Roger
Meador Biography
Charleston
High / (Class of 1960) Charleston, West Virginia
Classification:
AAA Boys
Specialty:
Distance
West
Virginia University
Roger Meador a
cross country and track and field standout at Charleston High School.
Charleston
High School is a former high school, which was closed in 1989, in Kanawha
County, West Virginia. Its final location is where CAMC General Hospital is now
located in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. In 1989, Charleston High School
and Stonewall Jackson High School consolidated to form Capital High School.
Meador
attended Elk Elementary School Center from 1951-1954, Thomas Jefferson Junior
High School from 1954-1957, and Charleston High School from 1958-1960.
While at
Charleston High, Meador was a two-time West Virginia high school boy’s individual
state cross country champion and a former state record holder. In track, Meador
was a State Meet co-record holder in the 880-yard run and runner-up in the
Mile, which helped the Mountain Lions win the 1960 team title by 48 points.
He was also a
good outfielder-pitcher for Elk Hills Church Softball League.
Meador
attended West Virginia University from 1960-1964 where he ran cross country and
track for Stan Romanoski.
[Background]
West Virginia
high school cross country can be traced back to 1958, where Coach Stan
Romanoski of West Virginia University’s cross country and track teams founded
the WVU Invitational cross country meet for scholastic harriers. He originated
the state prep cross country meet, which was later sanctioned and run by the
West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission as the state championship
event.
The 1958 WVU
Invitational cross-country meet was held at Morgantown Country Club in
Morgantown, WV. It was considered the first State Meet. The race was 2.2 miles
long and was all-classes, boys only. High schools were entered from
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Trophies were awarded to the leading
team from West Virginia and from outside the State.
Charleston
High’s Roger Meador was the first West Virginia prep athlete to win the
individual state crown, which he did twice. While Dunbar High won the team
standings for West Virginia.
West Virginia
high school girls did not have a championship until 1980. To this day, the
boys’ and girls’ races are ran separately but are held on the same day.
[High
School]
On Saturday, November
1st, 1958, West Virginia’s first invitational cross country meet for prep high
schools produced a surprise individual winner. Roger Meador of Charleston
outran two better known State schoolboys to finish first at the Morgantown
Country Club course. His time was 10 minutes, 22 seconds for the 2.1-mile
distance.
Keith Locke
of Huntington, a West Virginia high school State mile champion (4:34.0), placed
second, followed by Doug Kersey of Charleston, who has been his chief
challenger.
Pittsburg
Central Catholic (PA) won the team title by a large margin with 47 points.
Uniontown (PA) ran second, and Dunbar (WV) led the State entries in third
place. Following in order were Huntington (WV), Hopewell of Aliquippa (PA),
Marietta (OH), Elk Garden (WV) and Matoaka (WV).
On May 16th,
1959, at the West Virginia high school boy’s state track meet at Laidley Field
in Charleston, was perhaps the coldest and windiest event in the State Meet
history. Dunbar edged Charleston 57 to 56 ½ in a great team battle. Richard
Harrison led the Bulldogs’ by winning the 100-yard dash (9.85), second place in
the 220-yard dash, and was on Dunbar’s winning 440-yard relay team (44.2).
Harrison also earned high point honors with 11 ½ points, while his teammate
Hamilton Lipscomb and Wellsburg’s Catfish Hearst shared runner-up honors with
10 each. Wellsburg’s Catfish Hearst had two record setting performances in the
220- and 440-yard dashes. He tied the state meet record in the 220 (22.1) and
became the first sub-50 quarter-miler in the state. That is amazing considering
the windy conditions. The previous mark of 50.0 seconds was set in 1954 by
Charley Bennett of Oak Hill. Huntington’s John Minichan broke the shot-put
record with a heave of 52 feet, seven inches. Charleston’s Doug Kersey won the
880-yard dash (2:00.5) and was runner-up in the Mile run, while teammate Roger
Meador was third in the Mile.
Team
Standings:
1) Dunbar –
57; 2) Charleston – 56 ½; 3) Huntington – 35; 4) Stonewall – 30; 5) Huntington
East – 15; 6) Wellsburg – 11; 7) Parkersburg – 9 ½; 7) Mt. Hope – 9 ½; 9) Oak
Hill – 8; 9) DuPont – 8; 11) Morgantown – 6; 11) Wheeling – 6; 13) South
Charleston – 4; 14) Beckley – 3; 15) Washington Irving – 2; 15) Princeton – 2;
15) Elkins – 2; 18) Weirton – 1 ½; 19) Triadelphia – 1; 19) Benwood Union – 1;
19) Iaeger – 1; 19) Warwood – 1
On Saturday,
November 14th, 1959, Pittsburgh Central Catholic successfully defended its
Mountaineer Invitational cross-country championship, scoring a low of 31 points
against eight other West Virginia and Pennsylvania high school squads,
Uniontown (PA), was runner-up.
