Firsts count 5. Seconds 2. Thirds 1.
The championship pennant of the New England I.S.A.A. remains at Worcester. It was carried down there by the High-School athletes last March, and they made their title to it secure on Holmes Field a week ago Saturday by rolling up a score twenty points greater than any Boston school—greater, in fact, than the scores of all the Boston schools put together. Andover had the satisfaction of finishing second, with her old rival, the Worcester Academy, who defeated her the week before, in fourth place. The games were well managed, and, considering the fact that there were 335 entries, the events were run off with commendable promptness. Four records were broken, and a good many others that are up pretty high already were closely approached, as the accompanying table will show. The marks that went were the half-mile, the walk, the bicycle, and the pole vault. Albertson, W.H.-S., has held the record for the 1000-yard run for two years, and his practice at that distance has made him a capable runner for the half. He kept well back in the bunch when the race started, and waited until the very last corner was behind him before he attempted to pull away from his companions. Then he spurted, and passed the three men ahead of him, winning easily a full second under record time.
The biggest alteration of figures, however, was made after Moore of Newton H.-S. had won the mile walk. He was looked upon as a winner at the start, but no one anticipated such an excellent performance as 7 min. 18-3/5 sec. He is as graceful in his work as any man can be in this acrobatic event, and will surely be heard from in years to come if the walk is not abolished from the amateur and collegiate programmes. The probabilities are, however, that in a very few years the walk, like the tug-of-war, will be a back number; but Moore is a good athlete, and he will surely be able to be just as prominent in some other branch of sport. The spectators were almost as deeply interested in Rudischhauser and Williams's contest for last place, as they were in Moore's struggle for first.
A pleasing feature of the bicycle races was the absence of accidents. There was not a single spill, and every man rode for all he was worth. New men took the points; and that is a good thing. Both Freyberg and Druett broke the tape ahead of record time in the second heat, but in the finals they ran four seconds behind. The final heat, although not the fastest, was the most interesting. Six men started, and for the first quarter Freyberg held the lead. Then he was passed by Boardman and Cunningham, who set the pace for a lap, after which the W.H.-S. rider pushed ahead, and left every one behind. The finish spurt was good, but it was evident that every rider was tired from the effects of the trial heats. It would be well next year to follow the plan adopted by the Inter-collegiate Association of having the preliminary heats on the previous day.
A. H. HINE.
E. G. HOLT.
None of the field events were particularly interesting, except the pole vault, in which Johnson of Worcester Academy broke Hoyt's record by a quarter of an inch. The high jumpers only reached 5 ft. 7-1/2 in., where Holt, R.L.S., and Ferguson, E.H.-S., tied for first place. Mills of Somerville High came in as an unknown quantity, and took the broad jump with a leap of 20 ft. 3 in. Andover's strong men were Holt and Hine. At the dual games at Worcester, Holt did giant's work, but at the Interscholastics he only took one first, in the shot, defeating O'Brien, whom many had looked upon as a sure winner, and a place with the hammer. Hine's hurdling was most graceful, and both races were exciting. In the high finals the racers kept well abreast for thirty yards; then Hine forged slowly ahead, but was overtaken by Ferguson, whom he beat home by a few feet only. The low hurdles were even more thrilling. Fuller led at the start, but was caught by Hine at the fourth hurdle. Then it was jump and jump for twenty-five or thirty yards; but Hine had better form, and came in several feet ahead. The day was most satisfactory from the point of view of sport, and every performance of the New-Englanders made me wish they might meet the New York school athletes on an open track and a level field. What a contest that would be! No effort should be spared to bring it about, and the only way to do it is to form one large all-embracing Interscholastic Association.
One correspondent urges Hartford as the most suitable place for the meeting. He believes it would be preferable to New Haven for many reasons, one of which is that the Yale field track is only a quarter of a mile around, whereas the track at the Charter Oak Park is a mile in circumference and sixty feet wide. It is a question whether, for the purposes of an Interscholastic meet of this kind, a mile track would be as good as a lesser one. The time made might be faster if the road-bed were in good condition, but the spectators would not enjoy the races so much as if the runners passed the grand stand a number of times; and the men themselves would find greater difficulty in gauging their speed, most of them being accustomed to four or five lap tracks. A better argument in favor of Hartford is that three railroads centre there.