Iowa City West testing a new track and field meet concept

IOWA CITY — It's an all-comers invitational, for the elite.

Iowa City West will host the Eastern Iowa Track and Field Festival on Saturday at Trojan Field. It's a unique concept.

Instead of a set number of schools sending full teams, any school is eligible to send a roster. Once all applications are received, West will take the top 16 times/distances in each event, both boys and girls, and that will be Saturday's start list.

'We realized last year, with all of the issues with the weather, that we started to get a lot of interest from small schools, that have a few really good individuals,' West boys' coach T.J. Craig said. 'This is a good opportunity to get some of the best people in one place.'

Field events begin at 10:30 a.m., track events at 11. Team scores will not be kept.

Craig said that as of Thursday morning, 'We've gotten a little better response on the boys' side than the girls,' with about 35 schools showing interest.

'We've gotten entries from all corners — Spirit Lake, Bellevue, Central Decatur,' Craig said. 'We've got a good miler (Logan Peters) from South Hamilton. This will give him a shot to run against some competition he might not see otherwise before Drake.'

Three events (400-meter relay, 1,600 relay and distance medley relay) will have 32 entrants instead of 16.

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com