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Gaithersburg Gains Own Relay Title...As Woodward Readies Its Relays, Steeplechase
By BEN WALKER
Twenty-two Montgomery County high schools converge on Woodward's athletic fields for the third annual Woodward Relays. Along with the nine track and six field event relays, the meet will feature for the second year a steeplechase race, the only one on a high school level in the nation.
"It's one of the biggest relay meets around," says Woodward track coach and meet director Greg Dunston. The action gets under way at 9:30 a.m. with the field events, followed by the track races at 10.
"The track events usually run smoothly and should be over by about 3:30," figures Dunston. "It's the field events that usually slow things down."
Churchill, Richard Montgomery and Gaithersburg are the best bets to wrest last year's crown from Springbrook. Churchill is led by Doug Johncock, a premier triple jumper who leaps 45 feet. Richard Montgomery, the strongest team in the A division, is counting on top flight sprinter Vic Davis and hurdler Steve Jenkins. Supplementing the two are distance runner Tim Gavin and two-miler Bob Stack. Another two-miler, Kevin Amigh, paces Gaithersburg.
The longest race of the day, the four-mile relay, should be one of the most competitive.
"We could have a Washington area record," predicts Dunston. Kennedy, with Ed Boggess and Kent Thomas, Whitman, with Richard Brodie, and B-CC are the leading contenders to topple the records.
ANOTHER source of pride for Dunston is the number of girls' teams that have entered this year. Fourteen of the 22 schools are bringing girls' teams to compete in the four girls' relays - the 440, 880, mile and sprint medley, the latter a race in which one runner does the 440, two run 220's, and the final covers a half-mile.
All track relays will involve four competitors, while the field relays will occupay three per school. For the six field events - shot put, discus, pole vault, high jump, triple jump and long jump - each team member will pick its best height or distance and add it to the best of the others for one team score.
"You have to have three kids to compete," says Dunston. "You can have one really good jumper and two average ones and get beaten by a team with three good ones."
THE 1500-METER STEEPLECHASE race, which drew coverage from two track magazines last year, has drawn the most competitors for any single event of the relays. Over 50 runners want to run, but only those who participate in the practice yesterday and tomorrow will compete.
"I don't want kids running it who have never run it before for safety reasons," says Dunston.
Woodward's relays start off the big track meets of the spring season and come one week before the Friendly Invitational, another first class meet that some county schools will be participating in.
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