DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon Names 2021 Hall of Fame Class

April 21, 2021

The new inductees are Dave Antognoli, Mike Dudley, Gary Gargasz, and contributors Bill and Linda Phelps

 PITTSBURGH (April 21, 2021) – The DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon and the Hall of Fame Committee are proud to announce the 13^th class of inductees to the Pittsburgh Marathon Hall of Fame. The 2021 inductees are Dave Antognoli, Mike Dudley, Gary Gargasz, and contributors Bill and Linda Phelps.

DAVE ANTOGNOLI: After his outstanding running career at Walsh Jesuit High School in Ohio, Dave Antognoli followed his high school running coach Doug Watts to Edinboro State College (now Edinboro University). From the fall of 1969 to the spring of 1973, Antognoli was nearly unbeatable, winning the Cross Country State Championships annually, the three and six miles in track and going toe-to-toe with the state’s best milers. During his junior year, Antognoli won the NAIA National Cross Country Championships and the 6-mile nationally on the track. That track season, he had his personal best in the 6-mile at the USTFF Championships with a time of 28:40. A week later, Antognoli finished 8^th at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Track Trials. Antognoli ended his senior year at Edinboro with a third-place finish in the NAIA Marathon in Arkadelphia, Ark., with a time of 2:30:20. In his college career, Antognoli earned All-American honors nine times.

By the mid-1980s, the marathon bug hit Antognoli for the second time, and he finished 2^nd at the Philadelphia Marathon with a personal record of 2:23. After turning 50, he ran the Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race 10K with a time of 31:56, an age group record that stands to this day. From 1991 to 2014, Antognoli was the Track and Cross Country coach at Neshannock High School. He currently resides in New Castle, Pa.

MIKE DUDLEY: Mike Dudley was a standout track runner at West Virginia University turning in personal records of 14:15 in the 5000 and 29:39 in the 10,000. On the road, Dudley set personal records of 48:54 at the Army 10-miler in 2000 and a 1:05:13 in the half-marathon in 2001. Dudley won the 1994 Las Vegas Marathon in 2:16:54, a time qualifying him for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. That same year, he won the Detroit Marathon with a time of 2:20:50. At the Cal International Marathon in 1999, he finished  2^nd with a personal record  2:14:37, again a time that qualified him for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Pittsburgh, where he finished 15^th with a time of 2:21:27. The following year, Dudley represented the United States at the World Marathon Championships in Edmonton. He returned to Las Vegas in 2001 to win the event for a second time. Dudley won the U.S. 50K Championships in 2004 with a time of 3:05:34. Dudley currently lives in Eagle, Idaho.

GARY GARGASZ: Gary Gargasz started running in 1985, at the age of 28, to stop smoking. He was self-taught, having no formal training nor coaching. By 1987, Gargasz decided to try his first marathon in Pittsburgh and finished 21^st with a 2:20:57, just shy of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time of 2:20. It was then he knew he had to explore his talents. By the late ‘80s, his name appeared on top of regional race results. His early break occurred at the Shamrock Marathon in 1988, where he won with a time of 2:15:26. This event qualified him to run the 1988 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Waterfront, N.J.

In 1989, Gargasz was named to the USA’s World Cup IAAF team in Milan, earning him the honor of being ranked in the top 10 U.S. marathoners by Track and Field News. In 1990, he finished second at the Columbus Marathon with a personal record of 2:15:25. Gargasz is a graduate of Wilmington High School in Armstrong County and earned a graduate degree in nursing. He is now retired and living in Volant, Pa.

BILL and LINDA PHELPS: In the mid ‘80s, Bill and Linda were both deeply involved with the The Athletics Congress (TAC) Three Rivers Association and helped launch the first UPMC/City of Pittsburgh Marathon in 1985. They both volunteered to serve as the main contact to the TAC, doing much of the behind-the-scenes coordination by regularly attending meetings, working with key personnel and seeing all tasks were in place for race time. Thanks in part to their hard work, the first Pittsburgh event was a major success and by 1988 served as the U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials.

In those early days, many runners remember them setting up the finish line in the wee hours before the event and then staying hours past the final finishers to dismantle the event. In 2000, the Phelps once again leveraged their national TAC contacts to have Pittsburgh host the U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. Their commitment to the sport also extends to the early years of the Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race, where it was the Phelps’ who supplied the “official stopwatch.” They currently reside in Forest Hills.

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About the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon

The Pittsburgh Marathon was held annually from 1985-2003. After a five-year hiatus, the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon was relaunched in 2009 and debuted with a sold-out field of 10,000 participants. It has grown each year since, evolving from a single race day into a weekend of events for the whole family that annually attracts almost 40,000 runners.   Read more at: ThePittsburghMarathon.com 

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About P3R
P3R is the engine behind Pittsburgh’s greatest races. We strive to inspire any and all to run andMOVEwith us. Best known for organizing the acclaimed annual DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, P3R runs a variety of other high-quality races, events, and health and fitness programs throughout the Pittsburgh region. While many of our races attract some of the nation’s highest-profile professional athletes, we offer activities for all ages and ability levels. Anyone and everyone is invited to #RUNwithP3R! Read more at: P3R.org

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