Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-05-12
22O-YARD DASH
MARK HAS BEEN
SAME 30 YEARS
lBy Dispatch A. p. Mirel

SYRACUSE, N. Y, May lin this
age of athletic record breaking few
marks withstand the attacks of per-
formers over a stretch of 80 years.
Yet that is the case with the 220
yard dash in the collegiate A.
A. A. championship, Tom Keane, vet
eran Syracuse university coach, notes
jim reviewing the history of the fur
long race.
The present mark of 21 1-5 seconds
was first made in 1895 by Bernie We
fers of Georgetown. Only two men
have equalled it in the 2S meets held
since 5Wefers lowered the previous
record by three-fifths of a second.
Ralph Craig of Michigan in 1910 and
1911 and Don Lippincott of Pennsyl-
vania in 1913 tied Wefers' mark.
"In a sense it is not difficult to ac
count for the standing mark,
Keane said, because this is the day
of specialists and the furlong sprint
is an 'in-between' event. If a coach
has real sprinter he usually figures
on him to win both the 100 and 220
AS result, however, the runner
seems to specialize in the 100 and take
a chance, as it were, that his training
will carry him through the longer of
his sprints.
This same theory applies to real
good quarter-miler. One always ex-
poets a good '44O' man to run a fast
220 With a bit of speed work toward
the end of training the coach invar
iably finds his man able to give a
good, account of himself. Both Alan
Woodring and Charley Riedpath, of
Syracuse won I. G. A. A. A. A. 220
titles while concentrating on prepar-
ations for the quarter-mile.
son May % and May 20 at the Har-
ward stadium, when the, T. c. A. A. A.
A. celebrates its golden anniversary,
the 22O yard event will be held for
the 49th time. The event was held
for the first time in 1877, one year
after the title meet was inaugurated.
1t will be interesting to observe
whether a span of 80 years will pass
without witnessing the lowering of
the 1920 record. Frankly, such de-
velopment would not surprise me.
Captain Henry Russell of Cornell
will enter this years meet as the de-
Tending champion and naturally will
be rated as a likely repeater after
the form he showed in the indoor 70
yard championship. Russell was two
tenths of a second away from Wefer's
record last year, but so were Bill
Schick of Harvard in 1904 and Reid
path in 1912 and Woodring in 1921.
t'Alfred IeConey of Lafayette was
one-tenth of a second behind the rec
ord in 1922, the first year that tenth
second watches were used in the T.
C. A. A. A. A. games. That was the
year LeConey lowered the 100 yard
record to 7-1O seconds and the fact
that he did not also shave the 220
mark bears out my contention that a
breaking 22O performance is
considered of far less Importance
than. new record in the 100 or 440.
"To my mind, Bernie Wefers was
the best 220yarder in the history
of the I. G. A. A. A. A. l knew him
in his prime and 1 have yet to see
one of our sprinters whom I think
could beat him at his best There
are some who are credited with fast
Wefers and Charlie Paddock on the
WdCCn WOuIu D0 q TITLE over IOUi
years. But I would hate to be in
Paddocks shoes when he set out with
a four-yard deficit to catch Wefers,
or in fact, Craig or Lippincott.
ut is hard for me to compare Rus
sell or Cornell with Wefers because
[ have not seen much of Russell in
Last year his starting
seemed slow. Apparently he has
remedied that defect If so, it will |
take some tall stepping to head him
in the Stadium final.
Going back over the 220 records |
one finds that Harry Lee of Pennsyl- /
vania won in the slow time Of 23 1-2
seconds in 1877, and it was not until /
1891 that % seconds We're broke. In I
Iced, Luther Carey of Princeton was
he only man under % seconds until /
Wefers made his record. This seems
when we consider such
sterling runner as c. H. Sheriff. Of
Yale was listed three times as the
winner.
"After Wefers made his record in
500 it stood the test against such
outstanding men as j. W. Tewksbury