Frosh Austin Tamagno runs 4:11.1

The launch. wrote:

If the "average" freshman turns 14 on July 2nd (midpoint of year) a few months before they start high school, that means this kid is about 7 months older than the average based on the previous poster citing a NOV birthday.

The average freshman doesn't turn 14 in July. Most July birthdays would turn 15 in the summer before they start high school.

Most freshmen are 15 by the end of the school year. November is probably about the median.

Ryan Hall turned 15 in October or November of his freshman year and Ritz in December. Both were on the old side for their class.

Mrr82 wrote:

Age Question wrote:

OK - thanks...I'm from the Northeast, where at least in my day, that's a bit older than the average freshman, but not so much that it's a game-changer.

He is older than the average (half of all freshman are) but he's not old for the northeast by any means. There are very few states, believe Cali might be the only one where he'd be in the wrong grade age wise. You'll always have a legit 1 year range.

Long winded response for you to agree with me...if not, you need some reading comp classes.

These birth month vs. age debates are ridiculous and irrelevant. November is a totally normal birthday. Not too old, not too young. Don't make this into something that it's not. The kid is clearly 15 years old and in his first year of high school. He doesn't have any 'age advantage' over any other freshman.

Kanye North wrote:

The launch. wrote:

If the "average" freshman turns 14 on July 2nd (midpoint of year) a few months before they start high school, that means this kid is about 7 months older than the average based on the previous poster citing a NOV birthday.

The average freshman doesn't turn 14 in July. Most July birthdays would turn 15 in the summer before they start high school.

Most freshmen are 15 by the end of the school year. November is probably about the median.

From my experience, I'd say that November is still older than most in a grade...I'd say the following Spring from about March-May seems to be where the median for all students falls. I think elite athletes have typically skewed our view on this as quite a few of them are older than most of their respective classmates. With Fall birthdays, parents typically have to decide whether their kid is ready for kindergarten and that decision leads to kids either being a bit older or younger than the majority of their classmates by say 6 months or so.

It gets really crazy when you have kids that turn 19 during the Fall of their senior year - which to the best of my knowledge, typically will leave them eligible to compete in just about any h.s. competition at any level.

I think that most of us can agree that most Freshman turn 15 during the school year like Austin has.

4:11.1 is impressive.

Age Question wrote:

Jeremy Mattern wrote:

Austin turned 15 last November.

OK - thanks...I'm from the Northeast, where at least in my day, that's a bit older than the average freshman, but not so much that it's a game-changer.

Today or Yourday, in the NE, at least the states I am familiar with (NJ/PA/NY), he is a few months older than the average freshmen, but not so much so that should generate discussion.

boboboblawawawlobobob wrote:

These birth month vs. age debates are ridiculous and irrelevant. November is a totally normal birthday. Not too old, not too young. Don't make this into something that it's not. The kid is clearly 15 years old and in his first year of high school. He doesn't have any 'age advantage' over any other freshman.

I said that the kid's age (with a November birthday) is not a game-changer in my opinion.

Your assessment that the debates are irrelevant is not true. There are many variables in play in your teens, and age and physical maturity can be an important one (along with years running, type of training currently being done, etc).

In h.s. you can have up to a 24+ month age discrepancy in some extreme cases for two kids in the same grade - that is relevant when you're in your teen years and developing rapidly as an athlete.

TrackCoach wrote:

Age Question wrote:

OK - thanks...I'm from the Northeast, where at least in my day, that's a bit older than the average freshman, but not so much that it's a game-changer.

Today or Yourday, in the NE, at least the states I am familiar with (NJ/PA/NY), he is a few months older than the average freshmen, but not so much so that should generate discussion.

I'm from NY.

I was looking for clarification on his age, and when I received that, I said that it wasn't a game changer. With that said, the fact remains that he's indeed older (by something like 3-6 months) than the median classmate in his grade at his school.

What a waste of a discussion. Most states I've been involved in have kids that would turn 15 as a "freshman" between the preceding August and the subsequent June. July is basically split, so we'll remove it. That means the median is January and November would be a whopping 2 months before the median. Thank goodness we have 20 posts talking about it (myself as guilty as the rest).

I agree. Who cares what grade this kid is in? He ran 4:11.1 at 15! Sheesh!

Standard wrote:

I think that most of us can agree that most Freshman turn 15 during the school year like Austin has.

True.

It used to be 5 by 9/1 got you in Kindergarten. Now I think most places use 12/1 or 12/31.

If you have like a June Bday, you probably dont turn 15 til after 9th grade.

He is normal aged, though.

He has the typical "Bad" birthday for age-group sports though, late in the year. His rivals Rocha et al must be early because he only competed against them every other year it looks like.

It all evens out in HS..

Agree that it's not that huge deal with a November birthday, unlike a guy like Cormier who was very old, but nonetheless, fully eligible. On the other side of the coin are guys like Sheridan, Derrick and Fernandez who didn't turn 17 until their senior year XC seasons (very late Sept through early Nov for those 3 guys).

Plenty of variability in relative age for some former greats in h.s. - some were older and some like the ones named above were very young for their grade.

Could this kid potentially get into the Dream Mile? That would be pretty cool if he broke the national record behind all the potential sub 4 guys.

They must have a very good coach.

However if they're focused on the mile, they might not be as good in cross country.

Pretty amazing time for a freshmen.

Pretty sure also that's a new USA National frosh class record.

He is an experienced club runner though so will not progress as much as a kid who just started running their freshman year.

Why does Brea-Olinda get so lucky getting all these club kids? My high school team never once had a kid that ever ran in a club before high school.

worst poster wrote:

It used to be 5 by 9/1 got you in Kindergarten. Now I think most places use 12/1 or 12/31.

No, a plurality of states still use 9/1 as the cutoff and a majority use something between August 31 and September 30. These discussions tend to get to get started/dominated by parochial Northeasterners. Taking the View of the World from 9th Avenue, New York's cutoff is November 30, Jersey's is the same, and it gets kind of hazy past that...

I'd hazard to guess that the the average freshman turns 15 in March or April.

Age cutoffs by state-

http://ecs.force.com/ecsforum/mbquest?SID=a0i70000000XkGj&rep=KD01&Q=Q2194

The range is July 31-January 1.

Back to the run itself, anyone know splits?

Ha. Yes that's what I meant. I had it backwards. They used to more often let younger kids in K.

I know because I tried hard to get my kid in. Dec bday = no bueno. For anything.

I, BTW skipped a grade and was *16* until 6 weeks before hs graduation. I blame my poor hs PRs on this;-)