KU Relays

I was there for the 1st time and was expecting a bigger crowd than there was. Watching the men's vault I was wondering what happened at the end. After Hartwig cleared 19-1 he and the 2nd place finisher were in a heated aurgument with officials. Both were not happy with the officials Any idea what this was about? Hartwig looked livid.

UNC's runners kicked ass! All set prs!

I was shocked at how small the crowd was this year. The weather for spectating was nearly perfect. Last year's Friday crowd was considerable larger than this years draw on Saturday.

on a side note: a 10 year old girl ran 18:52 in the open 5k on Thursday night to win. It was awesome.

There was very little promotion for this year's Relays and the crowd reflected it. How can a meet like this not promote Teg and a quest to break four minutes in the mile? Oh wait, they didn't even have a mile race at the home meet of Cunningham, Santee, Ryun, and Gruber. What a joke. The new meet director dropped the ball on this one.

I found it very strange they ran the 1500 this year. Donley should be fired asap. Pretty sad when you go from two of the largest turn-outs ever to 15,000+ less people in nearly perfect spectating conditions.

They should be embarrassed!! They even had Teg's name spelled and announced wrong. (Teagenkamp) He grew up a few miles down the road; ran at KU Relays in hs. Comes home to run close to home; no preview in local papers; no publicity; then the announcers give a feeble build-up; they refuse to change the race to the mile (even after numerous requests) They seem to have no clue on how to promote our sport; the fans could have related to a 4:00 mile and yet they did not seem to understand that!!!!!!!!

Read this:

one of the highlights of my career was running in front of close to 30,000 people at the Kansas Relays in 1971 and 1972. Of course track was more popular back then and the additional 10k of fans was there to see Jim Ryun run in his post collegiate, comeback years. Still, it was a great experience. It seems that only Drake has kept its importance at a high level of the 3 midwest relay circut meets; (Texas, Kansas and Drake Relays). Running and placing or even winning at one or all of these meets used to be a really big deal.

I agree with several of the problems that are stated here. But I will say that promoting a potential sub-4 would likely have done nothing to increase the crowds.

They've gone that route in recent years, many times, most recently with Alan Webb and Charlie Gruber. And it just didn't make a difference.

It is just one of the problems; the mile would have been better and the fans could relate to that. The meet was poorly promoted, but there were many participants; KU got alot of money from entry fees, etc. Maybe the "new guy" can do a better job next year (I want to give him a break) Putting together that big of a meet is a big job and he will be ready for it next year. I would like nothing better than to see the KU Relays be more successful again.

MWFan wrote:

I agree with several of the problems that are stated here. But I will say that promoting a potential sub-4 would likely have done nothing to increase the crowds.

They've gone that route in recent years, many times, most recently with Alan Webb and Charlie Gruber. And it just didn't make a difference.

just more promotion, period, is what is needed. The KC Star used to have an article per day in the week leading up to the meet, spotlighting different stars or participants. Getting all of those schools back who have left in the past 20 years is job 1.

I thought that the Kansas Relays were on the upswing the past few years after years of neglect which saw many teams at all levels leave for other meets? Why the step backwards this year?

many of the d2 schools in the general area started going to the Mule Relays, in Warrensburg. (what a joke). d2 coaches claimed that KU had frozen them out over the years.

I thought it was disapointing as well. To see the good crowds last year and it was a promising last couple of years...the trouble is that the KU Relays has no identity or direction...it changes direction so often that it is absolutely amazing...with Tim stepping down last year I thought it was a golden opportunity for KU to bring in someone with freash ideas and excitement but they went the easy route and hired someone who had been there so the lack of direction was instilled in him as well and we see the outcome...the KC Star noted that the money was the same as the past but that they decideed to try to approach raising the level of the collegiate meet...the meet director was excited about the participation on the college side but I have no idea how when community colleges were placing and beating what few D1 schools that participated in the meet...if this meet means anything to KU and Lew Perkins he will let the new guy go back to his coaching duties and hire some new person with new ideas and the ability to turn the meet around...it has the potential but no leadership...at least I think not but we will see...

it seems like they were really giving the cold shoulder to many JUCO's this year too - basically closing out some of the "invite" events. JUCO's really got the shaft - and what's ironic about that is how many JUCO athlete's could have really made an impact on the Invite (aka "seeded") events. Good example: Johney Shupping.

[quote]Cold Shoulder wrote:

it seems like they were really giving the cold shoulder to many JUCO's this year too - basically closing out some of the "invite" events. JUCO's really got the shaft

that's what the coach at my d2 school said about the college division....hence, they quit going about 3-4 years ago, after going for many decades. In fact 2 of our school records in the distances were set at the KU Relays. It's a shame.

Actually my daughter and I were right there. He used his hands to stabilize the bar which is now illegal. Hence, they said that the jump was disallowed. He knew it, but hoped they wouldn't call him on it.

"Voltzing" is not allowed anymore, nor should it ever have been allowed.

out of curiosity, was Jim Ryun there as some sort of dignitary or VIP, since he is not in Washington DC these days, I assume he's back in Lawrence?