Penn Relays record still intact for Penn State foursome 30 years later

If there is one thing that Vance Watson, Steve Shisler, Chris Mills and Randy Moore have in common besides competing on the Penn State 4x800-meter relay team that holds the Penn Relays record, it's their amazement that the mark has survived 30 years.

It was a sunny and pleasant Saturday at Franklin Field in 1985 when the Nittany Lions outran some of the nation's top middle-distance teams, including Villanova, Georgetown, and Arizona State, and broke the tape in 7 minutes, 11.17 seconds after Moore's 1:45.5 anchor leg, fastest in carnival history at the time.

Year after year, some of the nation's best teams and 800-meter runners have come to Penn seeking the record. No matter how mightily they've tried, the mark still resides in Happy Valley, remaining the oldest record of any Championship of America college relay.

"I suspected it was going to be hard to take out but I am surprised that three decades later we're still at the top," said Shisler, who ran for Pennridge High and now coaches the boys' distance runners at State College High. "Taking four guys on the same team running those times is what made it special. It was the best race of our lives."

Shisler and Moore came to Penn State as walk-ons.

"We were regular guys," said Mills, who works for International Paper in Modesto, Calif. "Randy and I grew up in State College. Vance was like the Mr. New Jersey at Penn Relays. You think about it, how can there not be four folks that can get together and do something like that?

"But on the other hand, Randy's 1:45 was a pretty studly leg. So if the stars align and everybody does the thing at the right time, then it's going to be there."

Watson, of Phoenixville, a special-education teacher in Philadelphia, was the outstanding boys' high school relay runner in 1983 competing for Willingboro. That high school's distance medley relay team from '83 is on the Penn Relays Wall of Fame along with Penn State's 4x800 group from '85.

"It's pretty amazing to look back and think you're a part of that," he said. ". . . It's still the fastest time ever run in that stadium. Just to think about it, it's impressive to have the fastest time anywhere."

Penn State's 4x800 team had captured The Athletics Congress indoor national championship earlier that year against both college and club teams "and we knew we'd run fast, but I don't think any of us expected to run that fast," Watson said.

Watson ran a 1:49.2 leadoff leg, then moved to the side and nervously watched his teammates. Shisler kept the lead for the Lions with a 1:47.9 split. Mills, a freshman, and Moore, a senior, needed to withstand the challenges of Georgetown's Kevin King and Miles Irish, who earned a combined 10 All-America mentions in their careers.

Mills, who was timed in 1:48.5, fought off King and handed the baton to Moore in front. Moore, who resides now in Southern Pines, N.C., saw Irish's shadow with 200 meters to go and went into his kick while "doing a little chant in my mind that you can't print."

"It was sort of a blur from that point on," Moore said. "I was so into it that I didn't even know where the finish line was. There were so many people crowded around the finish. I think I ran 10 meters too far. I just think I was in the zone."

Moore competed overseas after graduating and qualified for the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, but a ruptured Achilles tendon in the 1988 indoor season ended his career.

All the runners gave credit for their success to longtime coach Harry Groves, who retired in 2006 after 38 years at Penn State. Moore said that Groves "created a program that extracted the best from four kids who had a dream of running fast and winning. We ran the race but Harry got us there."

The 4x800, an event that began at the carnival in 1897 as the 2-mile relay, resumes Saturday at Penn. Mills will stream the event and then call his parents in State College. Shisler will be at Penn watching his son, Alex, compete for Penn State and coaching State College High's 4x800 relay team.

Watson, who went online and bought a ticket, will be attending the Penn Relays this year for the first time since 1986. "I've never been there as a spectator, so it'll be interesting," he said.

"You feel very fortunate to be part of something that's been around that long," Mills added. "That's what continues to make it more and more special."