There are just ten days for practice left before the Interscholastics. The many school games of the past two weeks have shown that there is much new material in the field, and that it will not be so easy to pick the winner of the championship as might have been supposed earlier in the season. The struggle for supremacy promises to be more interesting this spring than ever, and I have little doubt that several records will be considerably bettered. Barnard, of course, will make a desperate endeavor to carry off the honors of the day, and thus secure a full title to the Interscholastic Cup. This school will be represented by a strong team, which gives good promise of equalling the record of last year's champions, although three of those 1894 point-winners are not back this year. Of the 38 points which won the day for Barnard last May, Rogers made 16; Simpson, 6; and Feigenspan, 1—in all 23, or almost two-thirds of the total victorious score. Thus, if victory perches on the Harlem banners next week, it will be due in a large measure to the development and acquisition of new material.
At the semiannual field day of the Academic Athletic League of the Pacific Coast, held at the Olympic Club Grounds, San Francisco, on March 16th last, the Oakland High-School and the Berkeley High-School, with 52 points each to its credit, tied for first place, and the championship was consequently awarded to the former for having been the winner the previous year. The struggle, as may well be imagined, was a close and exciting one throughout, there being no event, except perhaps the shot, hammer, and mile run, that was not hotly contested to the end. The O.H.-S. has been the Coast champion for sixteen years past, and if Cheek, the captain of the team, had entered this year, no doubt the score would have been very different. Cheek is a promising all-round athlete. In addition to vaulting and jumping he puts the shot 33 feet, throws the hammer over 100 feet, runs the 100 in 11 seconds, gets over the high hurdles in 17½ seconds, and the low hurdles in 28 seconds. The reason given for his non-entry into these sports is that his team was so much stronger than that of any of the other schools in the league, that the O.H.-S. preferred to contest the games without his aid, and so decide the day by a few points only. This experiment proved a most risky one. If the B.H.-S. had won the Relay race, they would have taken the championship by the score of 55 to 48. Such a self-sacrificing and eminently sporting spirit as Cheek's is something I have not yet observed in the East. The rules governing the contests of the A.A.L. are somewhat different from those of other leagues. The team of each school is limited to seven boys, and six more are allowed to enter for the Relay race, which counts as an extra event, and gives 10 points to the winner, 6 points to second, and 2 to third. There is some advantage in this limitation, but I should think that in many cases it would operate unjustly. Nevertheless, it is a great preventer of that worst feature of our Eastern track-athletic games—countless trial heats necessitated by unlimited and unrestricted entries.
The high hurdles were the occasion for a hot struggle between Dawson, O.H.-S., and Hoppin, B.H.-S. Dawson had never run the full course before, and this was only his fifth attempt at clearing the sticks, but he ran well and breasted the tape in 19½ seconds, with Hoppin at his heels. In the first heat of the low hurdles Hoppin won in 31½ seconds. Dawson fell at the seventh, but picked himself up quickly and finished, thus qualifying for the finals, which he won in 31½ seconds, with Hoppin third. Dawson will no doubt improve greatly within the next year, and I confidently look forward to see him smash some Coast records. He takes the hurdles without the suggestion of an effort, and although only 5 feet 5 inches tall, he gets in the seven steps without any trouble. He trained for the half-mile earlier in the spring, and so attained good endurance. Another boy with this quality strongly developed is Hanford, the O.H.-S. sprinter. He is slow at starting, but his endurance is such that he has been known to do 50 yards in 6-1/5 seconds on a dirt track, then walk back to the start, get on his mark and repeat the performance; and do this again a third and fourth time. He took the 220 in 25-1/5 seconds, without being pushed, but came in a foot behind Lippmann, B.H.-S., in the 100 on account of his slowness in getting away from the mark. In the field events the B.H.-S. walked away with everything, taking all the points in the hammer and shot events. They got first in the broad jump and pole vault, and tied for the high jump. In the hammer, Lynch, B.H.-S. threw 104 feet and won, and was going to try for a record, when the attention of the judges, for some reason, was distracted by the exciting Relay race, and so Lynch lost his chances and his rights. He is said to have done 125 feet in practice. On the whole the day was a notable success, and the scholars of California showed themselves sportsmen of the true stripe in the enthusiasm and energy which characterized the occasion.
COMPARATIVE TABLE OF NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO INTERSCHOLASTIC MEETINGS.
I. S. A. A. Games at the Berkeley Oval,
New York, May 5, 1894.
| Event. | Winner. | Performance. | |
| 100-yard dash | Rogers | 10-2/5 s. | |
| 220-yard dash | Simpson | 23-3/5 s. | |
| 120-yard hurdles | Beers | 16-2/5 s. | |
| 220-yard hurdles | Syme | 27-1/5 s. | |
| Half-mile run | Irwin-Martin | 2 m. | 10-1/5 s. |
| Mile run | Veiller | 5 m. | 1-1/5 s. |
| Running high jump | {Rogers} | 5 ft. | 9 in. |
| {Baltazzi} | |||
| Running broad jump | Beers | 19 " | 5 " |
| Pole vault | Whitney | 10 " | |
| Putting 16-pound shot | |||
| Putting 12-pound shot | Ball | 39 " | 1 " |
| Throwing 12-pound hammer | Ball | 110 " | 3-1/2 " |
A. A. L. Games at Olympic Club Grounds,
San Francisco, March 16, 1895.
| Event. | Winner. | Performance. | |
| 100-yard dash | Lippmann | 10-4/5 s. | |
| 220-yard dash | Hanford | 25-1/5 s. | |
| 120-yard hurdles | Dawson | 19-1/4 s. | |
| 220-yard hurdles | Dawson | 31-1/2 s. | |
| Half-mile run | Russ | 2 m. | 20-2/5 s. |
| Mile run | Jackson | 5 m. | 5-1/2 s. |
| Running high jump | McConnell | 5 ft. | 3 in. |
| Running broad jump | Lloyd | 18 " | 6 " |
| Pole vault | Woolsey | 9 " | 2 " |
| Putting 16-pound shot | Lloyd | 32 " | 8 " |
| Putting 12-pound shot | |||
| Throwing 12-pound hammer | Lloyd | 104 " | 5 " |