I previewed Saturday's Jesuit-Sheaner Relays track and field meet in today's SportsDay section of The Dallas Morning News. The meet will be loaded with talent again and it should be a great showcase of our area prep track and field talent.

Athletes who competed in last year's Jesuit-Sheaner Relays advanced to the state meet in 63 events, winning 39 medlas (20 golds). That's the kind of talent you can expect to watch Saturday at Haggar Stadium.

Here's a look at the meet schedule (admission is only $5 for adults and $2 for students):

46th JESUIT-SHEANER RELAYS
Date: Saturday
Location: Haggar Stadium, Jesuit High School in Dallas
FIELD EVENTS:
8 a.m.: 5A long jump and 4A triple jump
8:30 a.m.: 5A high jump, 5A shot put and 4A discus
10 a.m.: 5A and 4A pole vault morning session (starting height for bar is 11 feet, 6 inches and session ends after athletes reach 13 feet)
11 a.m.: 5A triple jump, 5A discus, 4A long jump, 4A high jump and 4A shot put
1 p.m.: 5A and 4A pole vault afternoon session (bar starts at 13 feet, 6 inches)
MORNING SESSION RUNNING EVENTS:
9 a.m.: Distance medley relay timed final (1,200 meters, 400m, 800m, 1,600m)
9:30 a.m.: 3,200 meters timed final
Rolling schedule for running preliminaries:
4x100 Relay
110-meter hurdles
100 meters
400 meters
300-meter hurdles
200 meters
AFTERNOON SESSION RUNNING EVENTS:
(All timed finals)
2:30 p.m.: 4x100 relay
2:40 p.m.: 800 meters
3 p.m.: 110-meter hurdles
3:15 p.m.: 100 meters
3:25 p.m.: 4x200 relay
3:45 p.m.: 400 meters
4 p.m.: 300-meter hurdles
4:20 p.m.: Elite Girls 1,600 meters run (invitational only)
4:30 p.m.: 200 meters
4:40 p.m.: 1,600 meters run
5:10 p.m.: 4x400 relay

DeSoto boys track coach Mark Brady said his team is looking forward to competing in the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays on Saturday at Haggar Stadium.

Brady said he's excited to compete against Killeen Ellison, which is in DeSoto's region and will be perhaps the Eagles' best competition in making a run at a state championship.

"This is a big meet. But it's not the meet," Brady said. "We have to be careful with that. If somebody feels a little something, you have to be careful in these big meets. You want to get through it healthy. You have to be careful with these meets that are close to district."

That said, Brady said that the Eagles come into the meet healthy. Brady said he has five sprinters who have performed well so far.

Senior Reginald Reed is the anchor leg on DeSoto's 4x100 and 4x200 relays. This Saturday, Reed will run the 400 meters and on the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Reed has also been running on the 4x400 relay. He won't run the 4x200 relay Saturday so that he can get a time in the 400 meters, and event he hasn't run in yet this year.

Promising DeSoto freshman Dontre Wilson will replace Reed on the 4x200.

Senior Traun Roberson will run the second leg on DeSoto's 4x100 and 4x200 relays. He's signed with UT-El Paso in football.

DeSoto standout senior running back Marcus Murphy - a Missouri signee - is the Eagles' first leg on their 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Senior Devin Sanders is DeSoto's third leg on the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.

"We have five fast guys, and Reggie hasn't been pushed on either relay this year," Brady said. "I really want to see what Reggie can do when he has to run."

Lancaster sophomore sprinter Kedron Sowell will miss the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays on Saturday at Haggar Stadium because of injury.

Sowell has a hip flexor injury, Lancaster coach Greg Williams said, and will be out at least another week after getting hurt a few weeks ago at the Tyler/Earl Campbell Relays.

That will hurt Lancaster, which is moving up from the Class 4A-and-under division on Saturday to compete in the Class 5A division of the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays for more competition. Lancaster is the two-time defending Class 4A state champion and will be pushed Saturday by Killeen Ellison and DeSoto.

"It may be a mistake to move up, but we're going to see what we can do," Williams said. "It's going to be a good matchup for us. We're going to come for a battle.

"If it's a nice day, which we're hoping for, it will be a packed house. And it's a great atmosphere for track and field."

There are few men I'd rather share a cup of coffee with or have a conversation with in the area than Herb Sheaner. The 85-year-old retired Jesuit track coach is always entertaining, informative and -- more than anything -- such an uplifting individual who goes above and beyond to run a first-class track and field meet every year.

Sheaner remains the meet director for the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays, which will enjoy its 46th meet this year. The meet begins at 8 a.m. Saturday at Jesuit's Haggar Stadium. The meet started as the Jesuit Relays in 1964 but was renamed the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays in 1975, when Sheaner retired as the school's longtime track coach.

