On an average day in early fall, senior varsity track and field athlete Andie Garrett was scrolling on Instagram when an alarming post took her by surprise.
In September, KU Director of Athletics Travis Goff confirmed to Lawrence-Journal World that the 2026 KU Relays would be cancelled as a cost-saving measure by Kansas Athletics. The news was quickly circulated across social media platforms.
“I saw online, like ‘oh my gosh, there’s no more KU Relays’, which is very sad for everyone in the track community,” Garrett said.
According to Goff, the cancellation is part of a broader effort to cut costs. Due to the “House v. NCAA” settlement, leading schools to pay athletes directly for the first time, KU must adapt to new revenue-sharing requirements and other financial implications.
“You could almost view it as, keep the Relays, but we’d have to find additional cuts in track and field to justify (that),” Goff said. “And where we kind of netted out on that was we don’t want to pull back in other areas of investment in track and field just to keep and salvage the Relays.”
KU Relays is a 102-year-old multi-day track and field competition started by KU football coach John H. Outland and track and field coach Karl Schlademan in 1923, featuring a wide range of competitors from the high school to professional level. Estimated gross expenses for the event are around $350,000, and its cancellation is expected to remove this cost from the budget.
The KU Relays cancellation is the latest in a series of athletic department cuts, with the KU-sponsored Rim Rock Farms Cross Country Invitational being managed by LHS and Free State this year, and the absence of a performing artist for Late Night at the Phog.
Senior track and field athlete Tyler Dye, who competed at KU Relays last season in the triple jump and javelin, noted his teammates’ negative reactions to the KU Relays being called off.
“Everybody hates it,” Dye said. “Everybody who has been there, or even people who were going to go this year that didn’t make it last year, hate the idea that it’s not going to be there.”
For head track and field Coach Audrey Trowbridge, the meet cancellation leaves a hole in the varsity season schedule, prompting coaches in Kansas and beyond to adjust competition plans.
“It’s kind of been a scramble to figure out what you’re gonna do to replace such a huge meet and such a great opportunity for kids,” Trowbridge said.
Beyond this year, Trowbridge voiced concerns about whether KU Relays could ever return to the same scale on the high school level.
“As you problem solve things, I think then KU has a hard time getting us all back,” Trowbridge said. “Lawrence kids probably would come back easier than some of the other schools, but as of now, I don’t know what their plans are.”
Instead of KU Relays, Trowbridge and other coaches are exploring bringing athletes to Drake Relays, an annual outdoor track meet held in Des Moines, Iowa, but an official trip has not been confirmed.
“I’m in communications with somebody open to the idea of doing a test pilot of bringing one high school to compete, so from out of the state, so we’ll see,” Trowbridge said.
Dye is interested in Drake Relays, but hesitant about the travel logistics.
“The competition would be a lot crazier and be a lot more fun, but it’s much more of a drive, and it’s based on the amount of people that we could qualify, whether it’s worth it or not,” Dye said.
For her last track and field season, Garrett will miss creating more memories at KU Relays, which was one of her personal favorite meets.
“My relay is usually one of the first, so we get to watch the sunrise,” Garrett said. “It’s usually just us four girls. It’s a special moment before all the crowds get there.”
The energizing competition and centrality of the javelin runway made KU Relays special for Dye.
“I think my favorite part was the atmosphere. It was definitely the biggest community here besides State,” Dye said. “Any other place we competed at, the javelin area is always out of the way, so it’s different to have actual people watching because that’s not something you see very much.”
Looking to the future, Goff hopes to see KU Relays return, but official plans have not been publicly released.
“This isn’t ‘never again,” Goff said. “This is just, ‘We don’t yet know how to best manage the Relays going forward.’ And so for the betterment of the big picture, we’ve at least had to make a short-term decision.”
For the LHS Track and Field season, Trowbridge plans to expand Little KU, a home meet for varsity and JV athletes who did not qualify for Relays, to include all team members.
“We’re trying to make it cool and trying to make it special for all of our kids,” Trowbridge said. “Now they’ll get to compete on their home track and home field, and I think that would be fun.”
Overall, Garrett expresses her disappointment that newer track and field athletes will not be able to gain KU Relays experience.
“It’s a pretty long-time tradition, so it’s very sad, not just for me because I won’t have another one, but for people to come and people before me who’ve all run there and experienced it,” Garrett said.
