Thursday, December 03, 2015

TBT - Matt Giusto, San Mateo HS winning 1983 Kinney National Meet

To the left, senior Matt Giusto winning the 1983 Kinney National Meet (now Footlocker) at Balboa Park in San Diego. One week earlier, Matt finished in 3rd place at the West Region race in Woodward Park. Tracy Garrison (14:54.0) and Calvin Gaziano (14:54.2) were the first two finishers with Giusto in 3rd at 15:01.9. Back then, only the top 8 advanced to the national meet for a total of 32 competitors. You can check out the complete results of the Western Region race at this LINK. Giusto upset the favored west duo to win the national meet as he was the only runner to break 15 minutes on the Balboa Park course. He ran 14:54.1 with Garrison in 2nd at 15:04.5. Complete results of that race are here at this LINK. Giusto went on to have a very successful career at the University of Arizona. He qualified for the 1996 Olympic team in the 5000m. He also ran a 3:55.63 mile at Kezar stadium to become the first runner to break the 4 minute mile in San Francisco. You can check out the race in the video below.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does he happened to be related to Luke Giusto who runs at De La Salle?

Albert Caruana said...

Luke is his son.

Anonymous said...

Matt's 1983 Footlocker performance can be viewed at this link:

https://youtu.be/BapIDop7DWk

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know his PRs in HS for 1600 and 3200?

Albert Caruana said...

Matt's PRs in high school were 4:13.6 and 9:04. Those are the times posted on the San Mateo HS record board next to the track. I know as a senior, Matt finished in 3rd place in the 3200 (9:05.20) behind Roman Gomez (8:58.91) and Jesus Gutierrez (9:00.30).

Anonymous said...

Great link! Thanks.

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