Joe Thomas of
Uniontown, the Pennsylvania state cross country and distance track champion,
won individual honors by completing the 2.2-mile course in 9 minutes, 54
seconds.
Roger Meador
of Charleston (WV) was second, followed in order by Roy Ralston of Morgantown
(WV), Robert Henry, John Ryan, Phillip Leavy and Ralph Besinsk, all of
Pittsburg Central (PA); Buzzy Cassidy of Uniontown (PA), Gary Kniffen of
Pittsburg Central (PA) and Ernest Cunningham of Charleston (WV).
Morgantown
surprised by winning the West Virginia team championship, placing third behind
Pittsburg Central (PA) and Uniontown (PA). Then came Huntington East (WV),
Charleston (WV), Hopewell of Aliquippa (PA), Dunbar (WV), Berkeley Springs
(WV), and Elk Garden (WV).
Thomas’ time
bettered Meador’s winning time of 10 minutes, 22 seconds last year in the first
annual event here. Meador earned West Virginia’s individual state crown for the
second year in a row.
There were
about 110 runners that competed at the Morgantown Country Club course from West
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, which more than doubled from the previous
year.
On May 7th,
1960, at the 26th annual Gazette Relays at Laidley Field in Charleston (WV),
Meador boke meet records in the Mile and 880-yard runs. He ran the 880-yard run
in 2:00.5, which bettered the previous record of 2:01.1 that was set back in
1956 by Parkersburg High’s Mat Crofton. His time was just one tenth off the
State Meet record of 2:00.4, while Huntington’s Terry Shy would finish in a
close second. Meador also cruised to a record run in the Mile of 4:34.3; more
than 80 yards over Huntington’s Terry Shy. The previous Gazette Relay mark of
4:35.8 was set by Keith Locke of Huntington back in 1958. Meador’s record
performances helped the Mountain Lions win the title for the second straight
year with a total of 97 points. Huntington East was second with 47, Dunbar
third with 42, Stonewall Jackson was fourth with 37 ½, DuPont (16), Parkersburg
(11), Logan (7), South Charleston (6), St. Albans (4), Mt. Hope (1 ½), and
Catholic (1). Charleston sprinter James Miller took home high point honors with
12 ½ points, by winning 100- and 220-yard dashes and running on the Mountain
Lion’s winning 440-yard relay team.
On May 21st,
1960, at the West Virginia high school boy’s state track meet at Laidley Field
in Charleston, the Mountain Lions destroyed the competition by winning by 48
points, which could have been motivated by their heartbreaking loss to Dunbar
the previous year – 57 to 56 ½. An amazing five records fell at the State Meet,
led by Charleston’s 880-yard and Mile relay teams that smashed state records
with times of 1:32.0 and 3:24.9, respectively. The Mountain Lions George Hicks
leaped 6 feet, 2 ¼ inches to set a new high jump record. He broke Garland
Barnhart’s ten-year-old high jump mark. Charleston’s Roger Meador and
Huntington’s Jim Callaway tied in the 880-yard run in a record time of 2:00.0.
The previous record was 2:00.4 set by Glenville’s Bob Arnold back in 1946. Huntington’s
Jim Eddins set a record in the pole vault with an effort of 12 feet, six
inches. That easily erased the former record of 12 feet, 1 inch that was set by
Charleston’s Rock Ehle back in 1953.
Charleston’s
Roger Meador was also runner-up in the Mile run, while Terry Shy of Huntington
East was your winner with a time of 4:46.4.
Charleston’s
Fred Robinson, a quarter-mile specialist, edged DuPont’s Chauncey Robinson by
12 ½ points for high-point individual honors.
Team
Standings:
1) Charleston
– 79 ½; 2) Huntington – 31 ½; 3) Dunbar – 29; 4)
Huntington East – 25 ½; 5) Stonewall – 21; 6) DuPont – 14; 7) Triadelphia – 12;
8) Wellsburg – 11; 9) Parkersburg – 7 ½; 10) Mt. Hope – 7; 11) Wheeling – 5;
11) South Charleston – 5; 11) Morgantown – 5; 14) Weirton – 4; 14) Charles Town
– 4; 16) St. Albans – 2 ½; 16) Beckley – 2 ½; 18) Summersville – 2; 19) Logan –
1; 19) Iaeger – 1
It is
noteworthy, that in 1960 Charleston High School had won their 13th track &
field championship and they had won 13 of its last 14 meets the past two
seasons.
