Favorite Track and Field Event and Why

[Fryowa]

HS track season is going on and no Hawk sports currently. See thread title.

Mine has to be the 1600m relay. For those of you not from or living in Iowa, its a 200/200/400/800 relay in that order. I love the medley relays, especially that one because it has 2 sprints, a 400 which is the toughest event in track to do well, and a middle distance 800. You need 4 runners in 3 different disciplines to pull it off well and I really think it's more exciting than a 4x4 if there are competitive teams.

Fun fact that most people don't know...

Iowa is the king of HS relay races in track and field. All states do the 4x100 and 4x400 which are the ones run in college and international competition. 40 states add the 4x800 for high school, and 24 have the 4x200. The 1600m medley (called the distance medley in Iowa) is only run in 4 states, and the 800m medley (called the sprint medley relay in Iowa) is only run in 2 states. Shuttle hurdle relay is only run in Iowa and West Virginia.

Basically if you like relay races Iowa is your state. Most states are vanilla and only have 2, Iowa has 7.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Fry, you are bringing back my high school and college years on that oval beast. I was a half miler and ran on our 4x400 in both high school and college. 4x400 was always the last race of the meet, and in high school, sometimes it came down to that on who won, so that is probably my favorite. It was a good race because you sometimes had sprinters moving up a distance, true quarter milers, and half milers like me going down an event. It was usually a tight race, it was not in lanes after the first leg, so there was rubbing and racing unlike the sprint relays (in lanes) or the distance stuff (slower and more spread out). Good memories!!!

 

[Fryowa]

Fry, you are bringing back my high school and college years on that oval beast. I was a half miler and ran on our 4x400 in both high school and college. 4x400 was always the last race of the meet, and in high school, sometimes it came down to that on who won, so that is probably my favorite. It was a good race because you sometimes had sprinters moving up a distance, true quarter milers, and half milers like me going down an event. It was usually a tight race, it was not in lanes after the first leg, so there was rubbing and racing unlike the sprint relays (in lanes) or the distance stuff (slower and more spread out). Good memories!!!

So I was technically out for track all through middle and high school but I sucked and didn't put tons of effort into it. Now as an adult I have a 17 year old son who's turned out to be really good and I've gotten a much bigger appreciation for it the past 6 years or so. I'm a high school baseball coach and I love watching track and XC meets as much or more than baseball because. Our school has a couple great coaches who our guys would take a bullet for, and this is a sport I don't know shit about the technical side of so I can sit back and just take it all in without trying to coach or second guess someone else. I just go watch and cheer my ass off and have a bawl. XC meets are great because in Iowa at least the weather is generally mild. What better fan experience than to go grab a bag chair, a book, and go sit on a golf course in the shade after work for a few hours.

The 4x400 is awesome. I have tons of respect for anyone who runs a 400 or 800. Can't sprint, but can't really take it easy either. You have to have the physical part squared away as far as being in the best possible condition that night, but you also have to have the mental side of being able to tell that you're riding just on the ragged edge but not go over. Run the first lap of an 800 three seconds too fast and you're toast. You ain't gonna run your second lap fast enough and if you do it's because you dogged it somewhere.

 

[Fryowa]

Fry, you are bringing back my high school and college years on that oval beast. I was a half miler and ran on our 4x400 in both high school and college. 4x400 was always the last race of the meet, and in high school, sometimes it came down to that on who won, so that is probably my favorite. It was a good race because you sometimes had sprinters moving up a distance, true quarter milers, and half milers like me going down an event. It was usually a tight race, it was not in lanes after the first leg, so there was rubbing and racing unlike the sprint relays (in lanes) or the distance stuff (slower and more spread out). Good memories!!!

My kid runs the 3200, the800 leg of the 1600 relay, and the 1600 so I'm a biased distance fan. He's down to a 4:41 1600 as a junior and should be in the 30's by districts I'd imagine. I think the fastest mile I ever ran was was mid 6 minutes. It's friggin wild what teenage bodies are capable of with training. Part of me wonders where the training/genetics tipping point is...because there are some people I think no matter how much they train from even an early age, would never be able to hit say, a 5:30 mile (I'm picking that number arbitrarily). But some people have a genetic makeup that they can push past into the 4's

 

[CP87]

Fry, you are bringing back my high school and college years on that oval beast. I was a half miler and ran on our 4x400 in both high school and college. 4x400 was always the last race of the meet, and in high school, sometimes it came down to that on who won, so that is probably my favorite. It was a good race because you sometimes had sprinters moving up a distance, true quarter milers, and half milers like me going down an event. It was usually a tight race, it was not in lanes after the first leg, so there was rubbing and racing unlike the sprint relays (in lanes) or the distance stuff (slower and more spread out). Good memories!!!

