But interest was drawn from the prolonged struggle there to the track. At the beginning of the straightaway they were gathering the contestants in the final of the two-hundred-and-twenty-yards-dash, the last of the track events. Clearfield and Springdale had each placed three men in the trials. For Clearfield these were Perry Hull, Kirke and Soper; for Springdale, Knight, Lawrence and Gedge. The trials had been done in twenty-four and three-fifths and twenty-four and four-fifths, rather slow time, but the final promised to show faster performances. It was figured that if Captain Felker could win five points in the pole-vault and the Purple's sprinters could capture first and second places in the two-twenty, Clearfield might after all squeeze out a victory, for Partridge was counted on to have a very good chance to get the best there was in the hammer-throw, which had been going on for some time in the field across the way. But it was necessary to get eight points in the sprint, as it was reckoned, and there were few who dared hope for such a result. Kirke, it was generally conceded, might possibly win first place, but there were two good runners in the Springdale trio who would certainly make a showing.
Perry drew the fourth lane, with Lawrence of
Springdale on his left and Orson Kirke on his
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