Over 60 years after setting the state record in the 880-yard run en route to a state championship in track and field, 1962 Cortez High School graduate Jan Frisby continues to rewrite the running record books.
Long after his scholastic chapters at Cortez High and Fort Lewis College came to a close, Frisby just kept running and kept setting new standards.
The 80-year-old Frisby – who still calls Cortez home, but now lives in Grand Junction – won the USATF Masters 10-kilometer National Championship for his division of runners, aged 80 to 84.
With a time of just over 52 minutes on the 6¼-mile course in Dedham, Massachusetts this past April, Frisby added to a tremendous haul of age bracket national titles, which now number three dozen.
Born in Australia, Frisby and his family arrived in Colorado by way of the Midwest, and the Rockies became his forever home.
“I arrived from a small country school in Illinois, and got to this huge school in Cortez of 700-some kids – with a lot of big farm kids, just as strong as could be,” Frisby said of his path to Southwest Colorado. “We’d always gone to Yellowstone for vacation growing up, so my parents decided that they wanted to move out west, and I’ve never left since.”
Frisby joined a talented collection under coach Bud Smock looking to avenge its state semifinals loss to Lamar the prior year. Utilizing speed to overcome the team’s lack of size, Frisby stood as the 6-foot-3 center in a starting five that had three players under 6 feet.
The Panthers reversed two regular-season losses against Durango to nip the Demons in the district tournament and advance to state.
From there, the Panthers reached the Class AA title game against Lamar on the Denver Coliseum floor.
“The Rocky Mountain News had a story out that said that we’d ‘need a defense as high as Pikes Peak to be able to stop Lamar,’” Frisby recalled.
However, Smock helped CHS find a press break that allowed them to not only control the game, but pull away in the fourth quarter to secure the school’s first-ever team state championship.
“We called ourselves the ‘Class of Champions,’” said Frisby, alluding to not only the basketball crown, but also numerous classmates winning state and national title in various sports. “We took a lot of pride in that as a class.”
Although he was a field event athlete to start his track and field career, Frisby dominated the track oval during his senior campaign, setting the state record with a 2:01.4 880-yard run under coach Frank Mascarenas.
Frisby won his title in Alamosa, topping one of coaching legend Joe Vigil’s Alamosa High School runners with a pass in the final straightaway.
After his high school and collegiate exploits, Frisby kept running, posting age group records along the way.
At age 52, Frisby ran a 5-kilometer race in 16:05, just two years after running a blistering 51:20 15-kilometer race. He also owned several national records, including holding the national 10-kilometer record for the 70-and-older group in 2015.
With each passing year that he “ages up” in divisions, he stands as a threat to win every competition he enters. He is currently the front-runner in the USATF Masters Grand Prix, which accumulates points from a series of nine competitions throughout the year.
Teaching and coaching occupied the professional side of his journey, including a stint as a head basketball coach in the 1970s. He made stops at Paonia and Palisade before hanging up his coaching whistle in the 1990s.
His running helped inspire countless athletes under his tutelage during his years in education.
“I always tried to set an example for the kids,” Frisby said “And I remember (Cortez football coach) Jim Englehart. He was always lifting weights and looked like Superman, and I used him as a model for the kind of person I wanted to be for my athletes.”
After winning his first USATF national title in 1994, Frisby dominated his age group over the next decade before stepping away from the sport to help his wife Linda take care of her parents.
He returned with gusto in 2009, and the list of national titles kept growing.
Now retired, the running rhythm persists, as he couples his 30 to 35 miles of weekly training – down from his 70-80 mile weeks from two decades ago – with biking and walking.
That balance offers Frisby, who seldom takes medication like aspirin to manage aches, an opportunity to manage the constant pounding his body endures on the pavement.
For Frisby, who was part of a three-time national champion team with the Boulder Road Runners, the records and championships don’t compare with his primary goal.
“While the competition gives me a carrot dangling out there to go chase, I do it more for health at this point,” he said.
Frisby earned recognition as USATF age division athlete of the year on four occasions spanning an impressive running career, and he’s not done just yet.
In mid-August, Frisby will join a collection of athletes from across the United States at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
