Why do coaches and athletes love the Eastern Relays?

Why exceptional athletes & teams love Eastern Relays...For many teams and athletes who are the best in their local community, region, or state it can be a challenge to find great competition to push them to be their best. Those exceptional teams and athletes love Eastern Relays because every year there are national class competitors and many of the best teams from OH, TN, IN, IL, MO, WV, and KY.The great competition at Eastern Relays prepares these athletes and teams for the intense competition they will face at state and national championship meets!

Why really deep teams love Eastern Relays...

The qualifying system for Eastern Relays allows exceptionally deep teams (including NXN qualifying cross country programs) to race LOTS of their athletes. For some of the deepest and best teams in the area weekly invitationals often limit teams 2 runners per event and All-comers style meets dont offer high-caliber competition. The Eastern Relays allows teams to enter ALL athletes who meet the qualifying mark and ALL may score. Great runners should not be punished for having great teammates!

National Class Races, Close(r) to Home:

Many of the nations best track meets happen on the coasts. Eastern Relays prides itself on being one of the best meets in the middle of the country. Year in and year out the states surrounding Kentucky produce some of the best athletes in the country (despite variable weather and the seasonal challenges we all face).Some athletes are able to hop on a plane to race in California or elsewhere, but for most teams and athletes the cost (or sanctioning) prevents that.Eastern Relays is within a 5 hour drive of Chicago, Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, and lots of other areas with great runners in between. These areas are talent hotbeds as evidenced by results at Foot Locker and Nike Cross in the fall, as well as all the national track meets in the winter, spring, and summer! Save money on a plane ticket and drive to the ville!

Entry Standards

All entries must be submitted electronically using the entry portal at http://easternrelays.milesplit.com. It is important that valid results for your team are included on the milesplit database. If any of your meets are not included in the milesplit database please send digital results to your state's milesplit editor or kymilesplit@gmail.com. Teams may enter all athletes who meet the entry marks, and all may score. Note, qualifying marks will not be accepted from meets that do not produce digital results.

Coaches may enter any athletes who have a verifiable PR (lifetime best indoor or outdoor) in the milesplit database that meets the qualifying standard. Those not meeting the mark will not be allowed to compete in the invitational events. Open running events are designed for varsity or high level JV athletes who did not meet our invitational entry standards. Open field events do have an entry standard. All participating teams may enter 1 relay in each Saturday relay event. We may limit entries in the Friday relays to 1 or 2 sections if the schedule dictates, and selections will be based on legitimate relay seed times and/or open PRs for medley races. Final decisions are at the discretion of meet management and will be determined after the entry period is closed.

Schedule of Events - Entry Standards

Payment Form

Entry FAQs

Enter online: http://easternrelays.milesplit.com

Registration help: http://il.milesplit.com/pages/Online_Meet_Reg_Instructions

Open Running Events vs. Open Field

Our open events are designed for varsity or high level JV athletes who did not meet our invitational entry standards. These races are very competitive and yield excellent performances.

All open field events (Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Put, and Discus) take place at UofL's Cardinal Park on Friday and require meeting qualification marks.

Friday's Open running events (100m & Mile) are at UofL's Cardinal Park Track and teams are limited to 3 entries per event in those races. The Open Mile is listed in the entry page as 1600m but will be a Mile.

Saturday's Open Running Events (400m, 800m, 3200m) are contested around the corner at the DuPont Manual High School Track.  Travel west on Brandeis Ave./Cardinal Blvd. under the viaduct and turn right on 1st Street until you see the track on your right.  Check in will be at the infield shed.

Athletes Not Seeding Correctly

All entries should be based on lifetime best marks including both indoor and outdoor performances.  If you are having trouble please begin by emailing your state's milesplit editor.  If you have any persistent issues that your state editor cannot resolve, please use this google form and provide evidence/results for re-seeds: https://forms.gle/AAxUnLBgPFaeQnus5

Friday Night Medley Relays- Seeding

We love our DMR and both SMR events on Friday night but the seeding can be tricky since many teams do not race it before Eastern Relays. Remember, we plan to limit the DMR to 1 section per gender so seed times don't matter too much, but please be thoughtful in the quality of teams you are entering.

For the SMR, after entries close and the performance list comes out, if you think your SMR is seeded in the wrong section please email with evidence that your team should be upgraded.  We plan to limit the field in the SMR Relays to 18 teams (2 sections).  If we have more than 18 teams entered we will review the resumes of entered teams on milesplit to select the field.

To give evidence of your schools Medley Relay Potential / Seed use the google form: https://forms.gle/AAxUnLBgPFaeQnus5

Traditional Relays

Every school with a team entered in the meet may race in all of the Saturday Relays. There is no required qualifying time.Please include all relay legs and alternates in the entries.

General Registration Reminder

Please make every effort to get entries in sooner rather than later.The deadline is Midnight on Sunday but getting things in earlier will allow any questions on the entry process to be answered in a timely fashion.

We do not expect to add entries after the deadline as our field will be quite large.

