Retired educator Jay Rydell has been the meet director for all 20 years EWU has hosted.
When another site fell through just months before the 1996 state 1A, 1B and 2B track and field championships were to be held, a group from Eastern Washington University stepped up and rescued the event.
That was in 1996 and EWU has been home to this event that features schools from the state's smallest classifications ever since and in 2016 mark the 20th year in Cheney.
This year's event takes place May 26-28, and will also be 20 years under the direction of meet manager Jay Rydell, who retired from the Central Valley School District in 1997 as a coach and administrator.
A small core of meet officials have been a part of all 20 of the previous state meets in Cheney. They include starter Russ Brantner, head umpire Dale Jones, javelin head judge Ruth Van Kuren and high jump head judge Jun Yagawa have all been a part of each meet, with EWU sports information director Dave Cook serving as entries/results coordinator. All will assist again in 2016.
Photographer Ron Swords would have also been in that 20-year club, but was unable to assist in 2015 while recovering from a leg injury. He will be back again in 2016.
Lawson Van Kuren helped plan and organize 20 championships as facilities coordinator for the meet, but he passed away on June 26, 2015, after a bout with cancer. He and his wife, Ruth, worked tirelessly for 30 years assisting the women's and men's track and field programs at Eastern, and many, many more in the Inland Northwest and beyond on the youth level.
After many, many years of successful meets in Wenatchee and Yakima, Eastern and Cheney have given the event stability and a first-class facility, first at Woodward Field and since 2011 at Roos Field.
At the time the meet moved to Cheney, John Miller, then a school administrator and now a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) official, along with then EWU track and field coach Jerry Martin, long-time EWU public address announcer Dan Birdsell and Cook were the key figures in rescuing the meet with very little advance notice.
And despite overflowing porta-potties, lengthy concessions lines and a myriad of other first-time difficulties, the glitches have ben fixed and the Cheney-EWU community has bustled with visitors every Memorial Day weekend since.
Another constant at the meet has been the Friese family of Willapa Valley High School and the tradition of great pole vaulters that school has produced. Rob Friese played football at Eastern, then returned to Willapa Valley to coach and is now superintendent in the District.
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