January 16, 2019, Houston, TX  — The Northwest Flyers, a USA Track and Field (USATF) affiliate, kicks off the 2019 youth club track season by hosting its track meet on May 25 at Prairie View A&M University.  Sanctioned by USATF, the track meet is open to all youth between the ages of 6 and 18.  Track clubs, as well as unattached athletes, are welcomed; however, a USATF membership card is required to compete.  The entry fee is $8 for athletes and $7 for spectators.  The meet will offer all traditional track field events.  The running events will include hurdles, sprints, middle distance, and relays.  Field events such as long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, javelin, shot put and discus will also compete.

Meet director Tony Runnels commented, “Last year’s Flyers team qualified forty-four (44) athletes to the US Junior Olympics Sacramento, CA.  Although all those kids are back with us, Houston is loaded with track talent … it’s our first big test to advance our athletes to this year’s Junior Olympics in Lawrence, Kansas”.

The meet planners are expecting over 2500 athletes from the Gulf Coast region of Texas, from beginners to elite, including several youth track national record holders and Texas high school track meet standouts. Runnels added, “the Flyers meet is the largest regular season (pre-lim) youth track meet in the state, that’s why we had to move to a 10,000 seat facility to accommodate the growth”. The meet will be held on Saturday, May 25, 2019, at Prairie View A&M University, 700 University Drive, Prairie View, TX 77446.  Events start at 7:30 am on Saturday.

The Northwest Flyers Track Club is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization founded in 1987 by Fred Newhouse, a US Olympic gold medalist in track field.  The club which is one of the largest programs in the nation has approximately 300 members, boys, and girls, from ages 6 to 18.