The joy of high school track

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  • EPelle
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2005
    • 21442

    #16
    Re: The joy of high school track

    Our coach had us run combined 4x4s in pre-season meets. Sprinters on leg-1; jumpers on #2; weight eventers on #3; and distance runners anchored! It was both amusing and fun. One of our distance guys ran 49.4 in trying to make up a HUGE, HUGE deficit created by his weight friend on the previous lap!

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    • trackstar
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2005
      • 3208
      • Austin, Texas

      #17
      Re: The joy of high school track

      >>My favorite event at a HS dual meeet has always been the 4x4.

      >It IS a great event...but there is
      >never anyone in the stands to watch it, as everyone leaves after the 200.

      Wow, the t&f culture where you live must be very different from that of Texas. NO ONE would dare think of leaving before the 4x4. That and the 100 meters are always considered the marquee events. And, since relays are scored double points here, it is often the race in which team championships are decided. To this day, people still speak in hushed, reverent tones about the time Johnny "Lam" Jones, in the mid-1970s, ran some ungodly fast split and passed up the entire field (or something like that) on the anchor leg for the state 4x4 title. As a sportswriter friend of mine says, "If you believe everyone who claims to have witnessed it, then the University of Texas stadium has a seating capacity of 750,000."
      "Run fast and keep turning left."

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      • hijumpsteve
        Senior Member
        • Oct 2005
        • 218

        #18
        Re: The joy of high school track

        Re the "mile relay" as I'll always call it:

        In the good old days of High School dual meets, and then College dual meets as well, all events were scored 5-3-1 except the relays which were 5-0. So with the mile relay always being the last event of any meet, quite often the point differential would be less than 5 points, so the whole meet was on the line when the gun went up for the mile relay.

        I've always felt that dual meets were the true heart of high school track. A team's 3rd best athlete in any given event could be the difference between victory and defeat... and those 6 or 7 dual meets were 80 % of the season counting competitions numerically. As I said in another thread, they were FUN.

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        • The Flash
          Member
          • Oct 2005
          • 98

          #19
          Re: The joy of high school track

          >>>My favorite event at a HS dual meeet has always been the 4x4.

          >It IS a
          >great event...but there is
          >never anyone in the stands to watch it, as
          >everyone leaves after the 200.

          Wow, the t&f culture where you live must be
          >very different from that of Texas. NO ONE would dare think of leaving before
          >the 4x4. That and the 100 meters are always considered the marquee events. And,
          >since relays are scored double points here, it is often the race in which team
          >championships are decided. To this day, people still speak in hushed, reverent
          >tones about the time Johnny "Lam" Jones, in the mid-1970s, ran some ungodly
          >fast split and passed up the entire field (or something like that) on the
          >anchor leg for the state 4x4 title. As a sportswriter friend of mine says, "If
          >you believe everyone who claims to have witnessed it, then the University of
          >Texas stadium has a seating capacity of 750,000."

          Very different indeed! (although you ARE in Texas) As EPelle said, coaches tend to put teams together randomly, with whatever athletes are still at the meet. Unfortunately, school dances and the like spoil some of the best meets' Mile Relays. Things have improved since I was in HS...we just introduced two Relay meets a year or two back and have had several teams who were very successful in the relays.

          For example, when I was a senior, we had the second fastest prelim at the state meet. A half-hour before the final, two of our 50-second guys left to go to Senior Cotillion, leaving me and the other guy (both 50-seconders) to run with two sophomores. They ran about 55-57 seconds each, and we took last in the final. The one bright side? I did run a PR split trying to make it up at the end (-: but I would have had to run about 32 seconds to catch them.

          Comment

          • khsjumper
            Junior Member
            • Oct 2005
            • 10

            #20
            Re: The joy of high school track

            At my school (which is also in Texas) everyone wants to stay until the end of the meet. No one would even think of leaving before the 4x4 goes off. Most of the guys on the team are on the infield running around like mad cheering on the guys in the relay. It IS the most exciting race in track and field. Im just lucky to have a team and a coach as dedicated to the sport as they are.

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