Horace Ashenfelter

Nip Ashenfelter won his first AAU title when he took the 10,000 m in 1950. The following day he ran his first steeplechase and finished fifth. He won the AAU steeplechase in 1951 and at the 1952 Olympic Trials ran 9:06.4 to better Harold Manning’s 16-year-old U.S. record. Ashenfelter further improved the record to 8:51.0 in the Olympic heats in Helsinki; in a classic Olympic final he defeated the much-vaunted Russian, Vladimir Kazantsev, and posted a new world record of 8:45.4. In the 1955 Pan American Games Ashenfelter won a silver medal when he finished second to Osvaldo Suárez in the 5000 metres. Ashenfelter competed again at Melbourne but could do no better than sixth in a heat of the steeplechase. During a long career, he won three AAU outdoor titles, was the indoor two mile champion for five successive years (1952-56) and over the same five-year period he led the New York AC to victory in the cross-country team event. In three of those years (1954-56), he also won the individual cross-country. After leaving Penn State, Ashenfelter joined the FBI in November 1951, but when he retired from competition after the 1956 Olympics, he also resigned from the Bureau and took a post in business, as a salesman for various metallurgy firms.

Personal Best: 3000S – 8:45.68 (1952).