relays - what a waste

*wasted

This is in reference to distance and middle distance relays, where an athlete can usually run only one event at top effort in a weekend.

However came up with the idea of running relays first is someone who has no respect for the young women and men.

*Whoever - I need to proofread.

1. An athlete can run more than one top effort in a meet. Especially in a multi-day meet.

2. It's not a waste if they enjoy doing it.

J.R. wrote:

This weekend, many high school athletes wastes their energy in meaningless relays,

You CAN NOT be serious!!!!!!

The "individual" races were an embarrassment for the most part due to the tactical nature of the races. The girls 32 an obvious exception. Look at the boys mile versus the dream mile in New York. Not even close. The DMR had faster mile splits for both boys and girls. For the fans of the sport who 1) like to see fast running 2)enjoy the team aspect, the girls DMR was the race of the meet. Also, individual national champions don't build future teams. Relay and xc national champion and All-Americans do. Even the kids themselves take more pride in a national relay championship than an individual one. I'm going to take a wild guess and say J.R. does not coach a top team. As a fan, you can enjoy whatever aspect of the sport you want but relays are better for the development of the sport as a whole.

even the world's largest and longest track meet (which requires four major airports, simultaneously employs four tracks and seven fields) the mt sac relays, only has small percentage of relay races. relays are passe. kids want to make their own time.

2 very dumb statements on this thread...

1) that relays are meaningless and a "waste"

2) that the individual races were an embarassment because they were tactical

learn something about the sport

change has arrived wrote:

even the world's largest and longest track meet (which requires four major airports, simultaneously employs four tracks and seven fields) the mt sac relays, only has small percentage of relay races. relays are passe. kids want to make their own time.

Ignorance ^ . Every high school kid that I talk with says that the relays are the most fun.

change has arrived wrote:

even the world's largest and longest track meet (which requires four major airports, simultaneously employs four tracks and seven fields) the mt sac relays, only has small percentage of relay races. relays are passe. kids want to make their own time.

If they want to make their own time, why are they opting for relays?

what sounds like more fun to you? Celebrating and individual national championship or one you can share with 4 teammates you worked your ass off all year with...your answer says a lot about the type of athlete you are

That said, I would support having a "relay only championship meet" and one for only individual events on separate weeks (sort of Penn relays style, which has individual events but it's understood the studs are in the relays)

How about:

Day 1/2 individual

Day 3 relays

hmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote:

2 very dumb statements on this thread...

1) that relays are meaningless and a "waste"

2) that the individual races were an embarassment because they were tactical

learn something about the sport

Look at the message board today. People are still discussing both DMRs and boys 4x8. they'd probably be talking about the boys 4xmile if the officials hadn't screwed it up. No one is talking about the individual distance races anymore. Bottom line is, if you were at the meet, the only distance races that generated any energy from the crowd were the girls 2 mile and the relays. As this message board shows, the same is true for after the meet. That boys 2 mile was forgotten almost immediately after it happened. The New Jersey State meet had a better 2 mile and it was only seven laps. Many think that's embarrassing.

Wendell Gee wrote:

change has arrived wrote:

even the world's largest and longest track meet (which requires four major airports, simultaneously employs four tracks and seven fields) the mt sac relays, only has small percentage of relay races. relays are passe. kids want to make their own time.

If they want to make their own time, why are they opting for relays?

coaches love to stick kids in meaningless events

Some athletes like to race instead of jogging for awhile and then sprinting a 400. These athletes run relays. The DMRs were all time best and just missing all time best. If any of those athletes had run the mile, they would have been running a number 20 all time instead of a one or two.

Kids choose to run relays at nationals, if you think otherwise you are crazy. There is something different about doing something special with a team.

Also, most of the really good kids ran an open event and a relay, Cheserek, Cain, Cuffe, the Rosas, ect. As for Harvard Westlake, they hit a crazy national record. You can't do that without national caliber runners. Chris Lukezic and Alan Webb ran on their teams relays as seniors and set national records in the 4x8 and DMR respectively.

They put relays on different days so schools can double up on the distance relays and not have to choose one. It makes the races more competitive.

In my state, one of our rivals put their best girl in 2 relays, but she did not compete in either individual event. She medalled in 2 jump events, but her relay teams both finished last. Her times from the season would have earned her a medal. I think they wasted her talents, and could have placed much higher in the state meet if she ran individual.

You have to look at the goals of each athlete in context. Take Cami Chapus. She had already won CIF in a fast time, had won the Dream Mile in a more tactical affair, and was effectively the national mile champion. What she didn't have was a 1500 qualifier for USA's. She cruised easily to that at NBN (jogging the last 109m), then got to be part of prep history by anchoring a huge DMR record. Next year she comes back for a shot at the all-time prep record in the mile.

That is some smart coaching.

Newsflash: in high school, nothing matters. Winning New Balance Nationals in 2011 will not mean a thing for any of these kids' future professional careers.

hoi polloi wrote:

You have to look at the goals of each athlete in context. Take Cami Chapus. She had already won CIF in a fast time, had won the Dream Mile in a more tactical affair, and was effectively the national mile champion. What she didn't have was a 1500 qualifier for USA's. She cruised easily to that at NBN (jogging the last 109m), then got to be part of prep history by anchoring a huge DMR record. Next year she comes back for a shot at the all-time prep record in the mile.

That is some smart coaching.

I'm confused; USATF Juniors accpet 1600 and mile times. She only needed 5:00.14 in the mile (she ran 4:42 a week earlier) at the Dream Mile. Why on Earth would she think she needed a 1500 time?