HS runners should be running the 3000 or the 5000, not the 3200

No, Oregon should go back to the 3200 like everyone else.

While you're at it, why don't you wish for a pony? Oregon has sense enough to run 1500/3000 IIRC, and NYS has the girls (but not the boys) run 1500/3000, but I think it'll be a long, long time before those international distances become standard high school distances across the country.

I mean, look how many states are holding onto the 300 hurdles!

All of which was my snarky way of saying I agree with the OP.

Just add 3.3 for the 2 mile conversion, they’ll run the 3000 and 1500 in college

I wish my state had the 5000 in high school. It would be very interesting since between xc and track is the time which the most hs runners don't train

My county had 3 years of the 5000m but they got rid of it

I think HS relay meets should have a 5000m since most of those long distance kids will shine brighter in the 5000m compared to the 1600m

Can you imagine how long having the 5,000m would take? I could see it as a distance in championships, possibly using 3,000m/3,200m/2-mile times as qualifiers, but the idea of adding 9 laps of racing (4.5 for the boys, 4.5 for the girls) to a league meet just sounds awful.

Not An Expert wrote:

Can you imagine how long having the 5,000m would take? I could see it as a distance in championships, possibly using 3,000m/3,200m/2-mile times as qualifiers, but the idea of adding 9 laps of racing (4.5 for the boys, 4.5 for the girls) to a league meet just sounds awful.

No way anyone wants to sit through a 5k on the track, with the girls and boys you are talking an hours worth of running. That's freakin painful. You know how many track coaches just dump the "fat girl trying to lose weight" into the 3200, now imagine that in the 5k!

High school kids get to run the 5000, for the whole fall, it's called cross country. As far as the 3000, the 3200 makes more sense. It is eight full laps, starting and finishing at the same spot and it is "essentially" two miles. It makes sense to kids and parents and let's be honest, there is nothing inherently wrong with 3200 meters instead of 3000.

When I was in HS in the '80s, there was one invitational in CA (Hancock Righetti Games) that ran 1500/3000/5000 and even included a steeple chase. Maybe a 1500 steeple? I only saw it there one year, though. (Also, instead of medals, the invitational handed out ceramic tiles to the top 3 finishers, which was just kind of odd.)

The steeple looked fun. The 1500/3000 were just weird, though, like a 1600/3200 that was missing a chunk. It would have been more useful to run the standard HS distances.

And the 5000 was pointless. I ran it my senior year, but I didn't have any sense of how to run the distance on the track, and my coach didn't offer any useful advice, either. There was one guy far ahead of me, I took 2nd, and then not a lot going on. It was just a lot of time running a weird slow pace. Maybe with some coaching or more experience it would have been okay, but I wouldn't want to introduce the 5000m more widely in HS.

KU (Kansas) has had a high school meet with the steeple. It's rather weird, since high school kids have zero exposure to it until this meet.

But I guess this is where they get the exposure to it.

5K would make zero sense. The 3200 meter races already take up most of the day.

SC is standard (at least beyond dual/tri/quad meets) in NYS, although the boys usually run 3,000m and the girls 2,000. Also NYC has a lot of waterless SCs at those distances, with (I think) just four barriers per lap.

CT has (or at least had) the 5,000m at some bigger meets, maybe including State? My impression as an outsider was that it was not a come one, come all event but tended to be populated by better runners.

huh??? wrote:

No, Oregon should go back to the 3200 like everyone else.

lease wrote:

Oregon has sense enough to run 1500/3000 IIRC, and NYS has the girls (but not the boys) run 1500/3000

IIRC, Hawaii also runs the 1500/3000.

bring back the 3K and 5K wrote:

- No direct comparison to college or pro times

- There's no WR for that event

- It's not 2 miles

No way. HS kids are slow. Nobody wants to wait for them to run 25 min 5ks. Most parents don't know how a 3000m compares to 2 miles, nor do most hs kids to be honest. Keep the 1600m and 3200m and mile and 2mile at big meets.

cramister wrote:

My county had 3 years of the 5000m but they got rid of it

I think HS relay meets should have a 5000m since most of those long distance kids will shine brighter in the 5000m compared to the 1600m

Maybe in elite meets but fo you really want to wait 45 min for a 5k because coach put some 10+ Per mile kid in there for dual meet points?

bring back the 3K and 5K wrote:

- No direct comparison to college or pro times

- There's no WR for that event

- It's not 2 miles

Actually, per your point, what we should do is run the mile and two-mile, like in days gone past. The 1600 and 3200 are just arbitrarily dumb distances to run. Joe Q Public can understand the meaning of the mile but not the 1600.

No way for 5k but should be 1500 and 3k. Iowa girls run 1500/3k but boys run 1600/3200?

Sub-9 guy wrote:

bring back the 3K and 5K wrote:

- No direct comparison to college or pro times

- There's no WR for that event

- It's not 2 miles

Actually, per your point, what we should do is run the mile and two-mile, like in days gone past. The 1600 and 3200 are just arbitrarily dumb distances to run. Joe Q Public can understand the meaning of the mile but not the 1600.

This is the answer.

Yes it would mean all distance in T&F are metric except the distance races, but so be it. I thing the 1600 make more sense than the 1500, that is complete nonsense.

SummerSlogger wrote:

Sub-9 guy wrote:

Actually, per your point, what we should do is run the mile and two-mile, like in days gone past. The 1600 and 3200 are just arbitrarily dumb distances to run. Joe Q Public can understand the meaning of the mile but not the 1600.

This is the answer.

Yes it would mean all distance in T&F are metric except the distance races, but so be it. I thing the 1600 make more sense than the 1500, that is complete nonsense.

I prefer the 1500 over the 1600 since starting on a curve gives everyone more time to get to the inside lane. The 1600 is usually a mad stampede with 15+ people per heat, all trying to get to lane 1 ASAP, which often results in at least one guy getting tripped or spiked.