Please look to meet information links on http://easternrelays.milesplit.com before emailing a question. We will have well over 100 teams participating in the meet.

Sanctioning:

We typically proactively complete the sanctioning process for IN, OH, IL, MO, WV, and TN. Any schools from additional states wishing to participate should communicate early so you can also be included. The sanctioning rules from our neighbors in Indiana have been relaxed and the meet can welcome athletes from around the country. If clarification is required please email michael.horan@jefferson.kyschools.us. 

As of 4/12 we have requested and been granted sanction from IL, IN, KY, OH, TN, WV.  We have not recived feedback from GA, MO, NC.  VA has denied our request due to our inclusion of Homeschool Teams approved to compete.

Awards:

Awards for First, Second, and Third Overall Team. Awards for the top 8 finishers in each individual event.Awards for the top 3 relays in each relay event.

Scoring: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for all events Entry deadline:Online entries should be received by Sunday April 14th, 2024. Any entries accepted after the deadline will be charged an additional $25 fee and may not be accepted at all. All athletes (including relay legs) are assigned a unique competitor number. There will be a $10 fee for athletes that lose their bib numbers or that are not included in the entries and need to be assigned a competitor number/bib on meet weekend. Teams and athletes competing on both Friday and Saturday will need their bib for both days.Dupont Manual High School's track is one city block from Cardinal Park and they have volunteered to include non-scoring, no award events for athletes who did not qualify for the invitational portion of the meet. The events are 3200m, 400m, and 800m. These events, along with Fridays open events (100m, Mile) will provide an opportunity for non-qualifiers, relay legs, etc. to be a part of the meet. Entry in these events is $10 per athlete with a maximum per team/gender of $100. These events will be FAT. Please only enter athletes who intend to compete in these races.

Rainy Weather

If all we encounter is rain most of our events should be able to proceed as normal. As long as the weather is not severe all of our running events will proceed.  Each field event official will make a judgement call on whether the event is safe to continue.  Of course, pole vault is the event that could be most impacted by the weather. We are exploring options to ensure that all athletes are safe.  If weather demands we may try to contest all pole vault (open and invite) on Saturday but that will require some additional officiating staff.

Reminder, no tents on campus other unless placed by University of Louisville.  This is a university policy.  Teams may find space in the parking garage, the nearby Student Activities Center, or in the picnic area near the softball field for cover in hard rain.

Stormy Weather

We  will follow all KHSAA and University of Louisville guidelines on stormy weather.  If there are storms in the area viewed either by officials or by the University weather monitoring system we will delay by 30 minutes any competition.  If necessary we will communicate using http://easternrelays.milesplit.com, the email addresses of coaches, and the stadium PA system.

Evacuation Options- Most athletes, coaches, and spectators will be asked to evacuate to their vehicles in the parking garage.  A secondary location, if needed is the Swain Student Activities Center across from the stadium next door to the parking garage.

University Evacuation Diagrams

Clerking (and not declarations)

Coaches, be aware we are simplifying our clerking procedure so it is a one step process.  All athletes need to do is report to our clerks when called to do so, typically 20 minutes before their scheduled race time.

Clerking will take place under the large scoreboard near the 300m start line.  This is different from recent years where we have used the declaration process for clerking.

Bus Drop-off / Parking

The primary parking location for guests not using buses is the parking garage across from the track.  That is $5 cash only pay lot.

Buses will park in a different location on Friday and Saturday because UofL is hosting the spring football game.  See the diagram below.

Diagram of parking for buses

That diagram also illustrates where buses can unload. There is room for about 2 buses at a time to unload near the softball field.  Otherwise buses cannot unload along the road and block traffic.  Be patient and give time to arrive and unload.

We are very excited for what should be one of the best meets in the country!

Media and Live Streaming

There is a link to a Live Stream of the meet on http://easternrelays.milesplit.com and we will have content all weekend long on @EasternRelays on Intagram and Twitter.

Ticketing

All school coaches will be given a coaches band at packet pick-up.  This will count for admission on Friday and Saturday and will give you access to our hospitality area (near packet pickup).  Generally, the track area is closed to coaches during the meet.

Athletes will be admitted all weekend with their bib numbers.

Spectators are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance, especially if it is wet.  We will use GoFan ticketing and will also have cash ticketing available.

Virtual GoFan Ticketing Friday - Virtual GoFan Ticketing Saturday

See the full results from 2023 here: https://ky.milesplit.com/meets/507446-eastern-relays-2023/results 

Meet Records are listed here: 

All-Americans, Future Pros, and Olympians are on our records board!

Men's Meet Records | Women's Meet Records

Unified Team Shout Out

Eastern Relays has long included Special Olympics Unified Events to encourage inclusion!  2022 was a special year for Unified Track and Field at Eastern Relays.  We presented Unified Team Awards for the first time and also had our first out of state Unified Team join us from Bartlett, TN.  We love to encourage more participation and celebration of all athletes Unified together through Sport.