ADA - Ten former East Central University cross country runners will be trying to land a spot into the Guinness Book of World Records on Dec. 31 in the final Centennial celebration event for the university.
The 10 -- Jason Bewley, Kacey Miller, Chris McCormick, Cody Weaver, Josh Stewart, Koby Styles, Steve Sawyer, Matt Aguero, John Sutrick and Jack Tracy -- will participate in "100 Miles For 100 Years" at the Ada High School track on New Year's Eve.
"We're doing this as a part of the East Central Centennial. That's where the title (100 Miles For 100 Years) came from," said Bewley, the spokesman for the group.
The 10 participants will be divided into two groups of five and each will run relays of a quarter mile at a time on the way to the 100-mile plateau.
The current world record, established fairly recently in the UK, was 8 hours, 35 minutes and five seconds.
A group of former ECU runners actually accomplished the feat in 2005 with a time of 8:28.04. However, the required video of the event never made it to the Guinness Book headquarters, according to Bewley.
In 2005, each participant ran a mile relay at a time. However, the UK group established the recent record using the quarter-mile concept.
The event is scheduled to start around 8:30 a.m. and will wrap up around 5 p.m. on Dec. 31.
Of the 10 participants, three of the former ECU runners are head coaches of Lone Star Conference cross country programs. Sawyer heads up the ECU squads while Styles coaches at Midwestern State and Aguero at Cameron.
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