Pioneer
Evansville Central
1973 - 1976

Short and skinny, Larry Cozzort often trailed the rest of the field by 50 yards or more as a freshman at Evansville Central High School.

“He always came in last in distance races” said Jon Siau, then assistant at Evansville North High School and later became the head coach.

But Cuzzort grew into his role, helping usher in a golden era of dominant Southern Indiana Athletic Conference long-distance runners.

“He just got into it.” Siau said. He went on to become an All- American at Western Kentucky University. He set the tone for (local) elite runners.

“Larry was so gracious” said Adam Renfro, who followed in Cuzzort’s footstep in distance-running excellence. “He returned to Central High School several times to host training camps for us. He wrote me numerous times while I was in high school, encouraging me to …well break his records. He also helped WKU recruit me, but I ultimately went to Indiana University.”

“But to watch Larry run … man, the guy was poetry. Efficient is not the right word. Beautiful is what he was. Every race a poem” continued Renfro.

A 1976 Central graduate, Cuzzort set the school one- and two-mile records. He was a four-time NCAA Division 1 All-American (two in cross country and one in the indoor 2-mile and one in the outdoor 5.000 meter) at WKU. In 1979 and 1980, Cuzzort was named the Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Cross-Country Athlete of the Year while also earning OVC Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year and OVC All-Half Century Track and Field team honors. Running for Mason-Dixon AC in 1980, Cuzzort was on a team that won the United States Cross Country Championship. In 1982, he ran 7:52.74 in the 3,000 meters. Larry would go on to run professionally for the famous Sub 4 Track Club, where he set the American 15K road record.

It all began with Cuzzort, who set the tone.

After graduating from WKU with a degree in Computer Science, Cuzzort had a successful career in Information Technology.