At the Gene Edmonds Relays

On Friday night Rensselaer Central High School hosted the annual Gene Edmonds Relays. I recall many of them in the past, and decided to wander out and see what was happening this year.

There were more teams than I remember being at this meet when my track-running sons were in high school.
In this meet everything is a relay. Above is the start of one of the 4x800 relays. Below the girls are getting ready for an exchange of batons. The starter has lined them up so they will be getting the exchange roughly in the order that they are arranged.
Below is the start of a sprint relay. Notice all the people paying attention in the background. They are the timers who are watching the starter so they can get their stop watches started with the gun. These are the people who make the meet run. I say that not because it is true, but because I watched high school meets for eight years from there.
However, when I worked the Gene Edmunds Relays I usually got demoted to a lesser job. Sometimes I was a turn judge, where you have to make sure that the baton is transferred in the zone, and also that runners do not step over the inside line trying to save a few inches. I recall disqualifying a few teams, and I always felt bad about that.

Above the the final turn in the 4x100.

The field events are also done as relays. The combined efforts of two performers determine the place. Here a jumper is flying through the air.
The real flying, though, is with the pole vault. Girls pole vault has only been contested a few years in Indiana. This was one of the last girls vaulting and she looks to be well over ten feet.
I like the pictures I got of her vaulting, so here she is again. (I checked the leader board at Indianarunner.com and saw that two Lawrence Central girls had heights over 11 feet, and one was ranked second in the state. There was also a Lake Central girl who could do 11 feet. That would explain these pictures.)When I attended the state track meet a number of years ago, I had a seat that had an excellent view of the pole vault competition, and there were several excellent vaulters. At least two went over the old state record, which at the time was 15 or 16 feet, but only the winner got his name on the new record. That record was broken a few years later.

Speaking of new, the refreshment stand, complete with decent toilets in the back, is new since my youngest son left the high school.

Below is the plaque. (I included it because my goal is to eventually record every plaque in Rensselaer.)
On almost all the result announcements while I was at the meet, there was a note that a new record had been set. This year the meet attracted some big schools, such as Crown Point and Fort Wayne Harding on the boys' side, and Lake Central and Lawrence Central on the girls' side. The best result I saw for Rensselaer was in the 9-10 distance relay, where the boys finished second, only a second or two behind the first-place team.

Update: Most of the results are here.