Club History

WVJS was begun in the fall of 1966 when three joggers began meeting together on a local high school track (Westmont). Within a year or two the numbers grew as jogging and running in the United States increased in popularity. The club was formally organized as an AAU (the predecessor to the TAC and USATF) team in April of 1970. Two of the first three joggers in the club were probably Carl Martin and Len Edholm. The third may have been Bob Blonder.

The name WVJS was chosen because we met on the west side of the Santa Clara valley and because club members were both joggers and striders. Originally, men were considered striders if they could break six minutes in the mile and women were considered striders if they could break seven. Strider patches were given to those runners who met these standards.

When the club was first formed, we had several excellent 40+ runners. This in turn attracted other good 40+ runners from outside the Santa Clara Valley. With the exception of a short period during 1980 and 1981, we were the dominant 40+ team in Northern California through the late 1980’s. Some of the accomplishments by our club during this period included:

During the time that Jack Leydig of the WVTC had his individual scoring system in place, which was the accepted scoring system in the running community, individual club members won the 40+ men’s title for 10 straight years (1971 through 1980).
Our men’s 40+ team won the premier relay event in Northern California (the Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz relay) for all six years of its existence.
The Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz relay was abandoned because of its popularity and consequent traffic problems on Highway 1. Subsequently, it was replaced by the Lake Merced Christmas Relays in 1980. Our mens 40+ team has won that relay 11 times, the last win coming in 2000 and our mens 50+ team has won it 10 times, the last win coming in 2010. Our men’s 60+ team has won the relay 3 times, the last time coming in 2010. The relay is currently run by four person teams. Originally, this was a five person relay. The final four men on our 1982 relay ran 1:32:58, which is 90 seconds faster than the current 4-man record. We held the 5-man record at the time that they changed to the 4-man format.
Our men’s 40+ teams have won seven national championships and our 50+ team has won two. We finished second on several other occasions. We had not competed in any national championships since 1990 because almost all of them are held on the East Coast or in the Midwest and we do not have the funds to send teams. The 1996 X-Country 10K National Championships were held, however, at Stanford and our 50+ team won their event.
Our men’s 40+ team won almost all of the Pacific Association championship races during the early and mid 80’s.
From 1964 through 2016 a road race was held in Holy City. Our club sponsored and ran the event most of those years.
Here are some old photos of our gang.

1990s PA/USATF Team & Individual Results

1990 – Men’s 50-59 8K National Team Cross Country champs (Sal Vasquez, Bill Meinhardt & Tim Rostege).
1991 – Men’s Masters (40+) and Men’s Seniors (50+) champs.
1992 – Men’s Masters champs.
1993 – Men’s Seniors and the inaugural Men’s Super Seniors (60+) champs.
1994 – Women’s Masters, Men’s Seniors, and Men’s Super Seniors champs.
1995 – Men’s Seniors, Men’s Super Seniors, and inaugural Men’s Veterans (70+) champs.
1996 – Women’s Masters, Men’s Seniors, Men’s Super Seniors and Men’s Veterans Championships. Men’s 50-59 10K National Team Cross Country champs (Sal Vasquez, David Furst, Jim Reitz, Dick Chimenti & Bill Meinhardt).
1997 – Men’s Seniors and Men’s Veterans champs.
1998 – Men’s Masters, Women’s Seniors, Men’s Seniors and Men’s Veterans champs.
1999 – Men’s Super Seniors and Men’s Veterans champs plus Men’s 60-69 10K National Team Cross Country champs (Neal Chappell, Dave Norlander & Ken Noel).

Sue Francis won a Women’s Masters Championship. Stan DeMartinis (five times), Dave Valles and Howard Powers won Men’s Veterans Championships. Ralph Poole won a Super Seniors Championship. Jim Reitz and Tim Rostege (twice) won Men’s Seniors Championships.

We had three age-group winners at the 1996 National Cross Country Championships (10K): Chris Kennedy (40-44 women), Dave Furst (50-54 men) and Sal Vasquez (55-59 men).

