MileSplit HQ - The spring track and field season finished off pretty explosively for New York at the Nationals meets, so now everyone is dying to know how this year's stellar group of athletes stacks up against the top performers of other years. Sure there were a few barriers that got demolished at States and a couple of state records set and a bunch of national championships were won. That's terrific, but New York is famed for turning out T&F stars that pile up their world and Olympic championship trophies wherever they can find room at home. So how do the feats of the guys and girls of 2015 measure up?
The answers in T&F never come easily, whether the question is who is the fastest guy or girl at States or how good are the stars of today. Record keeping for earlier years can be a bit spotty, and then there is the question of how to determine whether this year's athletes really rocked in an event. Just because Rai Benjamin knocked more than a half second off Paul Lankford's 38-year state record in the 400m hurdles, does that mean that it was a banner year overall for the event, or was it just that one guy did very very well?
Because any attempt to pit today's athletes against those of decades past is about as pointless as arguing with an NY track official about why you need to wear your new earrings during your high jump competition, we've opted for an argument with much more limited scope. Our focus will be just on the last 8 years of spectacularly successful NY T&F. Those are the years for which MileSplit has a pretty complete set of data (though 2008 is a little short), and from that data we have hosted two Battle of the Years epic showdowns that will help to determine whether today's athletes are getting better, worse, or just stuck on a plateau.
Battle Formation
For the first Battle of the Years meet, we've tallied up the averages of top 15 performers in each of 18 events on both the guys and girls side for the years 2008 to 2015. We have then pitted those averages against each other at a States type meet with each representative vying for the points for eight places based on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system. From these 18 events on each side will emerge one year as king and queen of the track, plus a combined winner from when the boys and girls join forces.
To pump up the drama but still keep the amount of pages relatively concise, we've split the 18 events into eight groups to review: Sprints (100 and 200). Mid Distance (400 and 800), Long Distance (1500-1600 and 3000-3200), Hurdles and Steeplechase (100-110 H, 400 H, 2K-3K steeple), Horizontal Jumps (long jump and triple jump), Vertical Jumps and Vaults (high jump and pole vault), Throws (shot put and discus), and Relays (4x100, 4x400, 4x800).
No, this is not the Hunger Games, just a good clean NY T&F showdown of top young athletes. Let the battle begin.