In June of
1960, two of Charleston High School’s track members (Ernest Cunningham and
Roger Meador) proposed to run from Charleston to Huntington – a distance of about
50 miles – every other week to keep in shape during the summer months. The
first attempt did not go as planned. Meador developed blisters on his feet
about 15 miles short of Huntington. The pair hoped to continue their training
plans once Meador recovered.
[College]
Roger Meador
pursued a Physical Education degree and ran on the cross country and track
teams while at West Virginia University from 1960 to 1964. He was coached by the
legendary Stan Romanoski. At that time, the West Virginia men’s cross country
and track teams competed in the Southern Conference.
While at WVU,
Meador ran distance with his former Charleston High teammate – Doug Kersey. The
two played a big role in cross-country and track while at West Virginia
University. As a sophomore, Meador was their top cross-country runner. He
finished first in four of ten regular season meets, where he averaged 2.2
points per meet (low score wins in cross country). While Kersey was the number
three runner on the team averaging 5.4 points. That fall, the WVU men’s cross-country
team finished with a 7-3 record.
Meador was
named to the Men’s Cross Country All-Southern Conference Team in 1961 and 1962.
In 1960,
Meador ran on the West Virginia freshman squad, therefore he did not
participate in the 1960 Southern Conference Cross Country Championship in
Williamsburg (VA). The WVU men’s cross-country team
finished 4th as a team with 92 points.
At the 1961
Southern Conference Cross Country Championship in Lexington (VA), Meador placed
5th on the 4.2-mile Kerr’s Creek course, while the
Mountaineers would finish 4th as a team with 89 points.
At the 1962
Southern Conference Cross Country Championship in Charleston (SC), Meador
placed 4th on the 4.06-mile course, while the Mountaineers would finish 1st as
a team with 40 points.
At the 1963
Southern Conference Cross Country Championship in Blacksburg (VA), Roger
Meador, WVU’s top runner all year, finished in 42nd spot on the Virginia Tech 4.25-mile
course as leg and arm cramps struck him early in the race. The WVU men’s
cross-country team would finish runner-up in the team standings with 48 points.
On November
26th, 1963, Meador placed 106th for the Four Mile Run at the NCAA DI Cross
Country Championships at Michigan State University in East Lansing (MI),
crossing the line as the top WVU runner with a time of 21:38.20. The Mountaineers
finished 21st as a team with 501 points.
WVU Team
Scoring:
106th - Roger
Meador (21:38.2); 127th – Joseph Kubic (21:54.2); 131st – Donald Sweeney
(22:06); 142nd – Howard Jackson (22:22); 144th – Ralph Morrisey (22:23); 145th
– Richard Mull (22:24.5); 165th – Edward Fiertz (23:58.7)
Number of
contestants starting run: 167
At the 1961
Southern Conference Track & Field Championship at Williamsburg (VA), WVU
placed 3rd with 27 points.
At the 1962
Southern Conference Track & Field Championship at Norfolk (VA), Meador
placed third in the Three-Mile Run, while helping the Mountaineers to a 4th
place team finish with 24.33 points.
At the 1963
Southern Conference Track & Field Championship at Laidley Field in
Charleston (WV), WVU placed 3rd with 36 points.
At
the 1964 Southern Conference Track & Field Championship at Williamsburg
(VA), Meador established a new record in the Two-Mile Run, while helping the
Mountaineers defeat
Pitt for the conference title – 56.5 to 44.5. The senior was clocked in 9:31.5,
which was 5.7 seconds better than the previous record. The conference title was
the first for West Virginia men’s track.
Roger Meador
won numerous honors while attending West Virginia University. He paced the
Mountaineer harriers by winning many individual titles and top 10 finishes. He
also held various distance and relay records in both cross country and track.
He helped both his track and cross-country teams win a Southern Conference
title and qualify for the NCAA D1 Cross Country National Championship.
Submitted by
Mike McMillion (08/13/20)
Results courtesy
of RunWV
Sources:
Jesse Skiles, West Virginia High School Track & Field State Meet: Boys (A
Statistical History 19:14-2001); Southern Conference Record Books; Archives