The Complete Meet Guide to Track & Field Awards

Planning a track meet involves countless details, timing systems, field event equipment, volunteer coordination, and of course, the awards that athletes will cherish long after the final results are posted. At Hodges Badge Company, our family has been perfecting the art of recognition for over a century, with multiple generations working side-by-side to ensure every ribbon, rosette, medal, plaque and trophy meets the highest standards. When you organize a track meet, you're creating memories. We make sure those memories shine.

Understanding What Your Athletes Actually Need

After working with meet directors across the country for decades, we've learned that track and field awards aren't one-size-fits-all. A youth all-comers meet has completely different needs than a state championship, and recognizing those differences is what separates a good meet from a great one.

The Youth and Middle School Approach: Everyone Deserves Recognition

If you're organizing a meet for younger athletes (ages 6-14), participation is king. These athletes are building confidence and discovering their abilities. Here's what works:

Ribbons remain your best friend. They're colorful, affordable, and kids love collecting them. Most youth meets award ribbons through 6th or 8th place, following the traditional color scheme that's been standard for generations:

• Blue for 1st
• Red for 2nd
• White for 3rd
• Yellow for 4th
• Pink for 5th
• Green for 6th

But here's the secret that experienced meet directors know participant ribbons are just as important as place ribbons. Every child who toes the starting line deserves to go home with something. Our team has watched countless young athletes beam with pride over a simple "Participant" ribbon, sometimes they treasure it even more than their place ribbons because it says "I showed up. I competed. I was brave."

High School Meets: Balancing Competition and Budget

High school invitationals present a unique challenge. You need to recognize excellence while managing costs across 18-25 events. After decades of working with high school athletic directors, here's what we recommend:

For regular season invitationals, ribbons through 8th place give you the best value and coverage. A typical 20-event meet needs approximately 1,280 ribbons (plus extras for relays), and our volume pricing makes this affordable even for schools with tight budgets.

For conference championships and larger invitationals, consider a hybrid approach: medals or rosettes for your top 3 finishers and ribbons for 4th through 8th place. This gives your podium athletes something substantial to display while still recognizing depth of competition.

State championships deserve premium treatment. Medals through 8th place have become the standard, and athletes expect quality that matches the significance of the achievement. Our custom satin neck ribbons ensure each medal tells the complete story: the meet, the event, the place, and the year.

College and Masters Competitions: Quality Over Quantity

College meets typically focus on deeper competition with fewer participants. Medals for 1st through 6th or 8th place work well, and custom designs with conference logos add prestige.

Masters meets present an interesting challenge: with age groups in 5-year increments (30-34, 35-39, 40-44, and so on), a single event can require 30-40 awards. Our customer service team specializes in helping meets calculate awards needs and manage these high-volume orders efficiently. The athletes in these age groups deeply appreciate quality recognition, many are competing for personal achievement rather than scholarships or records, and the awards mean everything.

The Details That Matter (Because We Sweat Them So You Don't Have To)

In our over a century of operation, we've identified the perfect ordering window: 3 months before your meet date. This gives you time to:

• Get accurate athlete counts
• Review custom designs
• Receive samples if needed
• Make adjustments without stress

Meet directors who wait until 4 weeks before the meet often find themselves paying express shipping fees or settling for stock designs and stressed out. But not with Hodges, we have you covered as most products are manufactured 9-12 working days after we receive your approval to begin production. Large and more complex orders will require more production time. Production time is longer during the months of May through July. However, our production team can absolutely accommodate rush orders, we understand emergencies happen, but planning ahead saves you money and stress.

Custom vs. Stock: Making the Right Choice

Stock awards ship fast and cost less. They're perfect for regular season meets where budget matters and you need reliable, quality ribbon products quickly.