4x400 is just the best...brings out all that is good about track and field.

 

[CP87]

I love T&F. It was huge in my high school, and in MN we had True Team track (I think only MN and CA have this). It is kind of analogous to the dual meet in state wrestling, let me explain...

To win the regular state meet, you just need a couple of studs. But in True Team, they score every event first to last. Each team gets 2 entries in individual events, so at a 10 team meet, first place gets 20 points, last place gets 1 point. Having a couple of studs only gets you so far, you really need to have a whole team.

So, someone like me who had little chance of ever qualifying for a state meet still mattered to the overall performance. We had a couple of state qualifiers and state place winners, but I doubt if we were in the top-10 at the regular state meet. But we had a bunch of good football and basketball players that were willing to go out and work hard, so we won 4 or 5 straight state titles in True Team.

 

[CP87]

My only gripe with T&F is it is a bit too stodgy. I look at what a sport like volleyball has done when people started losing interest...they made pretty dramatic changes and improved their sport.

T&F is great, but there are way too many meets in high school, and the meets last too long. It is mostly ADs doing one another favors (you come to our meet, we will go to yours), allowing them to justify the cost of building tracks, but it is far from the best situation for the kids. Fixing this issue would improve the sport at the HS level.

But beyond that, I wish there was a bit more variety. I wish there were some meets scored True Team fashion. I wish there were some meets that were all relays. Long meets on weekends are fine, but I wish the mid-week events were mostly duals and triangulars.

I am only worried that a great sports is going to continue losing participants because the sport is too afraid to change.

p.s. - The Olympics are going to be awesome this summer. The US is in a bit of a golden-age for T&F stars right now.

 

[Fryowa]

My only gripe with T&F is it is a bit too stodgy. I look at what a sport like volleyball has done when people started losing interest...they made pretty dramatic changes and improved their sport.

T&F is great, but there are way too many meets in high school, and the meets last too long. It is mostly ADs doing one another favors (you come to our meet, we will go to yours), allowing them to justify the cost of building tracks, but it is far from the best situation for the kids. Fixing this issue would improve the sport at the HS level.

I wouldn't say we have too many in Iowa at least. In our conference each team has 12 regular season meets up to and including districts.

7 run of the mill meets.

2 "optional" meets. These are typically one of the following three indoor meets held at local colleges (USD, SDSU, Dordt University) plus the Sioux City Relays which kids have to qualify for.

1 Conference championship meet

1 District state qualifying meet

I think what they need to do to speed up track meets is to kill the longer races when all people on the lead lap have crossed the finish line. The girls 3,000m can get brutal. I've seen girls get lapped 3 times before. Getting lapped twice happens at pretty much every meet. There's no real reason those kids should be out there. In my mind the best compromise is to blow an airhorn when all runners still on the lead lap have crossed the finish line and the race ends at that point. Those kids who are lapped aren't scoring points anyway.

 

[Fryowa]

My only gripe with T&F is it is a bit too stodgy. I look at what a sport like volleyball has done when people started losing interest...they made pretty dramatic changes and improved their sport.

T&F is great, but there are way too many meets in high school, and the meets last too long. It is mostly ADs doing one another favors (you come to our meet, we will go to yours), allowing them to justify the cost of building tracks, but it is far from the best situation for the kids. Fixing this issue would improve the sport at the HS level.

But beyond that, I wish there was a bit more variety. I wish there were some meets scored True Team fashion. I wish there were some meets that were all relays. Long meets on weekends are fine, but I wish the mid-week events were mostly duals and triangulars.

I am only worried that a great sports is going to continue losing participants because the sport is too afraid to change.

p.s. - The Olympics are going to be awesome this summer. The US is in a bit of a golden-age for T&F stars right now.

