Texas Relays

The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays are an annual track and field competition held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The University of Texas serves as host for the event, held on either the first or second weekend of April.

Events are held in High School, College, University, and Invitational divisions. The 87th running of the relays was March 26–29, 2014.

History

In response to cold-weather conditions at the Kansas Relays,^[1] the Texas Relays started as a men's-only competition in 1925 by coach Clyde Littlefield and athletic director Theo Bellmont.^[2] The Relays were held at Memorial Stadium until Mike A. Myers Stadium was opened in 1999.^[3] The meet was not held in from 1932-1934 as a result of The Great Depression.^[3] Women's events were added in 1963.^[3]

To encourage attendance in the early years of the event, various publicity stunts were staged. The most successful was a 1927 stunt in which three Tarahumaras were invited to the Relays. These men were famed as runners who never stopped running. A race was staged between the men from San Antonio to Memorial Stadium. After 14 hours and 53 minutes, the 89 mile race ended in a tie.^[1]

In 1977, electronic timing was introduced at the Relays, and Olympic gold medalist and Texas Longhorns football player John Wesley Jones recorded a time of 9.85 seconds in the 100 meter dash. This would have set a world record, but it was determined that the timer malfunctioned, and the time was unofficial.^[1]

The Texas Relays are currently the second largest track meet in the United States, behind only the Penn Relays.^[4] Today, approximately 50,000 spectators and 5,000 athletes attend the events.^[1][5]

Local impact

According to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2007, the Relays generate US$8 million for local business.^[6] Much of this traced to the fact that the event has become a social destination for young African-Americans. A number of groups organize networking and development events for African-Americans to take place in downtown Austin during the Relays.

Following numerous issues involving crime, theft and general violence many local businesses close for the Relays weekend.^[7][8]

Some advocates of the Relays state that there is not a significant increase in crime during the Relays weekend. However, police forces are so overwhelmed with crowd control and keeping the peace that they will generally not take the time to write citations or arrest individuals for less serious offenses. Some businesses have chosen to not operate or to close early because it is more cost effective rather than pay for increased security for crowds who are not spending money or loss of income due to theft.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Divisions

The University Division is open to schools in NCAA Division I. The College Division is open to schools in NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, or NJCAA schools. The University/College Division is open to schools that qualify for either division separately. The High School Division is separated into two levels, Division I and Division II. Division I is open to schools in the University Interscholastic League classes A, AA, or AAA (or their interstate equivalents). Division II is open to schools in UIL classes AAAA or AAAAA. Schools that normally compete in Division I may compete in Division II if they wish.^[13]

Events held

Source:.^[14] Note: Some men's events are combined for the University and College divisions.

Meet Records

Men

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
100 m	9.97 (+1.2 m/s)	Olapade Adeniken	Nigeria	4 April 1992
200 m	20.38 (+1.2 m/s)	Ameer Webb	United States	29 March 2014	[15]
800 m	1:46.63	Leonel Manzano	United States	26 March 2015	[16]
1500 m	3:41.15 m	Paul Larkins	Great Britain	1984
Mile	3:56.98	Leonel Manzano	United States	2008
5000 m	13:41.38	Mark Anderson	United States	1980
10000 m	28:05.36	Michael Musyoki	United States	1984
110 m hurdles	13.13	Larry Wade	United States	2004
400 m hurdles	48.44	Michael Stigler	United States	27 March 2015	[17]
3000 m steeplechase	8:27.70	Henry Marsh	United States	1977
High jump	2.33 m	Mark Boswell	Canada	2000
Pole vault	5.90 m	Jacob Davis	United States	1998
		Shawnacy Barber	Canada	28 March 2015	[18]
Long jump	8.23 m	Richard Duncan	Canada	1997
Triple jump	17.02 m (+1.3 m/s)	Melvin Lister	United States	3 April 1999
Shot put	21.37 m	Al Feuerbach	United States	1974
Discus throw	66.01 m	Julian Wruck	Australia	30 March 2013	[19]
Hammer throw	75.15 m	Libor Charfreitag	Slovakia	2001
Javelin throw	89.10 m	Patrik Bodén	Sweden	24 March 1990
Decathlon	8465 pts	Trey Hardee	United States	5–6 April 2006
	(100 m), (long jump), 14.45 m (shot put), 1.99 m (high jump), (400 m) / (110 m hurdles), 48.24 m (discus), 5.20 m (pole vault), 60.00 m (javelin), (1500 m)
4×100 m relay	37.88	HSI	United States	2001
4×200 m relay	1:19.88	Austin All Stars	United States	1999
4×400 m relay	2:59.86	USA White	United States	2006
4×800 m relay	7:15.99	Texas A&M University James Bonn Joey Roberts Oscar Ramirez Michael Preble	United States	29 March 2012	[20][21]
4×1500 m relay	15:08.67	Arkansas	United States	1999
Sprint medley relay	3:12.13	Arkansas	United States	2000
Distance medley relay	9:29.40	UTEP	United States	1979

Women

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
100 m	10.93	Dawn Sowell	United States	1989
200 m	23.03 (+0.9 m/s)	Paris Daniels	United States	29 March 2014	[22]
800 m	2:04.41	Natoya Goule	United States	6 April 2011
1500 m	4:13.91	Francie Larrieu-Smith	United States	1983
3000 m	9:13.90	Teena Colebrook	Great Britain	1991
5000 m	15:29.85	Midde Hamrin	Sweden	1984
10000 m	31:28.92	Francie Larrieu-Smith	United States	1991
100 m hurdles	12.79	Angela Whyte	United States	2004
400 m hurdles	54.60	Raasin McIntosh	United States	2003
3000 m steeplechase	10:10.93	Trina Cox	United States	2006
High jump	1.95 m	Erin Aldrich	United States	2000
		Amy Acuff		31 March 2012	[20]
Pole vault	4.55 m	Sandi Morris	United States	28 March 2015	[23]
		April Steiner Bennett			[23]
Long jump	6.88 m (+1.9 m/s)	Blessing Okagbare	Nigeria	2 April 2010	[24]
	6.96 m (nw)[25]	Lorraine Ugen	United States	28 March 2015	[18]
Triple jump	14.05 m (+1.5 m/s)	Kimberly Williams	United States	9 April 2011	[26]
Shot put	18.58 m	Laura Gerraughty	United States	2006
Discus throw	60.71 m	Becky Breisch	United States	2006
Hammer throw	72.16 m	Amanda Bingson	United States	28 March 2013	[27]
Javelin throw	60.82 m	Kara Winger	United States	27 March 2015	[28]
Heptathlon	6217 pts	Kelly Blair LaBounty	United States	2001
	(100 m hurdles), (high jump), (shot put), (200 m) / (long jump), (javelin), (800 m)
4×100 m relay	42.28	South Florida Elite	United States	2006
4×200 m relay	1:30.01	LSU Cassandra Tate Semoy Hackett Rebecca Alexander Kimberlyn Duncan	United States	31 March 2012
4×400 m relay	3:23.75	Texas	United States	2004
4×800 m relay	8:29.77	Texas	United States	1986
4×1500 m relay	18:11.51	Arkansas Paige Johnston Jillian Rosen Miranda Walker Kristen Gillespie	United States	8 April 2011
Sprint medley relay	3:42.36	Arkansas University C. Williams T. Ellis-Watson S. McKnight Dawn Harper	United States	27 March 2015	[29]
Distance medley relay	11:01.17	Texas Tech	United States	2008

References

External links

• Texas Relays web site
• Texas Relays Records
• Videos from 2011 Texas Relays