The meet always attracts the best prep track and field athletes that Texas has to offer. And a big reason why is Sheaner, who puts in hours and hours of time calling, emailing and writing track coaches in an effort to attract the best possible field every year for the meet. He's built great relationships with coaches and athletes over the years and is a great promoter of his meet, but his genuine interest is in the kids who compete in the meet and the sport of track and field. Sheaner gets a lot of help every year from his son, Mike, who does a lot of the leg work to make the meet go off without a hitch. Herb Sheaner was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association inaugural Hall of Fame class this year.

Herb Sheaner has a great personal story to tell as well. He's written a book called the Prisoner's Odyssey that, according to its Web site, is "a story of survival, hunger and reflection from a teenaged prisoner of war inside Germany near the end of Word War II. From capture at the Battle of The Bulge to the final escape from his German guards, the author allows us a glimpse into the despair and agony of being a prisoner in a foreign land."

I encourage everyone to give the book a look -- you can purchase the book right here -- and if you run into Herb Sheaner at the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays on Saturday at Haggar Stadium, stop by to tell him hello and thanks. The conversation will be well worth your time.

The 46th Jesuit-Sheaner Relays will again feature a must-see field Saturday at Haggar Stadium. The boys field will be headlined by Killeen Ellison's Prezel Hardy, the nation's fastest prep sprinter.

Hardy, who will compete in the 100 meters and 4x100 and 4x200 relays Saturday, is a big reason why Ellison is one of the favorites to win the Class 5A state team title come mid-May.

The Texas A&M signee is the defending World Youth 100-meter champion and wowed everyone last June in Austin when he won the 5A 100 state title in a slightly wind-aided 10.08 seconds, the third-fastest high school time ever under any conditions.

"All I could do was say, 'Wow,'" Lancaster boys track coach Greg Williams said. "He's that kind of fast."

Lancaster will move up from the Class 4A-and-under division at the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays to compete in the Class 5A division against Ellison and DeSoto, one of the state's best teams this year under coach Mark Brady.

Two of the area's best sprinters -- Keller Fossil Ridge's Clinton Collins and Carrollton Ranchview's Josh Lyda -- entered the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays today and will compete in the elite meet Saturday at Haggar Stadium.

Collins will be one of the favorites in the 5A 400 meters. He had a great indoor season and will go head-to-head against Lancaster standout Rodney Jones, the state leader in the 400 meters this season with a time of 48.10 seconds.

Lyda, a standout freshman, runs for 3A Ranchview but will compete in the 5A 100 meters against Killeen Ellison standout Prezel Hardy. Lyda has clocked a 10.65-second 100 this year, which ranks second in the state.

Midlothian's Carly Kitts and Colleyville Heritage's Alyssa Nielson, two of the area's and state's top girls 1,600 meters runners, have had to drop out of the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays elite race Saturday because of injuries.

Kitts is suffering from a stress fracture and Nielson has a foot injury.

Still, the competition in this race will be stout. Several girls could run under 5 minutes. Greenhill's Chelsey Sveinsson is the frontrunner. She has the nation's top girls 1,600 meters time this year of 4:52.34. Last year, Sveinsson came close to breaking the meet record of 4:49.9, set by Plano West's Erin Bedell during the first elite girls 1,600 race at the all-boys meet in 2004. Sveinsson won last year in 4:51.58. If the weather is as expected Saturday -- as always, a big if in Texas -- Sveinsson should break Bedell's record this time around.

Jesuit High School will break ground next week on a new football stadium and eight-lane track at the high school that will replace Haggar Stadium and the track that surrounds it.

The football stadium is scheduled to be finished before the start of Jesuit's 2010 high school football season. The stadium and the track were built in 1964. The 47-year-old track has been resurfaced a few times over the years but needed an upgrade. At the time of its completion in 1964, the track was the first all-weather track of its kind in Texas and attracted many of the nation's top high school athletes to compete there, especially for the annual Jesuit-Sheaner Relays.

The school decided to wait until after the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays on Saturday to break ground on the new stadium and eight-lane track so that it didn't disrupt the annual meet that is one of the state's best every year.

The new football stadium will feature stands in a semi-bowl shape where some seating will be available on the south end of Haggar Stadium. The stadium is also supposed to get a new press box and elevator. It's a much-needed improvement for the UIL Class 5A program in Dallas.

 3.23.19

Another top runner enters 1600 M girls race at Jesuit-Sheaner Relays Posted at 11:02 AM on Tue., Mar. 23, 2010 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz Mark Dent/Reporter    E-mail  |  News tips