Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-16
TRACK ATHLETICS.
Looat4Schools Preparing for the
&c X Interscholastics.
eoth Teams Win Be Made Up Largely of
New Materia.-Captain Bigelow's Pol
icy With the Harvard Athletes
Other Gossip.

The athletes at both the Worcester
high school and Worcester Academy are
now busy getting into shape for the
annual indoor interseholastic sports
which are to be held in the Mechanics
building in Boston on the last Saturday
of next month. 1t is difficult to tell at
this early date what success the two
local teams can justly expect at Bos-
ton. They start out on equal terms,
so far as men are concerned. The
Worcester Academy has Duffy of last
years Boston English high school as
their star man and the only point win
ner in former interscholastic meets ELI
gible to represent the school, While the
high school has Capt. Munson Butler,
who has always been able to land a
number of points for the w. Fl. s., in the
sprints The other men on both teams
are practically. green and untried, and
no one can say what these youngsters
may do. The age limit does not affect
the high school at all, but it will cost
the Academy one good man in Kinsley,
who did so well in the middle-distance
run at last years meets,
At Worcester Academy, the boys have
superior training facilities, and under
Pouch Donovan's direction, the team
that will be sent to Boston will be the
very best that could possibly be devel-
oped from the material at hand. Pouch
has, in a measure, introduced the Har-
ward system of training at the Acad
envy. Taking advantage of the excel
lent out-of-door eleven lap board track,
much of the work of the men will be
done out of doors. In addition, so
yard straightaway course has been laid
out in front of the grandstand on the
campus, and upon this the sprinters and
hurdle men will get in their work. The
field-event men will as formerly, do
their work on the floor of the gymna-
SUM, and their jogging on the gym.
track.
A representative of the Spy watched
the work of the athletes at the Acad-
envy Saturday afternoon, and also had
an interesting chat with Trainer Don
ovan. Pouch speaks very enthusiastic
cally of the outdoor work, and says he
has not a doubt but that it will make
the men in better condition when they
go to the scratch. OF course there will
be days during the winter when it is
rainy or snowy or else unusually cold,
so that the athletes cannot use the
track, but four-fifths of the time, out
door practice can be carried on without
The fresh air has an eXhilarating effect
upon them, while getting rid of the
sharp turns of the gym track will pre-
vent the runners from getting lame an
kles and other ailments that are induced
by a 25-lap course. Pouch says the
men take to their work well, and that
the student-body is showing a health
full interest in the team. About 60 men
are now in training, but during the
latter part of the week, trials will be
run off and the team reduced to about
one-haf the present numbers.
The candidates for places on the high
school team have no regular trainer,
and it is doubtful if they will enjoy
the instruction and assistance of any
outsider during the final stages of their
work. At present, however, Jerry De-
laney is performing labor of love for
the boys. He is down at the training
quarters in the top of T. K. Earles fac
tory, every afternoon, and gives the 80
or more candidates valuable instruction
in the various events for which they are
training. But Delaney goes to Exeter
this week to take hold of Exeters
team, after which Butler will be thrown
upon his. own resources. The high
school men are making rapid advances,
and, as a whole, their work is encour-
aging.
Few athletes from this city will par
ticipate in the B. A. A. games which will
be held in Boston on February 5th.
The Holy Cross boys will send down a
relay team to meet the University of
Pennsylvania, and Worcester Academy
may have few representatives in some
of the track events, it being Donovan s
idea to get the men accustomed to run
ming in company. in former years Wor-
cester has always been we'll represented
at the annual B. A. games, but with the
tearing down of. the rink local athletes
have no place to train, unless attending
some school here. Holy Cross realizes
that it has big job on it's hands to
defeat U. of p, but Connect believes ne
will get four men together who win do
the trick as handily as the Holy Cross
quartet defeated Yale down there a year
ago. The college may also enter a few
men in the runs, but this is rather
doubtful as they prefer to devote their
entire attention to the relay team.
Harvard has always entered about all
it's available athletic material at the
games, but this year there will be only
a small entry list from Cambridge.
Harvard will run Yale in the team race
tournament and there may be some
class team races but Harvard will make
no attempt to pit teams against four
colleges as she did in '97. In the track
and field events only few men will be
entered. Captain Bigelow of the track
athletic team came up from Cambridge
Saturday afternoon to spend Sunday at
home. While talking with a Spy man
about athletics at Harvard he remarked
that he did not believe in so much in
door running, and intended to have less
of it at Harvard this season, He said it
injured the chances of the men for the
out-of-door spring games in which they
are most needed. All this is in line with
the policy that Bigelow has instituted
there of giving the teams less severe
work. and which caused him to cancel
the dual meet with Pennsylvania.
81 think" he said. chat the main
reason for our poor showing in the past
has been the inordinate number of
games in which men on the Harvard
team have been allowed to enter. Last
year we lost a third place, at least in
the Pennsylvania games by our best
man taking part in a 50-mile race with
out the trainers permission. This put
him entirely out for the rest of the year
No Harvard man will this year be al
lowed to compete in any games without
the trainers permission, and any man
who does so will be athletically sus-
pended for the remainder of the year
There will be no track games of any
kind foc the men, during March d
April
The Yale team that will run Harvard
has not as yet been selected. Bascon
johnson, the old Academy athlete, who
ran on the team a year ago. is practi-
caly sure of place. The other mem
bers of the team will be selected from
Richardson, the old Amherst quarter
mile runner; Dial Byers of last year:
team; c Z. OrdWay. Keifer and Dud