Request for Input from the Community - Areas of Research for the Future - Relays & Relay Meets

JAVMAN83

JAVMAN83

Well-known member
As I work through all-time lists for each event, I've neglected the relays in favor of the individual events. However, I haven't forgotten them.

I'm currently looking at confirming and expanding the work done by the late-great Craig Whitmore. I have some of his historical documents that were published online about 15 years ago. In looking at future research projects, I have in mind targeting some of the major meets of the past around Ohio (Mansfield Relays, Ohio Wesleyan Relays, Ohio Relays, Bellaire Relays) for putting together lists of event winners per year. This will help me confirm Whitmore's research and expand upon it for any future historians to continue research.

I invite the community to pass along any meets that might be of interest. My criteria is that it has to be a very large meet that invited teams from all over Ohio and elsewhere, and must have run at least 30 years in length. Like I said, I'm looking for the big ones that drew in lots of teams and lots of competitors from all over. This research also feeds back into other projects I have underway.

I thank you in advance.
 
 
The Miami Relays was a huge meet for a lot of years, and normally was held in early May. It was one of the first meets - to my knowledge - that contested the steeplechase. Obviously, Roosevelt would be another.
 
Seek Up said:
The Miami Relays was a huge meet for a lot of years, and normally was held in early May. It was one of the first meets - to my knowledge - that contested the steeplechase. Obviously, Roosevelt would be another.
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Thank you. I've done some early research into the Miami Relays. It started in either 1934 or 1935, but that meet came about as a result of Miami U. losing the privelege of hosting the SW district meet. There was an original meet at Oxford called the "Tri-State Invitational" (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky) dating back to around 1910 and continued up through 1922. In 1923, that meet became the 1st SW district meet and excluded Indiana & Kentucky schools as it was the first feeder meet in southwest Ohio into the state meet. When the SW district meet split into northern (Dayton) and southern (Cincinnati) meets in 1934, Oxford hosted the southern district for 1934, while the original Univ. of Dayton Stadium (before Welcome, and not located at that site) hosted the northern district. In 1935, the southern district moved to Carson Field (Nippert Stadium) on the Univ. of Cincinnati campus. It then made the rounds for years, eventually becoming what is now the Mason District Division I meet, which is now celebrating the 100th anniversary this year as the host of the Cincinnati-area based large schools meet.

Roosevelt - definitely have a project there with many great performances there!
 
Bellaire in my neck of the woods and Mansfield come to mind immediately but you already have those listed.

Two that may be of interest to you are the Sandusky Relays and Fulton Relays (Lancaster). At one time they each had separate team competitions for an open division and relay division. Sometimes large schools would spread their team somewhat evenly trying to win both divisions. Looking at current results, the Fulton relays has a wide range of relay events but no longer individual events and I am not sure if the Sandusky Relays still exist so may not meet your criteria.

Are individual field event performances in relay meets acceptable as an individual mark? If team X pole vaulters go 16' and 11', would the 16' count as an individual mark or only the two-man PV Relay of 27'?
 
Newton's Third said:
Bellaire in my neck of the woods and Mansfield come to mind immediately but you already have those listed.

Two that may be of interest to you are the Sandusky Relays and Fulton Relays (Lancaster). At one time they each had separate team competitions for an open division and relay division. Sometimes large schools would spread their team somewhat evenly trying to win both divisions. Looking at current results, the Fulton relays has a wide range of relay events but no longer individual events and I am not sure if the Sandusky Relays still exist so may not meet your criteria.

Are individual field event performances in relay meets acceptable as an individual mark? If team X pole vaulters go 16' and 11', would the 16' count as an individual mark or only the two-man PV Relay of 27'?
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Yes, absolutely individual field event marks made within a relay competition count for all-time individual performances!
 
When Frank Shands was coaching Purcell, the Cavalier Relays were held at what is now Cincinnati State with teams all over Ohio. When he went to Princeton, he continued the meet as the Viking Relays
 
On a tangentially related note, this spring we will start seeing mixed gender relays at meets. It will be interesting to track the rapid record progression in those events.
 
Lancermania - I haven't worked on relays on the guys side as yet for the indoor season. However, I am separating those between legal and oversized tracks. MileSplit doesn't do that. I hope to start working on relay lists heavily over the next 2 years.
 
Throwscoach said:
A lot of good information about the Mehock Relays can be found at Mehock Relays. I would also try contacting the meet director for historical records.
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Thank you. I found that site about 5 years ago and have been SLOWLY working at reorganizing their database and filling out a lot of missing information through newspaper resources of the past.
 
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