Woodward Relays Timeline

April 1973 - Woodward High School launched the first Woodward Relays meet for outdoor track. Coach Greg Dunston later credited the Western Pennsylvania Relays as inspiration to start a relay track & field meet in Maryland (Niewiarowski, 1980).

September 1973 - Woodward High School launched the first Woodward Relays meet for cross country. Dunston later credited the Wabash Relays as inspiration to start a relay cross country meet in Maryland (Williams, 1978).

April 1974 - Woodward High School hosted the second Woodward Relays track meet with a new signature event. The meet boasted the only competitive offering of a steeplechase race at the high school level in the nation. The steeplechase course, complete with 3-foot barriers and a 12-foot-long, 8-inch-deep water pit, was built by volunteers with donated materials. (Walker, 1974)

April 1974 - Girls were recorded in the official track meet results for the first time as having competed in the 440 yard relay and sprint medley relay. This was after Title IX became public law in 1972, but before the MPSSAA hosted its first state championship meet for girls track & field in 1975.

April 1975 - It was a "source of pride" for Coach Dunston that 22 schools brought girls teams to compete in four relay events (Walker, 1975). 1975 was the first year that girls were eligible to compete for an MPSSAA state title in track & field.

April 1976 - The Woodward Relays introduced a co-ed relay to its spring meet format. Girls competed for a team title for the first time in the spring meet's history.

April 1977 - The "low" shuttle hurdle relay event was retired from the Woodward Relays. Girls field event relay was introduced.

September 1980 - The scoring format of the cross country Woodward Relays meet changed for the girls to match the boys. Three pairs of girls contributed to the team score. In the first six years, only two pairs of girls contributed to the team score.

April 1981 - The girls field event relay was retired from the spring Woodward Relays. Girls began to compete as pairs in the high jump relay, long jump relay, shot put relay, and discus relay (triple jump and pole vault relays would come later). Boys continued to compete as trios (three-scoring member relays).

April 1982 - The intermediate hurdle relay was introduced as a new event at the spring Woodward Relays.

April 1983 - Girls triple jump relay was introduced as a new event at the spring Woodward Relays.

June 1987 - Woodward High School closed.

September 1987 - The Woodward Relays was contested at Walter Johnson High School for the first time. The name of the meet was formalized to "Judge Charles W. Woodward Relays" according to the Montgomery Journal (Ritz, 1987).

April 1990 - The Woodward Relays was contested at Montgomery College, Rockville.

April 1991 - The Woodward Relays spring meet was contested at Richard Montgomery High School from 1991 to 1993.

April 1994 - The Woodward Relays spring meet returned to Walter Johnson High School.

April 2005 - Walter Johnson athletes and volunteers dug a water pit at Walter Johnson High School so the steeplechase could be contested with a water pit jump.

September 2007 - Coach Dunston retired from teaching and accepted the head track and cross country coach job at Georgetown Prep School. The Woodward Relays was contested at Georgetown Prep School for the first time.

April 2012 - The Woodward Relays celebrated its 40th anniversary.

April 2013 - The race walk event was incorporated into the spring Woodward Relays.

April 2014 - The Co-Ed relay event was removed from the spring Woodward Relays meet format.

April 2018 - The boys field event relays switched to a 2-athlete format. The 3-athlete field event relays were discontinued. Coach Dunston explained that as the meet expanded to more teams, field events were taking too long. Conscientious of the length of the meet, Dunston first experimented with limiting the attempts per athlete, i.e. long jumpers only got two attempts instead of three. That was met with some backlash, so field events were instead limited to two athletes per school to reduce the length of the meet.

April 2020 - The Woodward Relays was canceled for the first time due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The spring meet was canceled in 2020 and 2021. The fall meet was canceled in 2020, but an informal version of the Woodward Relays cross country meet was contested in the spring of 2021.

April 2021 - The old Woodward High School building was demolished (the building had been occupied by Tilden Middle School since the 90's). Plans were already in motion to re-build a new Woodward High School building on the same site.

September 2021 - The Woodward Relays cross country meet officially returned in the fall of 2021 after being canceled the prior year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 2022 - The Woodward Relays spring track meet returned after being canceled the previous two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new track with a water pit opened on the Georgetown Prep campus closer to route 355 while the old football stadium was reconstructed without a track.

September 2023 - The Woodward Relays celebrated the 50th running of its signature cross country relay meet. Just down the road from Georgetown Prep School, the frame of a new high school building was out of the ground on the site of the old Woodward High School campus.

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Niewiarowski, Donna. "With Events Like Steeplechase Woodward's No Ordinary Meet." Montgomery Journal, 18 April, 1980. p. A11.
Ritz, Marcie. "Former sports rivals learn to be partners." Montgomery Journal, 10 Sep. 1987, p. C1-C2.
Walker, Ben. "Steeplechase Comes to Woodward." Montgomery Journal, 18 Apr. 1974, p. B9.
Walker, Ben. "Gaithersburg Gains Own Relay Title...As Woodward Readies Its Relays, Steeplechase." Montgomery Journal, 17 Apr. 1975, p. B5.
Williams, Katy. "Annual Cross County Relays Today." Montgomery Journal, 22 September, 1978. p. C4.