Also, one of the reasons Iowa meets take as long as they do is because they have 7 relays.

4x1
4x2
4x4
4x8
800 medley
1600 medley
Shuttle hurdle

But I like having that variety. It makes team strategy super interesting and smaller schools can compete with bigger schools that would otherwise just stack the 100, 200, 400, 1600 or whatever and scratch the rest but still win.

 

[Fryowa]

I love T&F. It was huge in my high school, and in MN we had True Team track (I think only MN and CA have this). It is kind of analogous to the dual meet in state wrestling, let me explain...

To win the regular state meet, you just need a couple of studs. But in True Team, they score every event first to last. Each team gets 2 entries in individual events, so at a 10 team meet, first place gets 20 points, last place gets 1 point. Having a couple of studs only gets you so far, you really need to have a whole team.

So, someone like me who had little chance of ever qualifying for a state meet still mattered to the overall performance. We had a couple of state qualifiers and state place winners, but I doubt if we were in the top-10 at the regular state meet. But we had a bunch of good football and basketball players that were willing to go out and work hard, so we won 4 or 5 straight state titles in True Team.

One question I have...

How do teams qualify for true team? Obviously it can't be open entry or you'd have a bazillion schools competing.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I wouldn't say we have too many in Iowa at least. In our conference each team has 12 regular season meets up to and including districts.

7 run of the mill meets.

2 "optional" meets. These are typically one of the following three indoor meets held at local colleges (USD, SDSU, Dordt University) plus the Sioux City Relays which kids have to qualify for.

1 Conference championship meet

1 District state qualifying meet

I think what they need to do to speed up track meets is to kill the longer races when all people on the lead lap have crossed the finish line. The girls 3,000m can get brutal. I've seen girls get lapped 3 times before. Getting lapped twice happens at pretty much every meet. There's no real reason those kids should be out there. In my mind the best compromise is to blow an airhorn when all runners still on the lead lap have crossed the finish line and the race ends at that point. Those kids who are lapped aren't scoring points anyway.

Not a bad idea. I know some meets where they run the boys and girls 3,200 simultaneously which is not a good idea. The girls winner deserves individual recognition which she doesn't always get when three or four boys finish ahead of her.

Biggest contributor to long meets? Invitationals with too many teams. It's not unusual for the Sparky Reynolds Invitational in Boscobel Wisconsin to have 25 teams. And for the 4x400 relay to finish somewhere around midnight. At least its on a Friday night and it's a huge revenue producer for the host school but that's a long night. But again outdoor track has the shortest season, most host schools get only one big meet a year, and the concession stands are cash cows. And then Jim Weber, who owns a Cuba City meet locker and had several decorated female track daughters, would take his huge portable grill/trailer up to Boscobel every year and grill up the burgers, hot dogs, boneless chicken, boneless pork, and the whole shebang at the Cuba City tent. Athletes from every school would grab some late night grub when they were done for the night.

The 400, in my opinion, is the second toughest event. The 300 hurdles, if your district has that event, is the toughest. You must combine speed, endurance, and jumping ability. It requires nothing less than the best athletes.

My favorite event was the 4x200. Then again my neice and my next door neighbor were State Champs in that that one in 2016 and 2014 respectively so maybe I'm biased.

Biggest pet peeves? Athletes who hang out in the team tent too much and don't cheer on their teammates. It was frequently the distance runners who had long gaps between the 4x800 (the first race), the 1,600 (in the middle) and the 3,200 (second to last event) Some of them by nature are introverts anyway but their teammates appreciate it when they are getting cheered on and encouraged. Also Athletes who have to be told 47 times by the announcer to crouch down when standing in the infield. For that matter, shitty track announcers as well. We don't have to be reminded 36 times a night that the concession stand is available. Many of us have hung out with others parents at a drinking and eating establishment before the race anyway. Another no no is coaches forcing an athlete to high jump AND long or triple jump. DON'T! It's an injury waiting to happen. One or the other please.

My kids participated in track every year between 2013 and 2023 sans the 2020 covid year with the two oldest overlapping. My oldest was a thrower, my middle child was a high jumper and my youngest was a sprinter and triple jumper. My favorite memory was when my oldest was participating in a high school meet in Cuba City and a second was at a middle school meet in Darlington at the same time. With constant communication from the two coaches we made the 25 mile shuttle between both schools three times each way and didnt miss a thing. What an afternoon that was!

