Jesse Owens Recreation Centers North and South have extended their hours in an attempt to meet the increase fitness demands of Ohio State students, faculty, staff and alumni.

“Last year was the first time in the history of OSU that more people used Jesse Owens North, South and West than Larkins,” said Bruce Maurer, associate director of recreational and intramural sports.

Jesse Owens North and South are open until 2 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays, two hours later than last year. They also open at noon on Sundays instead of 3 p.m. The facilities are open until 10 p.m. on Fridays – an hour increase – and Jesse Owens South is open until 10 p.m. on Saturdays. It closed at 7 p.m. last year. Jesse Owens North will be closed on Saturdays because of Ohio State football games.

Jesse Owens West is a tennis-only facility and hasn’t extended its hours.

Participation at the three Jesse Owens facilities has nearly doubled since the 2000-2001 academic year when 395,000 people patronized its facilities. In 2001-2002, the number jumped to 556,000 and in 2002-2003, it reached 702,000.

Through September over 1,000 people had taken advantage of the additional late-night hours.

“We increased the hours because between 9 and 10 p.m., students had a 40 to 45 minute wait for cardio equipment,” Maurer said.

The change comes as an effort to defer some of the crowds to later hours, lessening the wait-time for equipment.

“The change has reduced some waits but there will always be peak times,” said Darla Heuschel, a graduate administrative associate in the Department of Recreational Sports.

Fitness equipment was installed at Jesse Owens North two years ago out of necessity. Jesse Owens South’s weight lifting space was also increased from about 750 square feet to 4,000. The amount of cardio equipment has more than doubled as well.

Additional recreational sports staff was hired to cover the late-night hours but the staffers prefer to work the night shift over the midday hours, Heuschel said.

“I’m a night person so I’m very pleased that I can come in after midnight and get my workout in without having to wait on equipment,” said Kevin Pore, a sophomore in business. “I hope enough students take advantage of the late hours but not so many that it gets overly crowded like it is earlier in the day.”

Changes are likely to stay, but evaluations of the changes are still under way.

“In November we’re going to look at the head counts and facilities and decide if we will keep it open and maybe extend it to 24 hours in the future,” Heuschel said. “It looks like we’ll keep it open.”