Niagara Track & Field Hall of Fame Elects Class of 2017

Jack Dianetti, a graduate of East Rochester (NY) HS and a 1951 graduate of Michigan State University, was a four-time All-American (twice in cross country and twice in track) while at Michigan State. He earned letters in cross country / track and field in 1947. 1948, 1949, and 1950 while at Michigan State University. At Michigan State, Dianetti was a member of the first team to run a cross country “grand slam” as the team won the 1948 IC4A, 1948 NCAA, and 1948 Senior National AAU Cross Country Championships with less than a minute separating the first five finishers in every race. He was runner-up twice in the 800 meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 1947 (in a near dead heat, as an 18 year old) and 1948. He was also runner-up twice in the 800 meter run at the IC4A Outdoor Track and Field Champions in 1947 and 1949. Dianetti was a member of the 1948 and 1949 IC4A Cross Country Championship teams. He finished in fourth place in the 1948 race. Dianetti served as a science teacher at East Rochester Junior High School and was inducted into the East Rochester High School Hall of Fame in 1975. He earned letters in football, basketball, and track while at East Rochester High School and also earned All County and All-American honors in track while in High School.

R. Nathan Taylor, a 1975 graduate of the University of Richmond, served as The George Heekin '29 Head Coach of Men's Track and Field and Cross Country at Cornell University from 1999 to 2015. Prior to this, he served as an assistant track and field coach at the University of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1999. Since 2011, Taylor has served as the National Coach for the US Virgin Islands and as their Head Olympic Coach in 2012 and 2016. Taylor’s teams at Cornell were very successful. The Men’s team finished in either first or second place from 2003 to 2015 at the Heptagonal Men’s Track & Field Indoor Championships. They won the Heptagonal Men’s Indoor Track & Field Championships seven times (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, and 2014) and finished in second place six times (2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015). The Cornell Men’s team were team champions for IC4A Men’s Indoor Track & Field Championships three times (2007, 2012, and 2014) and runner-up twice (2006 and 2013). His outdoor teams saw similar success as they also finished in either first or second place from 2003 to 2015 at the Heptagonal Men’s Track & Field Outdoor Championships. They won the Heptagonal Men’s Track & Field Outdoor Championships nine times (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014) and were runner-up four times (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015). The Cornell Men’s team were team champions for IC4A Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships once (2013) and were runners-up three times (2005, 2006, and 2012). Taylor coached 299 All-Ivy performers, 212 All-East Performers, 15 Heptagonal Most Outstanding Performers (5 indoors and 10 outdoors), and 21 first team NCAA Division I All-Americans at Cornell. He also coached two NCAA Division I National Champions: Rayon Taylor in the Triple Jump in 2007, and Muhammad Halim in the Triple Jump in 2008. At the University of Pennsylvania, Taylor’s teams won the 1997 Heptagonal Men’s Indoor Track & Field Championships and the 1995 and 1997 Heptagonal Men’s Track & Field Outdoor Championships. He coached 81 All-Ivy performers, 64 All-East performers, and four first team NCAA Division I All-Americans at Pennsylvania. Taylor served as President of the Heptagonal Coaches Association from 2007 to 2009, and as President of the IC4A from 2008-2001. Cornell’s Men’s Track and Field Team was named as an NCAA Academic All-America team from 2004 to 2014. Taylor was named USTFCCCA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year five times indoors and eight times outdoors while at Cornell. He also won the 2014 Van Sickle Award (from the Ithaca Journal) as Male Coach of the Year and was named Honorary Carnival Referee for College Men for the 2015 Penn Relays. Taylor is currently the Director of Recruitment and Athlete Development at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, where he coached four athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in addition to mentoring four Cornell athletes who competed in Rio.

Herbert L. Trube,a 1908 graduate of Cornell University, was an Olympic Silver Medalist in the Three Mile Team Race at the 1908 Olympic Games. He set the World and US Indoor Record in the one mile run of 4:19.8 in 1909. Trube was the 1908 US Champion in the One Mile run and the 1908 IC4A Champion in the two mile run.

Linus Vere Windnagle, a 1917 graduate of Cornell University, was the one mile run champion (4:15.0) at the 1916 IC4A Outdoor Track & Field Championships with the fastest time in the world for 2016 (the third best amateur time ever run). Windnagle won the 1913 Freshman Intercollegiate (IC4A) Cross-Country meet, the 1915 (18:07 3/5) and 1916 (17:51 1/5) as a member of the Cornell Four-Mile Relay team at the Penn Relays. He was captain of the Cornell cross-country team for 1916. Windnagle was elected to the Portland Interscholastic League (PIL) Hall of Fame (posthumously) as Coach in the Class of 2004 for coaching he did in the 1920s and 1930s, and was inducted into the Penn Relays' Wall of Fame in 1997 as part of 1916 Cornell University Four-Mile Relay team. In high school, Windnagle set the set the state record for 880 (1:56 4/5) in 1911 (the record stood for almost 50 years), had one of the best performances in scholastic competition for 1912 when he won the one mile run at the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Meet (4:31). He was named to the 1912 All-America Scholastic Team for the 1 mile run. Windnagle served as a First Lieutenant Aviation Section, Signal Reserve Corps, Oregon during and after World War I and was a Vice Principal of Washington HS in Portland, OR, where he coached track and field.

Dianetti is the first person with ties to the Michigan State University elected to the Niagara Track & Field Hall of Fame.

Taylor, Trube, and Windnagle are the thirty-second, thirty-third, and thirty-fourth persons with ties to Cornell University elected to the Niagara Track & Field Hall of Fame joining Herbert J. Mols (Contributor, Class of 1998), John Paul Jones (Class of 1999), Charles H. Moore (Class of 2000), Meredith C. “Flash” Gourdine (Class of 2001), John F. “Jack” Moakley (Coach, Class of 2001), Louis C. “Lou” Montgomery (Coach, Class of 2001), Alma Richards (Class of 2001), Irvin “Bo” Roberson (Class of 2001), John F. Anderson (Class of 2002), Albert W. Hall (Class of 2002), Peter D. Pfitzinger (Class of 2002), John F. “Jack” Warner, Sr. (Coach, Class of 2002), Frank K. Foss (Class of 2003), Robert J. Kane (Contributor, Class of 2003), Tell S. Berna (Class of 2004), Edward T. Cook, Jr. (Class of 2005), Henry A. “Hank” Russell (Class of 2005), Doriane Lambelet (Coleman) (Class of 2006), Jon P. Anderson (Class of 2008), Stephanie A. Best (Class of 2010), Harry Franklin Porter (Class of 2010), Walter S. Ashbaugh (Class of 2011), Thomas L. Gage (Class of 2011), David C. Munson (Class of 2011), Stephen M. Machooka (Class of 2012), Ivan C. Dresser (Class of 2013), Leander J. “Lee” Talbot, Jr. (Class of 2013), Walker B. Smith (Class of 2014), Robert C. Mealey (Class of 2015), Edward B. Kirby (Class of 2016), and Walter D. "Duke" Wood (Class of 2016).