Ted Castaneda (2016) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Ted Castaneda

Induction:
2016
Class:
1974

A five-time All-American in cross country and track (1972-74), his best times included 1:52.4 in the 800, a 3:58.5 in the mile, an 8:29 two-mile, a 13:32 in the 5,000-meter run, a 28:30.6 in the 10k a 2-hour, 15-minute marathon … He held the American record in the 3-mile run albeit briefly: he ran a 13:10.6 at the 1973 NCAA Outdoor Championships but it was broken in the next heat by the legendary Steve Prefontaine … Finished second in the Six-Mile Run at the NCAA’s that same year (27:22) … Still holds some of the top 5k and 10k times in CU history … His 28:30.6 time in the 10k set a CU record back in 1973 and stood for 31 years (Dathan Ritzenhein topped him in April 2004) … He was ranked fourth in the United States in the 5,000 in 1973 and 1975 and sixth in 1974 … He set the Colorado “soil” record in the mile in 1976, running in 4:04.86; the mark stood for 37 years … He competed in two U.S. Olympic trials (5K, 10K in 1976, marathon in 1980); he was fifth in the 5K and sixth in the 10K in ’76 (ran 28:43.28 in the latter) and was 20th in the ’80 Marathon (2:16.38) … Other top career finishes after he left CU included runner-up finishes in the 5K at the 1975 Pan Am Games, the ’75 U.S. Championships 10k (28:32.7) and in the 1979 Fiesta Bowl Marathon (2:15.10), third in the 1974 AAU National Cross Country Championship (30:22) and in the ’75 U.S. Championships 5k (13;33.2) and fifth in the ’79 Lasse Viren 20K Trail Run (1:01.26) … A graduate of Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, he returned to his hometown in 1980 to coach the men’s cross country team at Colorado College … He added the coaching duties for the women’s team in 1993, and in 1994, he was named head coach for the indoor and outdoor track teams … He has coached 22 All-Americans, including Heather O’Brien, the 1998 NCAA heptathlon champion … One of the seven original inductees into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame (with such other notables as Frank Shorter and Pat Porter) in its inaugural 2007 class.