The complete plans just announced for the Pennsylvania relay races show many departures from the program in past years. The events will be held in Philadelphia on Friday, April '23, and Saturday, April 24, the large number of entries having made it impracticable to run off the entire meet on a single day as in 1914.
The extra time allowed for the contests has led to the introduction of several new events. The management has always desired to make the relay races a nucleus for Olympic teams, and it will be on these lines that they will develop. On Friday a Pentathlon for college men will be held. The regular events of the Olympic Pentathlon will be contested, namely, the running broad jump, throwing the javelin, throwing the discus, 200-meter race and 1500-meter race. This will be practically an all-round championship for the college men and it should be one of the most interesting and important events of the college season.
In addition to this, two new relay championships will be held on Friday.
Both of them are medley relays. In one race the first man will run a quarter-mile, the next man a half-mile, the third man three-quarters of a mile and the last man a mile. In the other new championship relay race the first and second men will run 220 yards, the third man 440 yards and the fourth man 880 yards. The rest of Friday's program will consist mostly of events for local schools and colleges. The only big event taken from Saturday's program will be the hammer throw which will be held on Friday. Three other special events will be given on Friday, namely, the 56-pound weight for distance, 440-yard hurdle and the hop, step, and jump.
Saturday's meet will be practically the same as usual, except that the grammer school and parochial school races will not be held on that day. The regular high and preparatory school races and the college races will be given, and the championships for schools and colleges will be the same as in previous years.
Judging by early inquiries, the meet will this year probably attract more entries than at any time in the past. The international interest created last year by Oxford's participation in the relay races will be maintained, for unless the war suddenly obliges them to change their plans, Cambridge University will enter the meet. Upsala University, of Stockholm, Sweden, may also send over a relay team.
Classification of Teams.
To make competition in the relay races nearly even, the tentative entries have been divided into eighteen classes this year. The major group includes Cambridge, Chicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Illinois, Michigan, Oxford, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale. The other important groups are: Class 2-California, Leland Stanford, McGill, Minnesota, Missouri, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Southern California. Toronto; Class 18-Annapolis and West Point. The colleges in the minor classes are grouped mainly according to geographical location or size of enrollment
