Magness

Technically, 1600m... but, yeah, same conclusion. Hats off to him - I don't think he's done, yet.

Here is what would not have gotten out of district in Magness's district. 1:55, 4:04, 9:07 would have to stay home - season over. I coach in a 5A (big schools) in Texas. Our district meet sent 2:01, 4:37, and 10:22 on to Regionals. Because of our gigantic geography and athletic set-up, a 4:11 miler stays home and a 4:37 miler moves on.

I have always thought that the Texas State Meet qualification system kind of sucks. I guess on the one hand, it is good in that it fosters competition and you know what you have to do going in in order to advance.

BUT, 8 guys in the 3200m at the State meet is a JOKE. It looks freaking lonely out there!

Of course, it could just be that I was a snuffed runner (4th fastest regional time overall, 4th in my region) and I am whining... but I have a bigger issue with it in the 3200m, while my event was the 1600m. Plus, I will be the first to say that times in my HS days sucked and probably only 2 of 8 (in the distance events) at the state meet deserved to be there.

Who did you run for, and when, if you don't mind.

That and stupid sprint relays are double points and there aren't any distance relays.

JEH ran for Westwood High School and graduated around 1991-1992. He ran around 4:22 and 9:36 (and didn't go to state).

Texas should do what California did for the kids. Put a time standard up. A southern section in California sends 5 on to state, but with a time standard the 2mile field sent about 9 one year.

in arizona we had a hybrid system - time or region placing could get you in. if a team could qualify some runners outright they could hold them out at region and use that meet to qualify even more on place. seemed like a good system to me.

WHOA!!??? Fake JEH, what's going on? Don't I reserve the right (or not) to answer questions addressed to me? Oh well, you're answers weren't so far off.

So, since you know a bit about me, how about a clue about who you are... I'm really curious?!?

Anyway, as I said, my times suck(ed), and now I guess I'll never be able to bluff that I know anything about running. I do think that another state qualifying system in TX should be considered as 8 in the 3200m is far too few.

Can't remember the dude's name, but there was another guy that got shut out because he was ill on the day of regionals, and he had previously run like 4:14 (one of the best in the state back then).

I felt guilty of contributing to the turning of this thread into an off-shoot discussion. It should be about sjm's breakthrough and about his very bright prospects.

sjm1368, so do we call you Steve or Magness now? Great job of running fast! Look forward to hearing more from you, and I wish you well regardless of where the path takes you.

Good luck also in the Letsrun PR challenge.

One thing I love about running is that no matter the talent, you have to work very well to achieve good personal goals.

I have sympathy for what you are going through down there in Texas with all the Districts, etc. Same thing used to go on in CA back in the 70's before running became less popular and the State collapsed due to illegal immigration. We had kids run 4:10 - 4:12 and not get out of their district/county meets, while 4:20 - 4:40 runners from the L.A. City Section and some other areas with little distance running interest talent went on to the State meet. The heats were vicious - one year we had 5 guys cross the line in 4:11 in one race, and the other kids running 4:12, 4:13, etc. were out. The next heat was about as bad. Some of the guys looked a little heavy legged the next day in the final. The slow kids were a problem, "gumming" up the works sometimes during the first 200 of the mile, and then causing foul ups as they were lapped in the deuce.