Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-11
COLLEGES SHOW
GREAT INTEREST
IN PENN RELAYS
Many New Marks Expected
to Be Made at Franklin
Field This Year
YALE HAS BIG CHANCE

The Importance of the University of
| Pennsylvania's relay carnival to the track
| interests of the whole intercollegiate ath-
! letiC world was never shown to better
advantage than this year Almost without
exception the leading universities of the
East and the Middle West have timed the
beginning of their track and field train
ing to have their men in fair condition for
this meet At various times within the
last 30 years some Of these colleges have
shown disposition to pass up these
games, particularly If their material was
not such as to give them an even chance
to annex one or two championships.
That situation has been steadily chang
ing, until now all the leading universities
, may be counted upon to enter teams in
| one or more Of the relay championships
with just as much certainty as they will
prepare for the intercollegiate" This
is because they recognize the relays as
one of the two classic track meets of
America, for il gives their candidates an
incentive to work and develops them as
no number of dual meets would. This
year, for example. Harvard, Yale, Cor
nell and Princeton of the eastern uni
versities are pointing their very best ath-
letes for the championship relays, while
virtually all will he represented in the
various special events. The same Is true
of the Middle Western universities. In
fact, they promise to be better represented
than the eastern schools which are nearer.
At this writing the thing which stands
out most clearly Is that there Is more than
even chance for new worlds records to
be established in each of the three cham
pionship relays at one, two and four miles.
And this statement is made in spite of
the fact that the records in these three
events are about as low as human legs
can put them. But give us good weather,
a fast track and the standard of compe'
ha n former
marks
The record most easily broken is that for
the two miles. Strange to say, this event
has seldom brought out together so
many high-class teams as the one and
four-mile relays. II seems easier for col
leges to find enough sprinters and quarter
milers 10 form one good mile team or TO
group lot of distance runners into one
credtable four-mile team than II Is to
find four really high-class half-milers.
That this is so is shown by the records.
The Pennsylvania team that did 3:lS for
the one-mile relay last year averaged
just 49la seconds to the quarter, which
is of course, a marvellous performance.
When Cornell established the record of
1885 l-5 for the four-mile relay in 1911
the Ithacans averaged 4:2s AS for the
mile. That was a good average for the
mile, but 4:2S AS for the mile is not in
the class with .49A for the quarter, The
LWO-Illlle record Is Z minutes 90 90 SEE
onds, and was made by Princeton last
year. To do that the Tiger had to average
l :5S 9-1O for the half. virtually the same
sort of an average that Cornell made for
the four-mile event.
From the way the runners have been
shaping up this spring it looks as though
Yale would have a good chance to slice
something off Princeton's figures for the
two-mile event, and certainly Cornell
ought to lower the figures another team
from Ithaca made in 1911. The backbone
of the Yale team consists of OyertOn and
Barker, two men who ought to average
1857 for the half Assuming that two
more men can be developed to do 2 min
utes, Yale should get inside Princeton's
record.
AS for the four-mile, Cornell has thIAe
men In Windnagle, Potter and HoffmF Fe
who should average close TO 4;25. I'D
ing another man who can do 4:35 oIkht
70 be easy. II rs a pity that the Itha Ans
were not harder pressed in 1911, for that
team contained Jones, Berna, PutnanH land
Hunger.