NYT&F Battle of the Years - Leaders Showdown 2008-2015

The results for the Battle of the Years Leaders meet have some similarities to the Top15 contest since the 2010 team won both the Girls and Combined titles and the 2015 guys were champs. Both teams were also the only squads to finish with more 200 points combined. In both meets the 2008 squad was last in combined points.

But there are always some different wrinkles in T&F, and the girls of 2015 showed they had more depth for the Top15 rankings than they did leaders at the top as they finished 2nd in the Top15 contest but only 5th (okay Sammy, make it 4th) in the Leaders. The 2008 girls were buried far behind in the Top15 meet but would finish up 6th in the Leaders meet.

Having a Mary Cain, Melissa Kurzdorfer, or Rai Benjamin at their peak representing a squad for a season can give any one season a huge boost. Next year there could likely be an explosion of great results on the girls side as some seasoned veterans like Sammy Watson, Kamryn McIntosh, Jessica Lawson, and Kaitlin Ryan get a little older and stronger and are pushed by those pushy 8th graders who feel they need to rewrite all the middle school record books.

What made 2010 such a special year for NY track is hard to say for sure, but that's year's rosters were both strong and deep at the top and included many of the storied names in NYT&F, including Jordan Thomas, Darnell Cummings, Alex Hatz, Tyrek English, a junior Jordan Yamoah, and Newburgh and Warwick Valley relay squads that kept the guys in the news, and the girls had a mind-boggling crew of Chamique Francis, Whitney Fountain, Emily Lipari, Aisling Cuffe, Madalayne Smith, senior Mary Kate Anselmini competing against junior Brianna Nerud for national honors in the steeple, seniors Cameron Esser and Melissa Kurzdorfer, plus an FM 4x800 team that can't be beat. We may never see a year like that again -- or maybe it will come next year, or the year after. Stay tuned.

In the very very unlikely event you really want to see the data for all this stuff, it's at Battle of the Years google sheets.

Battle of the Years Events

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Group 1: Sprints - Group 2: Mid Distance

Group 3: Long Distance

Group 4: Hurdles and Steeplechase

Group 5: Horizontal Jumps

Group 6: Vertical Jumps and Vaults

Group 7: Throws - Group 8: Relays

Meet Wrap-up - Summary by Athletes

Summary by Teams - Summary by Sections