Correct. Depth is not just a handful of the fastest runners, it’s going down much deeper into the rankings.
For example, in the 1600, according to Athletic.net, there are 4 CO girls under 5:50, 20 under 5:00 and 41 under 5:10.
In CA there are 24 under 5:50, 90 under 5:00 and 205 under 5:10. There are 42 sub-5:00 girls just in the Southern Section alone. Most of them won’t even make the state meet, let alone the final. Keep in mind that the CIF State Meet is not until next weekend so there will undoubtedly be more fast times still to come.
The fact is that the CA Southern Section alone is deeper than all of CO. Addison Ritzenhein’s 2:13 would have only been the 19th fastest time in the SS, so tripling would be a bit more of a challenge for her.