Relays

[ImInTheTruck]

Does anybody else think HS track meet relays are skewed toward sprinters? How about taking out the 4 x 200 and replacing it with a distance medley relay?

[Pitt]

Does anybody else think HS track meet relays are skewed toward sprinters? How about taking out the 4 x 200 and replacing it with a distance medley relay?

 

 

I would love to see distance medley realays. How about a two mile relay?

[buckeyefan1984]

Does anybody else think HS track meet relays are skewed toward sprinters? How about taking out the 4 x 200 and replacing it with a distance medley relay?

 

 

Actually, it is easier to find four quality sprinters to make up a relay rather than four quality distance runners to make up one. Now in college, that is a different story. Colleges can do that because they have actually recruited quality distance runners, which would make the race interesting. But in high school? not too many schools can put together four quality distance runners to make up a quality distance relay team. Of course I could be mistaken, but I've been keeping up with the track times of the east texas schools via the internet ( I live in Louisiana now) and I believe that having distance relays would be a huge mistake.

[ImInTheTruck]

It shouldn't be too hard to find runners for 1200, 400, 800 & 1600. Now, if it were 800,1600, 3200 & 5000 I'd agree with you. The 1200 is the only one you'd have to look for. With team points at stake, coaches would find runners for it.

[shxc19]

I am a distance runner and think it would be a wonderful idea to have a distance medley relay. I agree with Iminthetruck that coaches would find runners if there are relay points at stake. The only conflict would be the ridiculous "no more than 2 distance events in a meet" rule for the runners that double up on the 2 mile, 1 mile, and 800. They would have to choose one plus the relay. Although I personally would gladly give up one of the indidual races to run in a relay.

[buckeyefan1984]

It shouldn't be too hard to find runners for 1200, 400, 800 & 1600. Now, if it were 800,1600, 3200 & 5000 I'd agree with you. The 1200 is the only one you'd have to look for. With team points at stake, coaches would find runners for it.

 

 

But you see, that is exactly what I'm talking about. The coaches would have to "find" runners to do it, which would be alright if you didn't have to sit through some sub-par runners who would run anywhere between 52-55 seconds for the quarter, 2:08-2:12 for the half, anybody to run the 1200, and someone who couldn't break 5:00 for the mile.

 

Of course, there are those schools who could swing a few extra distance runners that could be competitive and manage to run great "legs" in all four, but you know that there aren't enough schools who can pull it off which is always evident when you're looking at the meet times in all of those events.

 

What I'm trying to say is this, why have an event where coaches are having to "look" for runners to compete? In order for most schools to do it and be competitive, you would have to sacrafice points in the 800, 400, and 1600. Now answer this question, to sacrafice your top runner or second best runner in those three events to run a relay, would it be worth it to lose points in three events to "maybe" win some points in a distance relay?

 

I would say no. There is a reason why you don't have distance relays in East Texas. Not knocking on East Texas, just stating a fact that glares out at me every time I look at meet results in the weekend papers.

[buckeyefan1984]

I am a distance runner and think it would be a wonderful idea to have a distance medley relay. I agree with Iminthetruck that coaches would find runners if there are relay points at stake. The only conflict would be the ridiculous "no more than 2 distance events in a meet" rule for the runners that double up on the 2 mile, 1 mile, and 800. They would have to choose one plus the relay. Although I personally would gladly give up one of the indidual races to run in a relay.

 

 

I ran the 800 meters and 1600 meters at every meet for Gilmer before I graduated in 1984 and never had a problem. But, to try and run a distance relay race along with that would have been impossible. At the time, we only had one 800 meter guy that could go under 2:00 and that guy was me. The next fastest guy ran around 2:08 and simply wouldn't have been competitive enough to have ran a race against a school that could have had a 2:00 half miler. That simply would have taken the wind out of any teams sails that would have been running the other legs. Besides, show me some schools that would be interested in running distance relays...I bet they will be few and far in between.

 

I know that your true distance runners would love to run distance relay races, I ran them in college and had fun, but it simply will...not...work in East Texas. The races will be too long and the competition scarce at best. However, there will be two or three schools who could field those type of relays, but just how much fun would they be if you didn't win, and ended up sacraficing legitimate points in those races that you possibly could win?