The hurdles furnished a surprise in the defeat of Beers by Bien. The latter was a little awkward in his trial heat, but when he started in the finals he showed much better form. Beers, on the other hand, was all out of shape, bungled over the first obstacle, and took a cropper at the second. Beers always has been a better man out-of-doors than in, but he will have to look to his laurels at the Interscholastics this spring.
The mile run took five points off Barnard's forecast. Bedford had been counted a pretty sure winner, in spite of the fact that Manvel of Pingry was on hand. The two ran pretty evenly for half the distance, but toward the end the Jerseyman displayed more wind and staying power, and spurted for the finish, crossing the line well ahead of Bedford.
There have been a number of scholastic in-door games in and about Boston the past month, and about the most interesting feature of each has been the team race. I was sorry not to see a team race at the Long Island games a week ago. Such races are always exciting, and create a great amount of enthusiasm, the interest being shown for the school rather than for the individual athlete.
The enthusiasm of some of the English High-School team's supporters at the E.H.-S. games recently was so reckless that one young man thrust a hurdle across the path of a rival racer. The E.H.-S. men won the team race easily by about forty yards, but some one in the crowd upset a hurdle in front of Lincoln, the second Boston Latin runner, and of course the race had to be awarded to the Latin School on the foul. Fouls seem to be frequently the result of the enthusiasm that breaks loose over a team race—especially in Boston. On this same occasion there was a race between teams representing the right and left wings of the school regiment, and it proved exceedingly close. There was not three yards of floor between any two of the runners, and finally Ober, the fourth man for the right wing, won by only a few inches. But a foul gave the prize to the left-wing team. I only mention these incidents to show how very exciting team races are; for fouls are very infrequent at interscholastic contests; yet when it comes to a relay race, enthusiasm seems to get the better of both competitors and spectators, and frequently the referee has to step in and assert his authority.
The Cambridge High and Latin School games followed some days later, and as there were a number of open events, several Harvard men, old interscholastic athletes, entered and kept the younger men up to their best efforts. There were so many entries that the 20-yard dash had to be run off in twelve heats, with a second round of four heats and a final.
The Boston Latin School's games had no open events, the contest being entirely among the classes. McGuire of last year's football team made a record for himself by winning the 30-yard dash in 4-1/5 sec.; the 35-yard hurdles in 5-1/5 sec.; the 300-yard run in 46-2/5 sec.; the pole vault with a leap of 8 ft. 4 in.; and by captaining the winning team in the relay race. McGuire is a good all-round man.
The entries for the big games at the Madison Square Garden on the 28th will have a most cosmopolitan character. I spoke recently of the Connecticut athletes who intended to compete, and I have heard that several Bostonians are in training for the occasion. The Central High-School of Philadelphia also expects to send representatives. It is likely that the team will be composed of Frazier, Mekenson, and Hunt in the sprints; Thomas, Hunt, Frazier, and Freeland in the relay race; Thomas, Freeland, and Hunt in the half-mile; Thomas and Rutschman in the mile; the Gillender brothers in the walk; F. Gillender, Halderman, and Bay in the shot, and Buckley and Eyre in the high jump.
It is reported that St. Paul's School, of Garden City, is making arrangements to withdraw from the Long Island Interscholastic A. A., and join the new organization recently formed by Lawrenceville, the Hill School, and a number of other large institutions, which from their situation may properly be called "country schools." It seems to me that St. Paul's is doing the right thing in joining the new league, for at present it is competing with institutions not at all of its own class in many respects. St. Paul's will doubtless at first be the weakest member of the new league, but that should not be a reason for discouragement.
In the revised constitution of the New York Interscholastic A.A. a penalty of $5 has been fixed for the forfeiting of any league contest. This law should be strictly enforced, for there has been too much forfeiting of games by teams that thought they stood no chance of winning, and had not sufficient sporting spirit to appear upon the field and do their best. If the five had been made double the amount, this would not have been too severe a punishment. As it is, the treasury of the N.Y.I.S.A.A. will doubtless reap considerable benefit during the coming baseball season, if matters go as they went in the past. The difficulty may now come in collecting the fines. It may be found advisable to insert a by-law which shall make the fine for forfeiture payable within a certain very limited period—say, before the date of the next game scheduled for that team to play—on penalty of suspension. Such suspension should be made to apply to the members of the offending team, not to the school. The players who then found themselves debarred from participating in other sports—track athletics, for instance—would soon see that the fine was paid, and after one such experience they would probably abstain from forfeiting.
Albert George, Jun., New York.—The Round Table will offer no All-round Sports Medal this year.
Percy Holdsworth, Rockville Center, L.I.—An approximately accurate table of interscholastic records was published in the Round Table of July 9, 1895. Since then several of these records have been broken, and another table will not be prepared until later in the spring.
J. M. Allen, Marinette, Wis.—Hints on training for the 100 and 220 yard dashes were published in Harper's Round Table of February 25, 1896; for the half-mile run, in Harper's Round Table of March 3, 1896; for the high jump, in Harper's Round Table of July 30, 1895.