Friday, March 14 was the date of a most unusual track meet. The Panther Co-ed Relays were held at Jeffco Stadium and brought many unique and entertaining races. There are no individual events in these relays, hosted by Pomona High School. Every event is scored as a team with 2 or 4 members. Most track meets have male and female events, but the "coed" in these relays means that every team had both boys and girls running, throwing or jumping together.

The meet starts with the throwers (discus and shot putters) racing around the track in a relay. These athletes are known for their strength. To see them rumble through 100-meter sprints is awesome. Pomona's field athletes led the Panthers placing in the throwers relay, shot put, discus, triple jump, and pole Vault.

Next, the runners got their chance at some unusual races. These included a hurdles relay where the girls ran the "normal" direction then gave the lanes to their male teammates, who then ran back up the track in the opposite direction. Like the throwers, all the relay teams ran boy-girl-boy-girl. Pomona's sprinters placed in the 100-, 200-, 300-, and 400-meter relays (all 4 people on the team ran the given distances).

The distance athletes were not left out of the fun. They were scored in teams of 4 in the 1600-meter and 2-person teams in the 3200-meter. Pomona placed in both events. A really unique race was the Distance Medley Relay. The relay had lengths of 800, 400, 1200, and 1600. This is the only 1200-meter race most of these athletes will ever run!

It was a fun meet. Overall, Pomona finished first with Mountain Vista a close second. This was the second year the Panther Relays used this one-of-a-kind format. We thank all the volunteers and officials who make the meet possible and hope the participants had an event they enjoyed and will remember.