Wapato and Toppenish, close neighbors and natural rivals, have a shared history in high school sports than runs deeper than most might imagine.
They鈥檝e both won state wrestling titles, both have produced state champions in tennis and swimming, they鈥檝e had boys basketball teams reach the state finals and come up agonizingly short, they鈥檝e both had a batch of Hall of Fame coaches, and both have graduates 鈥� Dan Doornink and Fred Anderson 鈥� who played for the Seattle Seahawks.
In football, they first met 116 years ago.
But it鈥檚 in track and field where you鈥檒l find the most remarkable linkage between the Wolves and Wildcats, an extraordinary run of state champions in the same event 鈥� the 880-yard run 鈥� between 1967 and 1974.
And there was national acclaim at every turn.
Wapato鈥檚 Dave Fox started it with a stunning victory as a junior with an All-American time of 1:51.9 and he followed up with a repeat in the state鈥檚 big-school class.
Toppenish鈥檚 Glenn Kern then took up the charge with two of the closest finals in state history, sharing the 880 title in a dead heat in 1971 and then finishing second by a whisker in another photo finish the next year.
That led directly back to Wapato and Jake Groth, who was unrivaled in the event during the first two years of a new middle class, AA, in 1973 and 鈥�74.
Fox, Kern and Groth were not only like triplets in the half mile, they were also hardy three-sport athletes who could easily have been decathletes. Their highlights were everywhere 鈥� scoring touchdowns in football, making plays in state basketball tournaments, and winning cross country races.
One after the other, they were each rewarded with Pac-8 scholarships 鈥� Fox to Washington State, Kern to Southern Cal and Groth to Oregon State 鈥� and they all eventually dipped under 1:50 for the half mile.
They were thoroughbreds in every sense, combining the speed of a sprinter with the strength of a distance runner, and they owned the two-lap discipline, in succession, like no other neighbors ever did.
Fox on the run
Having moved to the Valley from Colorado during junior high, Fox鈥檚 timing was ideal. Setting the foundation and directing his development were two hall of famers 鈥� future U.S. Olympic track coach John Chaplin and Russ Insley.
Chaplin鈥檚 cross country and track teams were among the best in the state, and Fox was a double-digit scorer in Insley鈥檚 final season of a 200-win career with the Wolves鈥� basketball program.
Fox, a taller and heavier runner than most, never competed in the mile in track but he had plenty of endurance. He led Wapato to a share of the state cross country title as a junior, Chaplin鈥檚 last season. Bob Tomisser took over in both sports, and as a senior Fox won the Valley district title 鈥� setting a meet record of 10:41 for 2.15 miles at Franklin Park 鈥� and placed fourth at state.
This was all just a framework for spring, which showcased his versatility better than anywhere else. Setting aside his specialty, Fox ran 100 yards in 10.1 seconds, clocked 50 flat in the 440, topped six feet in the high jump, ran the low hurdles, and anchored the 4x220.
But it was the 880, as Kern and Groth would soon discover, that was a perfect fit.
Chaplin identified it early, and as a sophomore he won district and qualified for state, nearly making the final despite running 1:58.4. When Tomisser took over the next season, Fox was so busy in dual-meet mode, competing in a wide variety of events, that you鈥檇 never guess what was coming. By the time district came around he had barely surpassed his best 880 from the previous season.
But in prime time, his times plunged.
At Zaepfel Stadium on a warm afternoon, Fox unleashed a withering final half lap to shatter the district and stadium records in 1:52.6, a meet record by 4.5 seconds and personal best by a second more.
With so dramatic a drop, it seemed like an outlier. Except that in the 880, there are no outliers.
At state a week later, Fox humbled a quality field in Pullman, where his time of 1:51.9 left a trio of 1:54 chasers up the track. Over half a century later, only a handful of winners have bettered that time. Out of nowhere, it seemed, little Wapato had an All-American who was the nation鈥檚 fastest junior in 1967.
