2023 - FOUR STANDOUTS TO BE INDUCTED INTO VAN CORTLANDT PARK

CROSS COUNTRY HALL OF FAME

Christine Curtin, Denis Cochran-Fikes, Paul Limmer and Walt Murphy to be honored at 51 st Manhattan College Cross Country Invitational Presented by HOKA

Scholastic cross country stars Christine Curtin and Denis Cochran-Fikes; heralded Long Island high school coach Paul Limmer and long-time journalist Walt Murphy will be inducted into the Van Cortlandt Park Cross Country Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place at the finish line of famed Van Cortlandt Park just before the Boys’ and Girl’s Eastern States Championship races as part of the 51st Manhattan College Cross Invitational (MCXCI) Presented by HOKA. The announcement was made by Kerri (Gallagher) Inman, the event director of the MCXCI who also serves as Director of Cross Country, Track & Field at Manhattan College; and MCXCI Race Director Lou Vazquez. The Van Cortlandt Park Cross Country Hall of Fame honors individual runners, teams, coaches, administrators and media members who have contributed to the sport of cross country at Van Cortlandt Park, one of the nation’s most acclaimed cross country courses. The 2023 induction ceremony will be live-streamed along with all the MCXCI races by MileSplit.

The 2023 Van Cortlandt Park Cross Country Hall of Fame Class:

CHRISTINE CURTIN - This Mepham HS (Long Island) standout won the 1981 Girls’ Eastern States title as a sophomore in a time of 14:14.6, bettering the Van Cortlandt record by 24 seconds. Her biggest scholastic cross country accomplishment came in 1982 when she captured a national championship at the Kinney race, a 5K event then held in Florida. Later that year, she clocked the nation’s fastest scholastic time in winning the 3,000-meters at the junior nationals. Christine was a pioneer in those early years girls’ running, winning 14 state track and XC titles in her Mepham High School career, along with a pair of national championships. At Stanford University, she was a member of an NCAA national championship cross country team. Curtin was recently featured in an acclaimed sports documentary “The 5th Man” focusing on legendary Mepham coach Paul Limmer. Christine is now psychologist in the Bay Area specializing in positive psychology and coaching for teens and young adults.

PAUL LIMMER - One of the nation’s most successful high school coaches, Limmer created a running powerhouse as head coach for 35 years at Mepham High School in Bellmore, Long Island. In 1980, his boys’ team established a Van Cortlandt 5-man average standard of 16:12 over 5,000- meters, a record that still stands. In 1979, he started the girls’ program at Mepham and by the time he retired in 1999, the Mepham girls’ cross country team had compiled a 153-2 XC dual meet record. Mepham’s 1982 championship girls’ team – anchored by former Van Cortlandt Park course record holder and 2023 Van Cortlandt Park XC Hall of Famer Christine Curtin – captured the New York State XC title and is still considered Long Island’s best scholastic XC team ever. Limmer was recently featured in an acclaimed sports documentary “The 5th Man” focusing on his coaching career at Mepham where he positively impacted thousands of runners who credit Limmer for changing their lives.

DENIS FIKES (now Denis Cochran-Fikes) - This Rice (NYC) High School runner dominated VCP and cross country running during his CHSAA days winning two Boy’s Eastern States Championships. Fikes was undefeated in cross country his senior year while winning his third, consecutive titles at the NYU Interscholastic and CHSAA City Championships. Denis Fikes’ 1969 VCP personal-best 12:25.7 (New York State record) was second fastest ever at the time to Marty Liquori’s 12:23.2 in 1966. Fikes also excelled on the track establishing NYS records in the one, two and three-mile events, blazing a trail as one of the first black sub-four minute milers. Following this success, Fikes was the subject of a rigorous college recruiting process, opting for the University of Pennsylvania and eventually running a 3:55 mile. That ranked second in USA at that time and 15th fastest ever recorded. After serving as an officer and a coach with the US Marines, Fikes returned to Penn earning his MBA from the Wharton School, and then ventured to Harvard where he was an athletic administrator and coach. His Harvard women’s Cross Country finished 4th in the 1983 NCAA Championships, and in 1984, he was named NCAA District 1 coach of the year. He returned to Penn in 1986 where he served as associate athletic director and director of compliance through 2017. Denis is also a member of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame and Belmont Plateau Hall of Fame.

WALT MURPHY – A longtime NYC cross country writer, Murphy has covered scholastic and collegiate cross country for over four decades in his two publications: Eastern Track and X-Country X-Press. He continues to report on the history of cross country as well as track & field in his daily feature – This Day in Track & Field. Murphy had a 40-year career as NBC’s Olympic/track & field stats chief, and also contributed on track & field broadcasts with ABC, CBS, ESPN and TBS. While an award-winning journalist, he has also served as a volunteer for almost all of the past 51 Manhattan College Cross Country Invitationals in Van Cortlandt Park.