track and field... put 'em all back together

[lazarus]

each year, after the T&F champs, i play a little game.

i take all the results and score it as if there had a combined meet.

in most sports, the key to winning championships is numbers of athletes.

track and field is a different animal.

big meets (the real big meets) are won by excellence, not numbers.

of course, if you arent a T&F guy the big meet probably makes no sense,

but there is an excitement watching the big meets unfold.

how many qualifiers do the contending teams have.

what events are they in.

who has certain points,

who will pop up and pull an upset.

who will choke when they are needed most.

what events do contenders match up athletes head to head.

and on top of the individual events, there are the relays.

from a coaching standpoint, how do you place your athletes to maximize your score...

or to take points from another contender.

 

yet, no one is held down by their team.

in T&F a single good athlete can make it all the way to an individual state title,

no matter what sort of team the school fields.

 

busting up the championships in T&F waters down the competition in the worst way.

mediocre teams with big numbers can win titles.

the truly great teams seldom figure in the competition.

because doing what it takes to be great in T&F (where the currency of success is pain) will not give you big numbers.

 

on top of that, busting up the championships is to the detriment of many competitors (especially on the mens side) with college potential.

unless someone knowledgable steers them that way, the small school athlete will never see the competition to log times (distances) to catch people's eye.

 

below are the women's scores in laz's combined T&F championship.

one thing i was forced to do, since my source didnt show the actual sequence of competition, was treat all clearances of the same height as ties, except where someone had already lost on jumps in the split meet. (then i treated all those as equal).

it is also obvious that some competitors would have performed better with competition. since that would aid the small schools in a real state championship, it would improve, not harm the small school results.

 

girls real state championships (along with their results in the split champs):

 

SCHOOL........POINTS........PLACE-CLASS

Knox West .......60..................1-AAA

Austin-East.......50..................3-A/AA

BA...................48.5................2-D-II

White Station....43...................4-AAA

Ridgeway..........38..................2-AAA

GPS..................38..................1-D-II

Harpeth Hall......30.5................3-D-II

Science Hill........29..................3-AAA

Collierville.........23.5................5-AAA

William Blount.....21.................7-AAA

Independence.....20.................11-AAA

 

notice that austin east (long a true track power) finished runner-up in a combined championship, and only 3rd in the bogus A/AA version.

mitchell won A/AA with numbers. in the combined meet their quality only mustered 4.25 points, to tie for 41st place.

AAA, with way more teams participating in track, had more teams among the leaders, but they did not dominate.

nor did D-II.

track and field should not be split. it should not have classifications at all. in track and field, the more teams in competition, the MORE even the competition for all schools.

 

this is the first time only one small school has made the top in girls combined competition. that being austin east who has been a regular contender in the combined meet.

in the past, there have not only been more, some A/AA teams have won.

never has the team that won A/AA also won the combined meet.

that should tell you how badly the split perverts the nature of the BIG meet.

it seems that the classified track competitions are harmful to the small programs.

 

that harm has been even more obvious in boys track.

D-II seems to be losing quality, and the A/AA (including programs that were once contenders for the real title, before any T&F classification) have NO representatives among the top teams.

 

Hamilton........63..................1 AAA

Kenwood......51....................2 AAA

Bearden........51...................3 AAA

Mem Central...43..................4 AAA

Cordova.........32.5................5 AAA

BA.................30.5.................1 D-II

Antioch...........30....................6 AAA

Ravenwood......27...................7 AAA

Bolton..............26..................8 AAA

Brentwood.........22.................9 AAA

 

 

the combined meet has become a reiteration of the big meet.

truly a sad day for boys T&F in tennessee.

help us small schools out.

put us all back together!

[VolunteerGeneral]

That`s very interesting Laz. Where did Mitchell end up in the boys? And what about Mumford?

[itzme]

Great thread. Track and Field is the most beautiful of sports because it is so pure. If you run faster, jump higher or longer, throw farther, you win. No politics, no theoretical comparisons, no BS.

 

Did you do last year as well? I'd love to see it.

[cbg]

I have said many times before that individual sports (track & field, wrestling, cross country, tennis, golf, swimming, bowling, etc...) should all be placed together for one big Tennessee State Champion.

[Coniglio]

Check back to Tennessee Runner for updates on scoring the state meet. Girls are up, boys are coming soon along with everything else. This will include (I think) scores by section (East Middle West) and stuff like that.