Running the Numbers for Great State Expectations

Every once in a while you see a poll asking high school T&F fans which state has the top track and field or cross country talent. The results can be quite amusing, as fans from states around the land try to pump up their athletes' and teams' stature far beyond any what even very soft mushy numbers would support, let alone the hard facts. We also see reports about the scores for the states at Nationals meets that purport to show some entity from down south or maybe out west is the top power. In track circles everybody seems to know that Florida or Texas or California or a newly emergent Virginia is the place where the top talent hangs out, especially outdoors where they get a jump with pleasant weather in March in all the training for the mid June showdowns. My ears are still sore from all the grating noises we've heard over the years about the superlative nature of the West Coast talent in XC.

In track and field and in XC, you can talk the big talk, but at some point you have to step up to the line to prove yourself. The place where the proving gets done in outdoor track is in Cary NC at New Balance Nationals. I will concede that the location of the championship puts the West Coast athletes at a disadvantage, especially so late in the school year. However, New York teams are happy enough to head out west each December for two XC nationals and have won more than half of the total of girls and boys team championships during the 12 years of NXN, so sympathy can only go so far. For the athletes from the Southern track power states, there's absolutely no excuses not to show up in the land of the tarheels

Traveling back to 2015 NB Outdoors, we are confronted by interesting if maybe not completely familiar slate of 30 events on each side for the boys and girls, all pretty much exactly the same on both sides except that as usual the girls do the 100m hurdles while the guys go 110m, and girls have 8 events in the heptathlon while the guys have 10 in the decathlon. Probably the biggest difference between the events at States and those at Nationals is that there are 10 relay events down in Cary, while at CNS we will only see three. So yes, Nationals has both the sprint medley relay and the 800m sprint medley relay. There is also the shuttle hurdle relay and something called the Swedish relay, though with a name like that you might expect some skiing to be involved (it's another SMR including the 100m, 200m, 300m, and 400m). It's maybe a bit crazy, but teams from all states have a chance to try out something new along with focusing on main events such as the 100m, Mile, and long jump and shot put.

So who came out as the top state at Nationals down at Cary in 2015? Let's start with the boys. Fueled by the blast force of the juniors Noah and Joesphus Lyles of TC Williams HS, Virginia emerged last year as the dominant state last year in the sprints, taking 1rst in the 100m, 200m, 400m, along with the 4x100m relay. The Virginians also racked up wins in the 800m sprint medley, shuttle hurdle and Swedish relays, along with Deep Run's Matthew Novak in the Mile to push the gold total to 8 on the way to 139 points as the top guys at States. 17 points behind at 122, the NY guys couldn't quite recover from the 21-0 beating they took at the hands of VA in the shuttle hurdle relay, but the NYers did get 1sts from Rai Benjamin in the 400m hurdles, Jack Jibb in the 2K steeplechase, and Corning in the 4xMile relay. The state in 3rd was an NY neighbor, as the NJ guys scored 86 points with the help of 1rsts by Union Catholic and Old Bridge in the 4x400m and 4x800m relays and Myles Hartsfield in the triple jump. Pennsylvania finished 4th with 71 points, Texas was 5th with 62, and Georgia 6th with 56. The guys from Florida totaled 23 points for 13th place, which was 10 less than the powerhouse Rhode Island squad amassed.

The margin for the girls winner was slightly higher at 19 points, and it was indeed the Empire State girls who led the way with 119 points, helped by 1sts from Sammy Watson in the 800m, Alex Harris in the 2K steeplechase, Dominique Beltrez in the heptathlon, and Rush-Henrietta in the sprint medley relay. The NJ girls also hit triple digits at 100 for 2nd place as Sydney McLaughlin took the 400m hurdles, and her Union Catholic team matched their boys with a 4x400m win before donning their parkas to also win the Swedish SMR. Unlike their guys, the Florida girls did show up big to take 3rd place at 96, home state North Carolina was next at 92, Virginia was 3rd at 69, and Ohio was 6th at 44.

At the end of the meet after all tallies were tallied, New York's empire stood on solid ground with a 1st place total of 241 points for the combined score. Virginia was 2nd at 208, New Jersey was 3rd at 186, and the other two teams to top the 100 mark were Florida at 119 and North Carolina at 96 thanks almost entirely to their girls.

Top track power? We're in a New York state of mind.