Fox鈥檚 senior season was another all-skills show as Wapato went 12-0 in regular-season meets. And while he ran under 1:57 seven times in May, he worked hard to get his repeat, clocking 1:53.8 to win by two strides.
At WSU, Fox finally had an opportunity to focus athletically on one thing. And his best season turned out to be his first, even though he was not eligible 鈥� as per NCAA rules 鈥� for the postseason as a freshman.
At the 28th California Relays in Modesto, Fox was called up from the frosh team to run the featured two-mile relay and his second leg, timed in 1:48.8, sparked the Cougars to second place and the No. 5 time in the nation in 1969.
Over the next three years at WSU, where Chaplin was now an assistant coach, Fox鈥檚 highlights came on his home track at Rogers Field, site of his prep glories. They centered on two of the program鈥檚 biggest dual wins over rival Washington 鈥� as a sophomore he ran third in the 880 and was on the winning 4x440 and as a senior he placed second in the 880 in his final race in Pullman.
In a sense, Fox was the leadoff and anchor to this trilogy. The Zaepfel Stadium record he set as a junior stood for an astounding 47 years, but one of his stellar achievements 鈥� three straight district titles in the 880 鈥� had already been matched while he was at Washington State.
And by, off all people, a football star from Toppenish.
Kern takes the handoff
Like Fox, Glenn Kern enjoyed the benefit of a hall of fame coach, playing football and basketball for Bob Winters.
The Wildcats were 24-6 during Kern鈥檚 three football seasons, reaching fifth in the final state poll in 1970. Winters used his workhorse鈥檚 speed and strength all over the field as he scored 21 touchdowns 鈥� 13 on offense as a receiver, four on defense and four on special teams.
At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, Kern was a big boy for those days and he earned All-Valley honors at defensive back as a senior.
Track coach Tom Shellenberger saw the power and long stride and came to the same conclusion as Chaplin when he first saw Fox 鈥� 440s were an obvious notion but he鈥檚 bettered suited to go further out. In his sophomore debut 鈥� freshmen remained in junior high in this era 鈥� Kern followed directly in Fox鈥檚 path, winning a district title and just missing the state final despite running 1:57.2.
The next season, the state championships were moved out of Pullman for the first time and contested at Husky Stadium in Seattle. It rained, naturally, but the crowd got a rousing treat in one race above all others.
After lowering his best to 1:55.4 in the prelims, the Top-Hi junior seized the lead in the final at the bell but was caught at the top of the homestretch by Jim Brewster of Rogers. Brewster drew even but Kern refused to yield and they ran stride for stride for 80 yards, diving together at the tape. Officials deliberated over the photo but could find no clear winner and called it a dead heat at 1:56.2.
For Kern鈥檚 senior finale in 1972, the WIAA opted for a Seattle-Pullman rotation and state was moved back to Pullman. This would be the final year of AA and A classifications, so Toppenish was still up against the biggest schools.
Kern wasn鈥檛 the state leader coming in, but he made his intentions clear with a 54.3 opening lap. Blanchet鈥檚 Greg Stewart repeatedly challenged over the final 440 and each time Kern fended him off, until one final lean at the finish.
Once again, it was not clear who won and officials went to the photo. This time, however, there was a sliver of separation and Stewart was awarded the victory. Both clocked the same time and that was Kern鈥檚 consolation 鈥� a career best 1:53.0 and the fifth fastest in state history.
Kern鈥檚 first collegiate stop was Spokane Community College, where he captured the NWAC title in the 880, slashing the meet record by two seconds, and turned in the fastest JC time in the nation at 1:50.8.
That was enough of an enticement for USC, where Kern competed for three years with most of his best efforts coming in 1975 as a junior. He scored in conference meets against Cal, Stanford and UCLA, dropping his best down to 1:50.2 in April, then ran a 1:49.7 relay leg at the West Coast Relays in Fresno a week before the conference meet.
Kern was back on familiar ground for the Pac-8 meet, which was hosted by WSU, and in the prelims he was reunited with a familiar opponent. Brewster, who shared the epic dead heat for the state title four years earlier, was competing for the Cougars and he eked out a win in a blank finish to take the second heat as Kern advanced in fourth.