At the 1999 National Cross Country Championship, Neal Chappell won the 60+ individual title. Also in 1999 the 60-69 4×1500 and 4×1600 world records were set by the team of Neal Chappell, Ralph Poole, Gene Antonides and Ken Noel.

New Millenium Results

2000 – First place for Men’s Masters, Men’s Super Seniors and Men’s Veteran teams. Howard Powers wins Veterans title again.
2001 – First place for Men’s Veteran team. Joe Hurtado wins Super Senior individual title.
2002 – First place for Men’s Super Senior team. Eddie Reyna wins Veteran individual title.
2003 – No titles this year.
2004 – No titles this year.
2005 – First place for Men’s Super Senior team.
2006 – First place for Men’s Senior team in the Road Grand Prix. First place tie for Men’s Master team in XC Grand Prix. Eddie Reyna wins Veteran’s long-race individual competition.
2007 – First place for Men’s Master team in XC Grand Prix. First place for Men’s Senior team in Road Grand Prix. Dennis Kurtis wins Senior XC and Short Distance Road individual Grand Prix titles.
2008 – First place for Men’s Senior and Super Senior teams in Road Grand Prix. First place for Men’s Masters in XC Grand Prix. Christine Kennedy wins Women’s Senior Long Road title. Bill Dunn wins Super Senior Short Road Race, Long Road Race, and XC individual titles (the triple crown!).
2009 – First place for Men’s Super Senior and Veteran teams in Road Grand Prix. First place for Men’s Veteran team in XC Grand Prix. Bill Dunn wins Super Senior and Carl Petersen wins Veteran’s XC individual titles.
2010 – First place for Men’s Senior and Super Senior teams in Road Grand Prix. First place for Men’s Masters, Men’s Seniors, and Men’s Super Senior teams in XC Grand Prix.
2011 – First place for Men’s Veteran teams in both the Road and XC Grand Prix. Jose Pina finishes first in the Masters division of the XC Grand Prix. Joe Hurtado finishes in first place in the Road Grand Prix in the long race division for Super Senior runners, the short race division for Veteran runners, and the long race division for Veteran runners.
2012 – Eddie Reyna finished first in the 80+ division of the Road Grand Prix.
2013 – First place for Men’s Senior team in the Road Grand Prix competition. Eddie Reyna finished first in the 80+ division for both short race and long race divisions.
2014 – First place for Men’s 50+ team in the Road Grand Prix. Bob Lord won the short race competition for the 70+ men in road running. First place for Men’s 70+ team in the XC grand pix team competition.
2015 – First place for Men’s 50+ in the road running grand prix. Bill Dodson won both the short race and long race competition for 80+ men.
2016 – Bill Dodson, although now racing for Tamalpa, is worthy of mention as he garnered first place in three divisions: 70+ Men Long, 80+ Men Short, and 80+ Men Long.
2019 – First place for Men’s 50+ team in the Road Grand Prix and XC Grand Prix. First place for Men’s 60+ team in the Road Grand Prix. First place for Men’s 80+ team in the Road Grand Prix. Jorn Jensen wins Senior Long and XC titles. Norry McAllister wins Super Senior Short. Dave Norlander wins Super Veteran Long.
2020 – First place for Men’s 50+ team in the Road Grand Prix (only one race due to pandemic).
2021 – Season cancelled due to pandemic.
2022 – First place for Men’s 50+ team in the Road Grand Prix. First place for Men’s 60+ team in the Road Grand Prix. Nancy Eubanks wins Masters Long. Juan Rivera wins Masters Long. Jorn Jensen wins both Seniors Short and Long titles. Raymond Rodriguez wins Super Senior Short. Bob Schmitt wins both 80+ short and long titles. Kristina Parks wins Senior Cross Country title.
2023 – In Road GP, Jorn Jensen wins 50+ Long. Ray Rodriguez wins 60+ Short. Barry Farrara wins 60+ Long. Bob Schmitt share the title for 80+ Long.