There are just 10 Ohio Valley Athletic Conference champions left to be crowned during the 2011-12 school year.
The road to those titles begins tonight both at Red Devil Stadium in St. Clairsville and Fleming Field in Shadyside.
The annual Cal Giffin OVAC Track and Field Championships get under way with the Class 1A schools making their familiar trek to Shadyside and the 3A and 5A schools heading to Red Devil Stadium for the first time.
Those three divisions will wrap up their qualifying on Wednesday.
The 2A and 4A schools begin their meet on Tuesday with qualifying concluding on Thursday afternoon.
Once the top three finishers in all 18 events are settled during the week, all 15 competitors or teams will return to Red Devil Stadium for the OVAC Championship Meet on Saturday.
The meet begins for both divisions with field events at 4 p.m. and the running action gets under way at 5 p.m.
This marks the third time the OVAC has brought its top qualifiers from each class together on Saturday for a true OVAC Championship Meet. The first two years were held at Meadowbrook High School.
All of the scoring for the team titles is done on Saturday. All 15 competitors will score a point for their teams. However, only the top eight overall will receive an award, but the individual class champion will receive a special award.
For example, an athlete can finish 13th overall, but if he or she is the top finisher in his respective the respective class, he or she will receive an award as class champion.
Under the current system, the athletes will run their respective races just once and the top three times in short sprints and hurdles - regardless of heat - will advance. The top three finishers in distance races and relays will qualify to the championship run. The top three marks in the field events will also qualify.
The running events ticketed for the first day of competition are as follows: 4x800, high hurdles, 100M, 4x200, 3200M and 400. The field events, which will consist of four throws, will feature boys' discus, girls' high jump, boys' long jump, girls' shot put and both boys and girls' pole vault.
The remaining running and field events will qualify on the second day of competition.
Schools not competing in the OVAC meet this year include: Wellsville, Fort Frye, Tyler Consolidated, East Liverpool and Frontier.