With Brewster injured and unable to go in the final, Kern came up for sixth and helped the Trojans repeat as conference champions.
In the frenzied finish of the prelim race, Kern nabbed the last qualifying spot half a stride ahead of a lunging Oregon State freshman.
It was Jake Groth.
Wapato鈥檚 repeat of a repeat
In the summer of 1971, when Fox had completed two years at WSU and Kern was heading into his senior year at Toppenish, Groth made his first headlines.
But it wasn鈥檛 in the 880.
And he wasn鈥檛 even in high school yet.
Groth, at age 15, tore up the Junior Olympics sprint scene, sweeping the 100, 220 and 440 in the intermediate division of the Inland Empire Championships and setting a national age-group record in the 440 of 51.3.
But since a serious injury wiped out his entire sophomore track season, Wapato High fans got to know Groth first as a standout basketball player. Jerry Groenig called him up midway through his 10th-grade season, along with Doornink, and as a junior he helped the Wolves win 24 games and place fourth at state.
When Groth finally returned to the track after nearly two years away from it, Tomisser already knew he had another 880 runner. He was lighter than either Fox or Kern, but he was 6-foot-1, possessed easy speed and was strong.
This was the state鈥檚 first year with three classifications, and Groth thoroughly dominated the AA state meet in Seattle, hitting a season-best 1:56.3 in the prelims before taking it down to 1:54.3 in the final. He won by 2.5 seconds and ran on Wapato鈥檚 runner-up 4x220.
Groth鈥檚 senior year, like his half-mile predecessors, was a three-sport blur. He was a defensive back on a 7-2 football team and an All-Mid-Valley forward who could jump out of the gym. The Wolves reached the state semifinals in Tacoma and won 22 games.
That meant another late start to track season but it didn鈥檛 appear to bother Groth, who handled state in the same forceful manner. He broke his meet record in the prelims and again in the final, winning by 2.6 seconds in 1:53.9 鈥� which would鈥檝e won the AAA title.
So it was on to Corvallis and, after dropping to 1:51.6 in 1975 and meeting Kern in the Pac-8 semis, Groth enjoyed his best collegiate season in 1976.
His best by far, actually, and the best of the trio.
But it was also tumultuous and frustrating.
Now competing at the slightly shorter metric distance of 800 meters, Groth got cooking during spring break with a 1:49.7 in the WSU dual, getting edged by Brewster 鈥� who else? After winning the UW dual on his home track, he broke out at Eugene against the rival Ducks with a winning time of 1:49.2. But he was disqualified for bumping another runner on the first lap, prompting a spicy response for the press 鈥� 鈥淚 was told you can鈥檛 come down here without getting jobbed.鈥�
A week later at the Pac-8 Championships in Berkeley, Groth easily made the final but was spiked, knocked down and unable to finish.
With two weeks left to make the NCAA qualifier of 1:49.1, Groth returned to Eugene and won the Oregon Invitational but missed the qualifier by an agonizing tenth, running 1:49.2.
With one chance left, Oregon State staged an all-star 800 for May 27 but a fierce wind on the backstretch foiled the attempt, although Groth still managed to run 1:49.9 and break 1:50 for the fourth time in a month.
While he didn鈥檛 break 1:50 again and dealt with injuries, Groth had some nice moments in his final season in 1978. He shook off wet, cold weather to win the 800 in the WSU dual, and he ran on a winning 4x400 relay that wrapped up a home victory over Washington.
From start to finish, this trio starred over two laps for a dozen years. They combined for five 880-yard state prep titles, coming within an inch of a sixth, and then followed with solid tours through the hierarchy of Pac-8 racing.
Fox held the Valley record for 29 years, Kern鈥檚 school record has stood for over a half century, and the only reason Groth doesn鈥檛 hold Wapato鈥檚 all-time best is because of Fox.
It was a run for the ages, back and forth on Highway 97.