Custom awards create lasting memories. When a medal features your meet name, logo, and date, it becomes a keepsake rather than just another medal in a drawer. For invitationals that athletes travel to, for conference championships, and especially for any meet celebrating a milestone year, custom design is worth the investment. Our in-house design team (yes, actual people, not just software) works with you to create something special. With multiple generations of our family working in the business, we've developed an eye for designs that look professional without being generic. We know what works because we've literally seen it all.

How Many Do You Actually Need?

Here's the formula we share with every new meet director:

Basic calculation: (Number of places you're awarding) × (Number of events) = Base quantity

Then add:

• 15-20% extra for relay teams (each team member gets an award)
• 10% buffer for administrative awards, re-runs, or mistakes
• All your participant ribbons (if applicable)

For a typical high school invitational:

• 20 events × 8 places = 160 ribbons per place
• Add 20% for relays = 192 ribbons per place
• 8 places = 1,536 total ribbons
• Plus participant ribbons for all athletes

Seems like a lot? That's why our team helps you break it down by event and provides detailed orders that make sense. We want you to order exactly what you need, not more, not less. Below are a few guidelines we have developed over the decades that reflect how track meets actually work:

The Invitational

Perfect for high school meets with 300-500 athletes:

• Ribbons 1st-8th place in all traditional colors
• Participant ribbons
• Custom printing with your meet name and date
• We offer volume pricing that saves you significant money
• Everything ships together, ready to distribute

The Championship

For meets where excellence deserves recognition:

• Gold, silver, and bronze medals for 1st-3rd place
• Ribbons 4th-8th place
• Custom satin neck ribbon attached to custom medal
• Optional team trophies
• This section offers a premium presentation that athletes remember

The Masters

Designed specifically for age-group competitions:

• Spin cast or custom insert medals
• Ribbons printed and packaging by age group
• Quick turnaround because we know you're ordering for many divisions

Why Hodges Badge Company After All These Years?

We could tell you we're the best but let our work speak for itself. Our family business has been operating for over a century not because we're good at marketing, but because meet directors come back year after year. They come back because:

We understand track and field. This isn't just another product category for us. We know the difference between a heat winner ribbon and a finals placement. We understand why masters meets need different solutions than youth meets. We've walked through enough tracks to know what matters.

We're actually here. Our operation employs many dedicated team members, many of whom have been with our family for decades. When you call, you talk to people who know your account, remember your meets, and can pull up your previous orders instantly. We're not a faceless website, we're a team of people who care about getting this right.

Quality isn't negotiable. Our ribbons don't fade after one season in a trophy case. Our medals have weight and substance. Our printing is crisp and clear. We've built our reputation on products that last because we know these awards represent someone's achievement, someone's personal best, someone's breakthrough moment.

We move fast when you need us to. Despite our best advice about planning ahead, we know life happens. Meets get added to the calendar. Athlete counts double. Weather forces reschedules. Our team can mobilize quickly, and we've saved more than a few meet directors with express production and shipping while not breaking the bank.

The Conversation We Hope to Have With You

We know you're busy. Between securing officials, managing entries, coordinating volunteers, and handling a thousand other details, awards might feel like just another item on an overwhelming checklist.

But here's what we've learned over decades in this business: the awards are what athletes take home. The ribbons end up on bedroom walls. The medals get displayed at graduation parties. Years later, alumni come back to their schools and point to the trophy case, finding their names and remembering that day they ran their personal best.

That's why we do this work. That's why our family has dedicated generations to getting it right.

Let us help make your meet memorable. Whether you're organizing your first all-comers meet or your 30th annual invitational, we'll work with you to select the right awards, calculate the correct quantities, meet your budget, and deliver everything on time.

Visit us at www.hodgesbadge.com to explore our complete track and field collection, place an order, or simply call us to talk through your needs. No automated systems, no runaround, just real people who want to help your meet succeed.

Because at the end of the day, we're not just making awards. We're honoring achievement, one ribbon, one rosette, and one medal at a time.

Ready to plan your meet awards? Contact Hodges Badge Company today with decades of experience and a family dedicated to excellence, we'll help you create a meet that athletes remember for all the right reasons.