John Ward Masters Games Outlives Host Men’s Track Program
Thank goodness for women’s track. If Santa Ana College (south of Los Angeles) didn’t have a women’s team, the long-lived John Ward Masters Games might be dead. I got confirmation this week from Jason Kehler of the SAC Athletic Department that the masters meet will again be held — this time on Sunday, April 15. See the informational flier. “Proceeds to benefit Santa Ana College Track & Field,” says the sheet. Who was John Ward? He coached at Santa Ana College for 27 years and headed the track and cross country programs, among others. He was a great friend of masters track.
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This was my home track for 25 years, this and Cal Irvine. 1959 to 1986. Talk about some memories. It was great in the 60s and 70s because there were fewer people. I finally headed east in ’86 to get away from the masses. Now, my closest all-weather track is 40 miles on a 2-way, no-shoulder road so all training is on asphalt.grrrrrrrrrr Smartty
gonna miss seeing you in Bloomington Smartty.
Thanks, Mary. I wanted a shot at those titles but my Mrs. comes before races. “Gee, Tex, how do you figure?” Well, there’ll always be races but only one Mrs. “Wow, that’s heavy, thinman.” What can I say but BLAST ‘EM, MARY. Smartty
$30 pre reg and $40 day of — per event? What a bargain.
It looks like the $30 covers up to 4 events. This meet is also the same weekend as Mt. Sac, so maybe it could fill the void in SoCal that weekend created by dropping the masters middle distance events.
Highjumpers especially love this meet with Ed Caruthers as the HJ official.
See it now; up to four events. Wasn’t clear if that was a scoring restriction or not. Some meets only allow an athlete to compete in X amount of events.
I have enjoyed the meet many times. Due to injuries unable to attend this year.
Santa Ana College was host of a regional qualifying Olympic Trial a long time ago. It was used to screen athletes that were allowed to go to THE Olympic Trials. Maybe Ed Caruthers, Walt Butler, or someone else could shed some light on this history . . .
The meet is a good early season meet to see where you are in your training- but for runners the timing has been an issue at this meet for years–they seem to start the meet with FAT timing and it goes south on them and the majority of the times have been hand times- so I would use this meet as a practice-but don’t count on an accurate time if your a runner-good surface.
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