Another memory was the Platteville Relays, where the last event of the night was what was called the weightman's relay in Iowa and the 4xfat in Wisconsin. My shot put and discus throwing oldest ran the one a couple times and you could use whatever prop you wanted for a baton. They chose...a can of Pringles

 

[Fryowa]

Not a bad idea. I know some meets where they run the boys and girls 3,200 simultaneously which is not a good idea. The girls winner deserves individual recognition which she doesn't always get when three or four boys finish ahead of her.

Biggest contributor to long meets? Invitationals with too many teams. It's not unusual for the Sparky Reynolds Invitational in Boscobel Wisconsin to have 25 teams. And for the 4x400 relay to finish somewhere around midnight. At least its on a Friday night and it's a huge revenue producer for the host school but that's a long night. But again outdoor track has the shortest season, most host schools get only one big meet a year, and the concession stands are cash cows. And then Jim Weber, who owns a Cuba City meet locker and had several decorated female track daughters, would take his huge portable grill/trailer up to Boscobel every year and grill up the burgers, hot dogs, boneless chicken, boneless pork, and the whole shebang at the Cuba City tent. Athletes from every school would grab some late night grub when they were done for the night.

The 400, in my opinion, is the second toughest event. The 300 hurdles, if your district has that event, is the toughest. You must combine speed, endurance, and jumping ability. It requires nothing less than the best athletes.

My favorite event was the 4x200. Then again my neice and my next door neighbor were State Champs in that that one in 2016 and 2014 respectively so maybe I'm biased.

Biggest pet peeves? Athletes who hang out in the team tent too much and don't cheer on their teammates. It was frequently the distance runners who had long gaps between the 4x800 (the first race), the 1,600 (in the middle) and the 3,200 (second to last event) Some of them by nature are introverts anyway but their teammates appreciate it when they are getting cheered on and encouraged. Also Athletes who have to be told 47 times by the announcer to crouch down when standing in the infield. For that matter, shitty track announcers as well. We don't have to be reminded 36 times a night that the concession stand is available. Many of us have hung out with others parents at a drinking and eating establishment before the race anyway. Another no no is coaches forcing an athlete to high jump AND long or triple jump. DON'T! It's an injury waiting to happen. One or the other please.

My kids participated in track every year between 2013 and 2023 sans the 2020 covid year with the two oldest overlapping. My oldest was a thrower, my middle child was a high jumper and my youngest was a sprinter and triple jumper. My favorite memory was when my oldest was participating in a high school meet in Cuba City and a second was at a middle school meet in Darlington at the same time. With constant communication from the two coaches we made the 25 mile shuttle between both schools three times each way and didnt miss a thing. What an afternoon that was!

Another memory was the Platteville Relays, where the last event of the night was what was called the weightman's relay in Iowa and the 4xfat in Wisconsin. My shot put and discus throwing oldest ran the one a couple times and you could use whatever prop you wanted for a baton. They chose...a can of Pringles

Great post.

Funny how the regional differences come out with track events from state to state. In Iowa the girls run a 3000 instead of the 3200 the boys do. And our hurdles are 400m instead of 300 (Iowa is one of only 4 states that do 400m hurdles).

We call it the 4 x fat where I am in NW Iowa.

Last year our 4 x fat team got in trouble because one of the guys went to subway and got a foot long sub, and they used it as their baton. There was lettuce and tomatoes and shit everywhere. The crowd LOVED it and it was the last race of the night, but our AD has a giant stick up his ass and got those guys in trouble. I say who cares? Let ‘em have fun because it wasn’t hurting anyone.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Great post.

Funny how the regional differences come out with track events from state to state. In Iowa the girls run a 3000 instead of the 3200 the boys do. And our hurdles are 400m instead of 300 (Iowa is one of only 4 states that do 400m hurdles).

We call it the 4 x fat where I am in NW Iowa.

Last year our 4 x fat team got in trouble because one of the guys went to subway and got a foot long sub, and they used it as their baton. There was lettuce and tomatoes and shit everywhere. The crowd LOVED it Ian’s it was the last race of the night, but our AD has a giant stick up his ass and got those guys in trouble. I say who cares? Let ‘em have fun because it wasn’t hurting anyone.

