1982 NYRR Club XC Championship

Van Cortlandt Park, The Bronx, NY

October 12, 1982

The Mine Mount Road Department junior teams ran the Road Runners of America National Championship at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx every year.

Vanny was and remains a mecca for American cross-country running. The park was created out of the personal estate of Jacobus Van Cortlandt in 1888. It’s the same property from which the Van Cortlandt Park Golf Club was created, this the oldest public golf course in the country.

Later, the parks trails, not far from Columbia and just down the hill from Manhattan College in Riverdale, became THE local meeting place for runners of all types. Vanny has played host to NCAA championships, National TAC championships, Kinney (now Footlocker) regional qualifiers, Eastern States Championships for high schoolers over the short 2.5 mile course, the Manhattan Invitational run by the college, and so many more — all circumnavigating the sporting fields along Broadway where games of cricket, baseball, soccer, Gaelic football, rugby, field hockey, and Irish hurling were ongoing.

The U.S. Age group meet was over 3,000m with the course running over legendary “Cemetery Hill” where the Van Cortlandt’s and their kin were buried.

Lyle Smith, who came up short against John Trautmann in the same race a year ago, won as a high school freshman. Eighth-grader Tracey Hinman finished fourth in her race.