Grand Forks herald., 1919-08-20
us. ATHLETES
RAISE RECORDS
WHILEOVERSEAS
500 Meters Relay Time Low
cred in Inter-Allied
Games.

Washington, D. c., Aug. 20.-Ath-
letes of the United States in the COM
petitions of the Inter-Allied games
pushed the European record for the
500 meters relay race downward sew
eral seconds. In doing this they were
pushed by the Canadian athletes, botn
in the preliminaries and the final
trials. Their performance calls atten-
ton to the fact that the American
counterpart Of the 500 meter relay
race, the half mile, is on the program
of but one of the major college events
Of the United States, and also that
competition is restricted to COM
parative limited section of the coun-
try within hailing distance of of the
Mississippi river.
comparison of the record made IN
the Inter-Allied games and the records
of the Missouri Valley Conference.
and other events in which the half
mile relay has a part shows that,
even the brilliancy of the sprinters of
the A. E. F. has been more than
equalled by several college teams IN
this country. In fact one team OF
travelling athletes, competing in Swe-
den in 1916, made the distance In
minute 81 seconds, but seemingly un-
der conditions which cannot count for
an European record. This team was
made up of Joe Loomis of Chicago,
Ted Meredith of the University of
Pennsylvania, Andy Ward of the Uni
versity of Chicago and Robert Simp-
son of the University of Missouri
They ran the event several times IN
Sweden, making slower records IN the
other attempts.
than SO yards longer than the 500
meters This should add relatively
three and one-half seconds to the rec
ord but the fact remains that in the
ten years that the event has been a
part of the program of the Missouri
Valley Conference. it has been run as
slow as 1888 but once. At st. Louis,
in 1915 a team from the University of
Chicago set the record of the valley
of flyers being Ward. Dismond. Bar
ancik and knight. This is second
and two-fifths faster than the Inter
Allied games record with an addition
al thirty-six yards of competition
Another record almost as fast is
credited to the team of the Chicago
Athletic association, which in spe.
cial relay event at St. Louis in 1911
made the distance in 1929 3-5. This
team was composed of 10 Loomis
Sherman Landers, Frank Smart and
Andy Ward. 1t is, as far as known
the best collegiate record.
The real sensation of the half-mile
records, however, belongs to team
from the University of wisconsin
with assisting honors to teams from
the University of Illinois, Notre Dame
university and Drake university. Thi.
event was over track. checked by {
state engineer. The timing OF
three experts was assisted by an cleo
trio timing device. The event wa:
the half-mile struggle in the Drak'
university relay games in 1916. I
was known before the race that Wis
consin, Notre Dame and Drake hat
exceptional teams. Illinois came in
to this select number through tn
great running of Carroll in the fna
furlong. Wisconsin broke the tape
but the other teams were less than
foot behind and while Wisconsin ha
the honors for the 1:78 3-5 mark, al
four of the teams bettered the ac
cepted mark Of 1929 2-5. The Bad
ger team of winners was made up o
W. J. Carter, c. B. Smith, F. B. Case,
and j. D. Peterson. 1t is worthy o
note that all members of the fou
winning teams found places in tn
army. and one of the members of tn
winning team is member of the
E. F. Team in the Allied games.
B. Smith being one of the quartet