When it comes to hosting track and field invitationals, Mars High School has it down to a art form.

That experience will be on display Wednesday through Friday when Mars hosts three invitationals in three days - the Midwestern Athletic Conference Meet on Wednesday, a junior high event the following day, then it will wrap up with the Mars Invitational Friday.

"There's a ton of work that goes into that," said Mars athletic director Scott Heinauer, who along with girls track coach Tim Tyler, serves as a meet director. "Three meets, all pretty big, all in a row.

"Once everything is set up, then the tents go up and we don't have to keep taking them down and putting them back up.

"Fortunately we have the same people helping and they all know what to do," Heinauer added.

The MAC Invitational, which begin at 2 p.m. Thursday, is made up primarily of Class AA and smaller Class AAA schools in the Beaver and Lawrence counties.

There will be 24 boys teams and 26 girls teams this year.

"We don't host this meet all the time, but teams like coming here. It's a big meet for us," said Heinauer.

On Thursday, it's time for the junior high teams to take part. The meet, which used to be held on Saturdays, will boast 18 boys and 18 girls teams this year and will begin at 3 p.m.

"(Mars girls coach) Tim Tyler and I talked and it was probably best to move it," said Heinauer. "Kids go away on Saturday and do other sports. We had as many as 20 teams at one time, then it dwindled off.

"We thought we'd get more in the middle of the week. Instead of running it at 10 in the morning, this seemed like a better fit," he added.

Those two events are the lead-ins to the school's signature meet, the Mars Invitational.

Set to begin at 2 p.m., one of the area's oldest invitationals has attracted 40 boys and 40 girls teams.

The school has boys records dating back to 1966 and girls records to 1974, although the boys meet could go back even further.

"(Former Mars coach) Clem Papik ran it a long time, then it had a one or two-year hiatus, then it was picked up again" said Heinauer.

Seneca Valley has competed in the event for years and is about the only large school that comes here.

"They've been here since the beginning," said Heinauer. "Nothing against North Allegheny and Butler, but they probably do want to win and those smaller schools will dwindle away and we don't want that."

The meet has expanded in past years, adding teams from Erie and Johnstown. At team from West Virginia also will compete this year.

"We'll gladly take as many people that want to come, within reason," said Heinauer. "The MAC is limited since it's more of a conference meet, but the other two, we'll take them."

Everything comes together to make the meets run as smooth as possible.

"The Finish Line Club (the school's track boosters) runs the awards tent and the concession stands have to know how much food to have," Heinauer added.

"We try to run pretty good invitationals. We get a lot of help from a lot of people. It gets difficult if not for all the pieces of the puzzle," he added.

The school uses a computer system for the program in ranking individuals but still uses the old reliable human component when it comes to results.

"We try to do it the right way," said Heinauer. "If we use a computer system, I'm a little leery because any glitches in the system and these kids and coaches sit around.

"A hard copy with writing, I think there are less mistakes that way," Heinauer added.

Heinauer also doesn't believe in placing a time frame on each event.

"You want to make sure the track isn't idle," said Heinauer. "That just pushes everything back. As a spectator, you don't like to put a time on things. No times, just a (meet) start time. It's difficult to wait. If you say 7:30 p.m., then you have to wait."

Heinauer plans for all three of the meets to wrap up early in the evening, the MAC and junior high meets at 8:30 p.m. and the Mars Invitational more like 9:30.

"All of the meets are pretty close. There's a lot of competition and a lot going on," said Heinauer.

"It's a big undertaking, but if you did it on three straight Fridays, it would be a lot tougher," Heinauer added. "That's why we do it three days in a row."