Just me or this crazy? High schooler wants to quadruple at state meet.

I hope he does it. How can anyone not like this plan?

I don’t think it is that unheard of for someone to run 8, 16, 32, 4x400 in a single meet. Unusual, but not unheard of. The attempt is probably just adding one prelim of the 400.

In the lower population states, stars can pull this stuff off, because they don't always need their A game for every event. Laura Roesler won North Dakota 100, 200, 400 and 800 (and xc) a couple times. Addy Wiley just did something similar at naia '23 indoor nationals.

He'll have to check schedule, maybe 4x8, or 4x4 makes more sense.

Nick Symmonds did the same quadruple at the ID state meet.

8/16/32/4x4 actually

I love the fact that he wants to do this. My thinking is maybe a bit antiquated but I admire gunning for an epic state meet vs. taking an easy W or two to save your legs for a national meet…which might not have any effect anyway. I don’t know about South Dakota, but in Iowa even the 400 doesn’t have prelims, just 3 sections of timed finals based on seed times from the qualifying meets. So it would be 4 races totaling 6000m over the course of 3 days, and as mentioned above he likely wouldn’t need to run particularly hard in some (3?) of the races.

South Dakota has a four-event limit at their state meets and allow 7-8th graders to compete. So, a 7th grade girl could run a 4/8/16/32 at the state meet, but a senior boy who competed in the HJ/LJ/SP/PV would be considered too fragile to enter a 5th event, such as the DISC or 100m. Go figure.

Here's a decent quadruple:

Rodney Giles, Northern, 1983 Maryland State Championships (5 hours)
4 x 800 1:46.7 (1st)
1600 4:17.8 (1st)
400 47.8 (1st)
800 1:51.0 (1st)

1983 Maryland 3A state high school championship meet.(above)
"I was working as a sports writer at the time and witnessed the most amazing performance I've seen in my 52 years. Northern High School senior Rodney Giles opened the meet by wiping out a 120-yard deficit on the anchor leg of the2-mile relay with an astonishing split of 1:46.7...

When the day was through healso held state titles in the 440 (47.8), 880 (1:51.0) and Mile (4:17.8).

Rodney was no fluke. He ran against Brian Jaeger at the Millrose Games Dream Mile prior to his outdoor season and later that summer won the US Junior National 880 title in 1:49.

Junior Nationals 800 champion in 1983

He twice ran 1:48 during that summer (Golden West was one of them).

2x state champ in cross country"

Sure that’s impressive but there is a relay in there making it less so. I’ve heard of sprinters doing the quad just because of the relays (4x100/4x200) and it’s definitely less impressive compared to four individual events like Simeon is discussing. Who knows he might be doing the 4x8 or 4x4 and just didn’t mention it.

Relays make it harder. You need 3 other people...

Someone needs to dredge up the times needed. We might be looking at a 50, 1:55, 4:20, 9:20 level.

Laura Roesler did the 100/200/400/800 quadruple as a freshman after winning the cross country title in the fall. Seriously, how many people are state champ in cross country and the 100m? Won a total of 22 state titles in North Dakota in high school.

The answer is that it depends largely on the meet schedule. For example, in Oregon each classification is scheduled for a two-day back to back meet (1a-3a is thursday & friday, 4a-6a friday & saturday). This means that to quadruple would require competing in 2 events each day for 2 days most likely.

However, in Utah, the championships are different (1a-3a wednesday & friday, 4a-6a thursday & saturday). To quadruple you need to run 2 events on 2 days, but with a full day of recovery, making it easier.

In California, you would have to get through 3 rounds of qualifiers in all 4 events first (section prelims, section finals, masters, and then on to state). These rounds are held each weekend for 4 straight weeks, which means a quadruple 4 weeks in a row if you can actually manage to qualify each time. This is quite difficult.

Some events take more of a toll on your body than others, thus some quadruples are harder than others.

If you're asking about Simeon Birnbaum in particular, South Dakota is holding a 3 day championship, and their classifications only go up to 3a. I couldn't find the full schedule though, sometimes sprint qualifiers will be the only thursday competitions, and then meet really picks up with field events, distance, and more sprints friday & saturday.

Indiana does it in one day...single class...get some:

Order of Events
3:00 p.m. – Pole Vault, Long Jump and Discus
3:30 p.m. – High Jump; Shot Put
4:15 p.m. – 3200 M Relay Finals
5:00 p.m. – 100 M Dash Trials
5:15 p.m. – 110 M High Hurdle Trials
5:40 p.m. – 200 M Dash Trials
6:10 p.m. – Opening Ceremonies
6:15 p.m. – 110 M High Hurdles
6:25 p.m. – 100 M Dash
6:35 p.m. – 1600 M Run
6:45 p.m. – 400 M Relay
7:05 p.m. – 400 M Dash
7:20 p.m. – 300 M Int. Hurdles
7:45 p.m. – 800 M Run
8:05 p.m. – 200 M Dash
8:15 p.m. – 3200 M Run
8:30 p.m. – 1600 M Relay

Well according to early season times and last year, Simeon has a decent shot.

400m - Top time is 51 flat, and the top returner is 49.28 but he has allegedly run 48 at the end of a workout, so it's likely that a 49 low could win state.

800m - Simeon has run 1:50 already, and the next closest time this season is 2:04. There are 8 other sub 2 returners, including a 1:53, so this will probably be the most challenging to win, as it would require a 1:51-1:52 probably..

1600m - Simeon has run a sub 4 mile, and next closest is returner is 4:17. Looks like he's safe in the 1600, probably will require 4:12-4:15 or so to win.

3200m - No one has run the 3200 yet this season (outdoor at least) but there are a handful of decent returners, including Sawyer Clarkson who comes in with a 9:19 from last year, a 15:03 XC, and a 9:19 indoor. A healthy Clarkson could cause problems for a tired Simeon.

So I just found the schedule. Looks like he'd run the 3200m final on Friday, followed by the 400m prelim just over 2 hours later, followed by the 800m final another 2 hours or so later. Saturday would be the 1600@ 11:45, followed by the 400m final about an hour later.

Clarkson could challenge Birnbaum in the 3200, but they won't compete at state. They're in different classes. Birnbaum goes to Stevens high school which is class AA in South Dakota and Clarkson goes to Belle Fouche, a smaller class A school.

Last year, 2022, he won the 800, 1600, 3200, and anchored a winning sprint medley team for Stevens. So sort of like a quadruple, but the fourth event was a relay.