This year, the Herb Schmidt relays, the annual track invitational, were again held at York Suburban High School on April 17 where many teams came together to compete.
This year was the 56th annual event of the Herb Schmidt relays. The event started in 1960 and is named after the man himself, Herb Schmidt. Schmidt used to coach and teach at West York, where the event started as West York Relays. However, once he moved to York Suburban, it became known as the York Suburban Relays. This was later changed again to have the name it does today.
The relays were originally scheduled for March 28, but York woke up to snow on that morning. There was still a push to have it, hoping that the snow could clear off. It would be devastating to not have it because the event is a huge fundraiser for the school with bake sales, t-shirts, and more. However, the snow was covering the track and athletes could not run if they could not see the lines.
A spot was found on Friday, April 17 right in between the Arctic Blast and the Dallastown Invitational. Although the relays are not usually held on Fridays, coaches and teams made the somewhat awkward placement work.
Competing teams included York Suburban, Central York, Dover, Susquehannock, William Penn, and West York. Central York had not competed in the Herb Schmidt relays for a few years but returned this year.
The relays have many events and rules that are different from a regular track meet. One of these events is the co-ed shuttle hurdle relay where half of the hurdles are facing one way and the other half are facing the other. The race is 100 meters and boys go one way while girls go the other. Although it may look a little unusual, the students thoroughly enjoy the event that mixes things up a little bit.
Another difference is that field events compete in pairs. As the name states, the meet consists of ‘relays’. This does not exclude the field events. Each school picks their two best competitors for each field event and the pair has their scores combined for their final score. When’s the last time you saw a High School boys pole vault win with 20 feet?
The final outcome of the relays had Central York and York Suburban winning for girls and Dover and Susquehannock winning for boys. The relays also had a co-ed final score since there are co-ed events like the shuttle hurdle. York Suburban and Central York stole this title as well.
Maddie James (left) and Mary Gurnavage (right) sit here with their medals from long jump and triple jump.