After a successful hosting experience last year, the Inter-Ac Track Championship returned to Malvern for the second straight time.

This May, Malvern hosted the Inter-Ac Track Championship and left with a disappointed defeat.

“You have to make sure you have a facility that is capable of even hosting the meet,” said Head Coach Mike Koenig. “For example, Haverford does not have a correctly sized track, so they can’t host the meet,”

With the addition of the new track and and football field made a few years ago, Malvern’s track was now correctly sized.

“We couldn’t [host] for a number of years until we built our track,” said Koenig.

The Inter-Ac selects the hosting school by first checking to make sure you have a field capable of holding an event this large. Then, the schools that qualify simply rotate venues. Each spot hosting for two years, then moving on to the next location.

“Last year, I believe was the first time Malvern ever hosted in the history of the league.”

Hosting an event at your own school resembles the idea of having a home game. There are numerous benefits that runners are able to have based on the location of the event.

“There is certainly a comfort level for the athletes. There is a familiarity with the field event guys. Like the shot put guys for example, they could get distracted by something in the background at another school. Also, it saves us from a long bus ride.”

Most importantly though, with hosting, Malvern is capable of using their own equipment, which the team is already familiar with.

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After two solid years of hosting the track championship for the Inter-Ac, we hope to see it again in the future, with a victory to boot.