The Time Capsule: Topham Vs. Youngberg – A Dream Race
My notes have it as April of 2011. I had business at the retreat near Griswold, one that used to be a Boy Scout camp. At the entrance to a long driveway we encountered a solitary runner, a slender girl who looked to be barely in her teens. I pulled over and watched until she was out of sight.
Rebekah Topham was being noticed even then.
I saw her run in competition that spring, and heard a Griswold fan say she would one day be better than Sue Youngberg.
The comparison was interesting; both were farm girls and distance runners who dominated their field. Topham, home schooled, didn’t attend classes in Griswold but ran for their track team. Youngberg, who grew up on a farm south of Red Oak, went to school in Essex to participate in their track program.
I was reminded of that day in Griswold by last week’s edition, which listed Topham twice in the top 10 sports stories of 2014.
The fan who said she’d outdo Youngberg was right, or was he?
After hearing that long-ago comment, I delved into Youngberg’s record. She started running at the age of 13 and didn’t stop until 20 years later. She ran, while training for the Olympics, 100 practice miles a week.
Graduating from Essex in 1982, Youngberg ran at a time when girls track was not a popular sport. Allen Stuart, her high school coach, believes she gave track, especially distance running, an elevated status. She broke record after record, and spectators turned out to see her. She was a legitimate attraction, and the sport benefited.
Awarded a scholarship to Iowa State, she was the top placing freshman in the nation in cross-country. Youngberg was all-but unbeatable, making All-American three times.
After college she followed her British fiancé to his home country, and there competed in the international professional circuit. A consistent winner, she was recruited to try out for the British Olympic team. She attained dual citizenship, won the trials, and ran the marathon for Britain in the 1996 games.
Interested in her thoughts and memories and thinking an article might result, in the spring of 2012 I located Youngberg, now a mother and housewife living in Ohio. I don’t recall the article being printed, but it was fun to do regardless. She was delightful to interview. Speaking with a soft British accent, she recounted fond memories of rural life in Montgomery County, of a small school education that prepared her for the future, and of unforgettable experiences on the track.
Immersed in the school activities of her two children, she was not aware of Rebekah Topham. She had no idea and didn’t speculate, but I suspect if the two were to line up in high school form and run a cross-country the race would be a dandy.
Many of Youngberg’s contests were measured in yards and miles, and I found it difficult to make a comparison.
Based on what we do know, Topham seems to be a few seconds faster in the high school distances. Stuart, though, says Youngberg was hampered by having virtually no competition. He remembers cross-country races in which she was so far ahead she coasted. In one she lost her way, had to go back, and still finished with no one else in sight. Stuart told of a Villisca track standout named Janice Else. In later years he said Else joked that her proudest achievement in sports was that Youngberg never lapped her. She probably didn’t try.
Youngberg would have been faster, Stuart said, if she’d had a challenge.
We’ll never know, of course, and wish Topham the very best. By all accounts she’s a fine person, an excellent student, and we’ll undoubtedly hear more of her.
If such is a goal, I hope she one day makes the Olympics. Sue Youngberg, who was injured the day she made her Olympic run and failed to earn a medal, will be pulling for another girl from southwest Iowa.
Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.