After this past week, there is no doubt that Spring is here and, as is customary, Summer is on its way. One of the major signs of the season in Tiffin is the annual Bill Krause Memorial Relays … a contest which pits some very good high school track and field teams against each other.

The Krause Relays this year will take place next Saturday, April 27th. Fifteen boys’ teams and 15 girls’ teams have agreed to come.

According to Meet Director Steve Anway, most of the schools involved will send both boys’ and girls’ teams.  Columbian, of course, will be there. The others include Anthony Wayne, Dublin Coffman, Dublin Scioto, Elida, Findlay, Fremont Ross, Gahnna Lincoln, Hilliard Davidson, Oregon Clay, Sandusky, Sandusky Perkins, Toledo Central Catholic and Worthington Kilbourne.

Notre Dame Academy in Toledo is a girls-only school, and obviously will send only a girls’ team. Toledo St. Francis, conversely, is a boys-only  school and will send only a boys’ team.

Clay and Scioto are new to the Krause Relays this year.

The preliminary events, qualifiers and such, will get started about 9:00 AM next Saturday. There will be a lunch break and the finals get underway at noon.

There will be a lunch stand

If you’re not familiar with the relay format, rest assured that it is not just a series of relay races, although there are some of those and they are my favorites…action packed.

There also will be field events, like long jump, high jump, discus and shotput. In those, the distances achieved by the top three competitors from each school are added. Those totals are used to rank the finish of each school in that event.

The top two teams in each gender will win championship and runnerup trophies. Individual performers also will get plaques.

There is a hitch in the proceedings this year. Traditionally, the Relays have been held at Tiffin Stadium. However, this year, the all-weather track at the stadium is not in good enough condition to be used.

As a result, the 2002 Krause Relays will be held at Heidelberg College’s Mayer Field. That’s between Hedges and Main Streets. They have been held there a couple of times in the past and it’s a good facility, plenty of seating and visibility.

Hope the weather holds.

For those of you who, like me, would like to see a woman be successful in racing, there still is hope.

Sarah Fisher, who drove for Walker Racing last season, has been without a ride this year, since WR could not find the money to field her car. A couple of weeks ago, Fisher asked to be released from her contract with Walker because some other teams were interested in her who could field a car for her.

She got her wish and this week was hired to replace Robbie Buhl in the Number 24. The machine has the dauntingly commercial name of Purex/Aventis Dreyer & Reinbold Racing GForce/Infiniti.

To translate, Purex/Aventis is the major sponsor, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is the team, GForce is the chassis and Infiniti is the engine.

Buhl was injured trying to qualify for the IRL race in Fontana four weeks ago and seems to have recovered but still gets dizzy spells.

The 22 year old Fisher, who is from central Ohio, will be in the car for the next IRL race at Nazareth, PA. It is the first time she has driven a GForce chassis or an Infiniti engine.

There has been no announcement of the team putting Fisher in the car for the Indianapolis 500, but they do have a second car entered which doesn’t have a driver yet.