With spring break earlier than usual this year, the only logical spot on the schedule for the Legard Relays to be held is this weekend. With meet director Craig Davis moving the meet up to its earliest date ever, the rest of the outdoor season will fortunately have far less conflicting meets held in the Northern Region on the same weekend.
This year\'s Legard Relays will be held at W.T. Woodson and will be back to a two day affair once again. The meet begins on Friday at 4:00 p.m. with the boys and girls long jump; the boys discus and the girls discus in field event action. One other field event will be contested on Friday with the girls pole vault slated for a 4:30 p.m. start.
The relay format in the field events will have two entrants per school with both of those competitors having to get a mark to count in the team scoring. Scoring for all events in the field and on the track will be through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Running events will also begin at 4:00 p.m. on Friday with the 4x1,600 meter relay followed by a hurdle relay. It will not be of the shuttle variety but instead will have two hurdlers per school with their total time counting as their team score.
There will also be two non-scoring events on Friday following the hurdle relay with boys and girls freshmen-sophomore only 1,600 meter runs and a special Hicham El Guerrouj 2,000 meter relay (800-600-400-200) for some of the larger schools to enable them to run as many people as they can on their roster.
Saturday\'s action begins at 9:00 a.m. with the boys shot put, girls discus and the boys and girls triple jump while the boys pole vault will start at 10:00 a.m. The girls high jump will immediately follow the triple jumps and the boys high jump will follow the girls high jump. The high jump and pole vault will employ the five alive method. The horizontal jumps and throws will have three attempts per athlete with no finals scheduled.
Running events begin at 10:30 a.m. with the 4x200 relay followed by the 4x800 relay; 4x100 meter relay; sprint medley relay and distance medley relay.
The DMR will be followed by one of the annual highlights of the meet, the Clydesdale Relay. This track pounding event, which does contain some very good handoffs, is for throwers only and will be non-scoring.
After the Clydesdayle Relay and the rush by the participants to the concession stand, will be another non-team scoring event with the freshmen-sophomore 4x400 relay and the meet will conclude with the varsity 4x4\'s.
Robinson is the defending team champion on both the boys and girls side and will be back to defend their titles. Twenty other schools are set to challenge the Rams with W.T. Woodson, Madison, Herndon, Westfield, Lake Braddock, West Potomac, Oakton, Edison, South Lakes, Fairfax, Langley and Jefferson entered from the Northern Region. Public schools from outside the region include Broad Run, Brooke Point and Oxon Hill (MD) while private schools entered include O\'Connell, Episcopal, Gonzaga, Paul VI and Edmund Burke.