullough, Woodlands, Tx) had Eric Middleman (Clarke, Westbury, NY) for good competition in the 3000m event, with Eric the 1600 leader at 4:29.4 before the tall Texan edged ahead during a 28 second final 200 split in an 8:14.75-8:15.17 win. New York’s Joe Galeano (Centereach) was a 13.64 (-1.1) High Hurdles winner over Kelly Carter (SW Dekalb. Ga) 13.69, with the eventual Auburn NCAA Champ star Carter 51.55 to take the 400m Intermediates. Brent Burns (Acalanes, Lafayette) won the Pole Vault at 17-04.5, equalling his third best winning performance of the year, closing 1987 with a 17-08.5 best, making him the #6 Prep Vaulter in US History to that point in history. Nugent Cotton (Furr, Houston, Tx) was a 25-11w (25-09 wind legal) Long Jump winner, with local star Joel Smith (Cordova, Rancho Cordova) taking the Triple Jump at 51-11, the best US prep mark of the year, and marking Smith as one of the top fifteen preps in US History to that point in time. Billy Sims (Ball, Galveston, Tx) stood in the way of a Keshmiri SP-DT sweep, with the Texan throwing a personal best 67-03.5 to Kamy’s 65-09.5. The 1987 sprints were run into the wind, with Raymond Ethridge (Crawford, San Diego) the 200 winner at 21.65 into a -3.19 mps breeze, with the 100 going at 10.74 to Barry Bacon (Neptune, NJ) into a -1.7 mps wind. The Keebler Meet (former IPI competition) in Illinois was the next weekend after the Golden West, making it possible for top high-schoolers to make a circuit after their state meet, with the turnout obviously very good for the 1987 Golden West competition.
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