Other props I saw used for batons for that relay included ground beef logs, sausage logs, and brats in white wrapping paper.

If that AD had an issue with sub condiments falling on his track, said AD has bigger issues. I've seen fans at early season football games attacked by yellow jackets because no-one at the school could exterminate the nests that had been under the bleachers all summer. I'm sure when the meet was over and the people had left, birds had no trouble taking care of the fallen lettuce and tomatoes.

 

[Fryowa]

Other props I saw used for batons for that relay included ground beef logs, sausage logs, and brats in white wrapping paper.

If that AD had an issue with sub condiments falling on his track, said AD has bigger issues. I've seen fans at early season football games attacked by yellow jackets because no-one at the school could exterminate the nests that had been under the bleachers all summer. I'm sure when the meet was over and the people had left, birds had no trouble taking care of the fallen lettuce and tomatoes.

I’m guessing between birds and cats those toppings didn’t last through the night.

 

[justwinbaby]

I love track meets when the weather is nice. Sorry I’m a wimp. I hate being cold. My favorite event is the 4x400. I ran it quite a bit in high school. I typically ran the second leg which was where we would have our weakest runner. I got a decent amount of first place medals off the legs of better runners. I still enjoy watching it and like the fact that it’s always the last race.

 

[Seth53]

4 x 200

Love seeing the anchors sweeping around the final curve.

Speaking of, I believe Ankeny broke the state record...1:26.12...already this season.

Bound | High school sports - Boys Track & Field 2023-24

Season schedules, scores, standings, brackets, rosters, teams, and stats for Iowa High School Boys Track & Field 2023-24

gobound.com

Excellent site for both boys and girls track information

 

[CP87]

One question I have...

How do teams qualify for true team? Obviously it can't be open entry or you'd have a bazillion schools competing.

There are districts, and you have to win your district True Team meet to make the state True Team meet.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

My only gripe with T&F is it is a bit too stodgy. I look at what a sport like volleyball has done when people started losing interest...they made pretty dramatic changes and improved their sport.

T&F is great, but there are way too many me

Go to the Drake Relays. That place can get rocking when there is a big race or big name involved.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

My kid runs the 3200, the800 leg of the 1600 relay, and the 1600 so I'm a biased distance fan. He's down to a 4:41 1600 as a junior and should be in the 30's by districts I'd imagine. I think the fastest mile I ever ran was was mid 6 minutes. It's friggin wild what teenage bodies are capable of with training. Part of me wonders where the training/genetics tipping point is...because there are some people I think no matter how much they train from even an early age, would never be able to hit say, a 5:30 mile (I'm picking that number arbitrarily). But some people have a genetic makeup that they can push past into the 4's

That is a bad ass time for an Iowa kid in the mile as a junior. He should be in line for some scholly opportunities. Be proud, Fry. Nothing better than watching your kid do something a lot better than you ever could!!

My son was a varsity soccer player and is now in college. Soccer didn't exist in Iowa in the 90s, so it was a marvel watching him do something I wouldn't even begin to know how to do.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

The 4x400 is awesome. I have tons of respect for anyone who runs a 400 or 800. Can't sprint, but can't really take it easy either. You have to have the physical part squared away as far as being in the best possible condition that night, but you also have to have the mental side of being able to tell that you're riding just on the ragged edge but not go over. Run the first lap of an 800 three seconds too fast and you're toast. You ain't gonna run your second lap fast enough and if you do it's because you dogged it somewhere.

For me, the quarter was easy. It hurt alot, but there was nothing mental about it. I was a middle distance guy so I just basically ran about as fast as I could for 50 seconds or so. Nothing mental or strategic. Just pain.

The half is the hardest race in track, IMHO. Its not fast enough to be a sprint and not slow enough to settle in as a pace race. It can go out like a sprint or a mile and then reverse on the second lap. You cannot fall asleep and have to focus on the pace of the pack. And, it hurts like a mother.

As you noted, there are so many relays with at least one 800 leg, so I got to run a lot of relays, especially in college. I usually ran all four distance relays in college and loved it. Relays are more fun to me than individual events.