State Track Meet - lack of depth

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State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby Flip » Mon May 23, 2011 3:50 am

I'm only talking about Class B boys. I may be delusional, but over the past 10-15 years the bottom end of each qualifier list is much poorer than it used to be. For example in 1999 I ran a 2:09 800m, qualified and to my knowledge that was the slowest qualifying time in the 800 I had ever seen. I look at this list of 800 qualifiers and there are 5 times slower than 2:09. In 2000 I ran on a 4x800 relay team that qualified with an 8:44, we had a kid that had never run an 800 before regions on that team too. We got demolished in the slow heat at state. An 8:44 would be the 4th fastest in the state in 2011! We also ran a 3:44 4x400 and didn't qualify in what I thought was the weakest region in the state. A 3:44 this year would be close to placing. If you look at just about every running event the bottom qualifiers have IMO poor times.

Thoughts on why this is happening? If anything you would think it would be getting more competitive.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby vballfan06 » Mon May 23, 2011 6:51 am

I would say two things happened:
1) less kids. less kids in the rural schools, and less kids out for track.
2) weather. the entire state struggled with weather related issues. not only does it make for less track meets but it reduces the number of times the athletes are able to train outside.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby Run4Fun2009 » Mon May 23, 2011 7:15 am

WEATHER...weather played a HUGE role on Saturday with qualifiers...only two of the eight regions had decent weather (1 of which had really good weather). With many places dealing with rain/wind for much of the regional meet...times/distance/heights took a hit. Now I will say that in the distance "category" it is kind of a down year.

There are 'lull' years too...back in 2004-2007 times and distances were pretty solid in all areas...as of late its starting to take a hit...I'm sure we will have one of those dominating years again real soon.

Maybe next year with the SIX region system things will be better; Maybe not...
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby triplebbb » Mon May 23, 2011 7:50 am

i also think that more schools getting spring baseball has taken away some very good athletes from the track and field.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby winner-within » Mon May 23, 2011 9:19 am

Doesn't sound like Lack of depth, it sounds like your saying athletes aren't very good.....I see huge talent, Baseball is also a huge culprit.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby Run4Fun2009 » Mon May 23, 2011 9:25 am

winner-within wrote:Doesn't sound like Lack of depth, it sounds like your saying athletes aren't very good.....I see huge talent, Baseball is also a huge culprit.


Winner this is in no way directed at your post above...it was just easier to quote this post...

Every sport endures a 'down' period...track is enduring it right now,..and its mostly in the distance aspect of the sport. If you look at the sprints and throws, they are in line with or even better than past years.

Baseball and golf are huge culprits in taking athletes away from track...and now in a few class B towns its softball.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby winner-within » Mon May 23, 2011 9:51 am

Run4Fun2009 wrote:
winner-within wrote:Doesn't sound like Lack of depth, it sounds like your saying athletes aren't very good.....I see huge talent, Baseball is also a huge culprit.


Winner this is in no way directed at your post above...it was just easier to quote this post...

Every sport endures a 'down' period...track is enduring it right now,..and its mostly in the distance aspect of the sport. If you look at the sprints and throws, they are in line with or even better than past years.

Baseball and golf are huge culprits in taking athletes away from track...and now in a few class B towns its softball.


And if I may add, I don't think the Quality of Coaching is there....like it is in Class A and the true Class b track towns.....Track is a sophisticated Sport, another thing is dedication of the athlete themselves, are you putting on the Harness and dragging the tire across the football field are you challenging yourself Like a Dylan Crockett, Eric Kuntz, Lonewolf or are you just getting faster at texting.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby Flip » Mon May 23, 2011 10:22 am

winner-within wrote:Doesn't sound like Lack of depth, it sounds like your saying athletes aren't very good.....I see huge talent, Baseball is also a huge culprit.

No, I'm saying lack of depth. The top times seem to be relatively close to what I remember it is the bottom times that are much slower.

Like R4F said weather played a played a big part and I didn't take that into consideration.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby Run4Fun2009 » Mon May 23, 2011 10:35 am

Flip wrote:
winner-within wrote:Doesn't sound like Lack of depth, it sounds like your saying athletes aren't very good.....I see huge talent, Baseball is also a huge culprit.

No, I'm saying lack of depth. The top times seem to be relatively close to what I remember it is the bottom times that are much slower.

Like R4F said weather played a big part and I didn't take that into consideration.


There will be a few teams/athletes that will "surprise" people at state (won't surprise me though) because they will run much better than their 'qualifying' times from Saturday.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby triplebbb » Mon May 23, 2011 11:33 am

i agree...if the weather is nice you will see some top performances from kids that have only had a chance to run in 5-6 meets due to weather/injuries/etc. hopefully there will be peak times and distances at a great event in nd sports
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby theman » Mon May 23, 2011 8:51 pm

The weather has been terrible all season, not just in the last week.
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Re: State Track Meet - lack of depth

Postby winner-within » Mon May 23, 2011 9:39 pm

and truly there is a Depth situation, which I guess could be "lack of" with West Fargo's school District consisting of 50,0000 people up form probably 30,000 10 years ago, its obvious rurally things are changing and all these sports cant offer even the numbers they did in 2000.
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