Lakewood Area Residents Give Hull Support For Track Trip

Brian Hull, a young man from a small community, is getting a shot at the big time at 8 p. m. Saturday. That’s when the crack of a starter’s pistol will send eight of the nation’s best young runners on their way in the 5,000 meters, a feature of the prestigious Golden West Invitational Track and Field Meet at Sacramento, Calif.

Hull, the finest in the distance to ever come out of Southwestern Central School and probably Western New York, is getting a royal sendoff from the Lakewood area. “People have been magnificent,” his coach, Tom Priester, said last night. Lakewood Legion and the Lakewood Police Department have made large contributions to a fund that has swelled to approximately $1,100. Brian’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Hull, will make the trip, too. The group flies out of Buffalo Thursday morning.

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Young Hull calls it his greatest adventure, and well he might. The 5,000 meters (300 yards over 3 miles) is not exactly new to Brian, who has been running the distance in training. “Everyone has to run his own race in a meet like this where all the fellows are strangers,” Hull explained. “I think 14:30 would be excellent, it might even win, so that is probably what I will try to pace myself for,” Brian shied away from predicting his finish, but admitted “third would be fantastic.”

The nation’s leading seniors are selected (8 to the event) by Golden West officials to complete the massive field. This will be the 15th annual Golden West Invitational. Getting back to the opposition, Hull said he has no information whatsoever on the 5,000 meters field – not even a single name of an entry or a time – so it will be survival of the fittest from gun to tape.

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Priester, whose Southwestern team won the Section 6 Class B title, has been working with Hull since his invitation to the Golden west was received. Out in Ohio, another coach will be watching the results of the 5,000 with more than passing interest. He is Chuck Zody, track coach at Miami of Ohio, where Brian will be enrolling on a scholarship. “I called Chuck when the invitation came,” Priester said, “and we worked together by telephone setting up a training program.”

Priester thinks Hull has the potential to finish in the top three. “Brian is untested against national competition and I believe the challenge will strengthen him physically and mentally, help him rise to the challenge,” Priester added. “We have been working on short intervals,” Hull’s coach went on. “Tuesday we ran the distance and today will be devoted to tapering off.”

Priester, who has done a magnificent job as track coach at Southwestern, is taking a leave to study for his doctorate at the University of North Carolina. “But I’ll be back at Southwestern,” he emphasized. “I love that place.”

Hull has many achievements behind him. His best, he says, was running the two-mile at 9:06 at the Penn Relays at Philadelphia, a Western New York record, a finishing third overall. He is the only Western New York entry to ever win the state championship in both cross-country and track. In the Eastern States Meet he won Class C and finished third overall.

Now comes the big one.

“Are you nervous,” he was asked.

"No, not now, but I will be later,” he answered honestly.