The Oakland High-School athletes have every reason to feel proud of the record they have made on track and field this year. The track team won both the autumn and the spring field days of the Academic Athletic League, and took eight points in the recent Pacific Coast Championships. They have showed themselves to be so strong an aggregation that they can only secure meetings with university teams. A set of dual games had been arranged between the O.H.-S. and the Berkeley High-School, but this fell through after Berkeley had been defeated by the Oakland athletes at the recent A.A.L. field meeting. Challenges have been sent to many high-schools and athletic clubs, but none of these have felt that they were strong enough to stand any chance for success against the Oaklanders, and all have adopted discretion as the better part of their valor.
This year's High-School team, however, is much stronger than any this school has ever turned out before, and it will probably be some time before any such a collection of athletes will be gathered again under the O.H.-S. colors. Three of the best men, Cheek, Jenks, and Dawson, go to college in the fall, and they will add materially to the strength of the University of California team. These three scored 24 out of the 42 points which O.H.-S. secured at the last field day. Cheek is by far the most versatile of the trio, and will undoubtedly be heard from in the near future. At present he holds four of his school's records--the running broad jump, 22 ft.; the running high jump, 5 ft. 8 in.; the 16-lb. shot, 41 ft. 8-1/2 in.; and the pole vault, 10 ft. 5-1/2 in. In addition to these events, he is a strong performer over the hurdles, and throws the hammer beyond the hundred-foot mark.
Jenks is Oakland's sprinter, and holds the school record in both the dashes. His figures are 10-4/5 sec. for the 100, and 24-3/5 sec. in the 220. He is a good quarter-miler besides, his best performance in that line being the winning of the handicap a year ago last April from the 20-yard mark in 52-3/5 sec., coming in ahead of some of the best quarter-milers on the Pacific coast. Dawson's specialty is hurdling. He holds the school record of 29 sec. for the low hurdles, and his best time for the high is 17-4/5 sec. He would doubtless have improved these figures this spring if he had not had the responsibility of captaining the team. It is much to be regretted that such scholastic athletic talent as this could not be present at the National games last Saturday; if they had, the results in many of the events would doubtless have been different; for I feel confident that with better tracks and a more eager competition they would be able to improve on their home figures.