Does anyone know the history of why women run the 1500m in highschool and men run the 1600m?

what are you talking about?

Ummmm they don't.

Maybe there's one or two states where they do.

In my state, the most populous, high school athletes are called girls and boys rather than women and men, and girls and boys both run the 1,600.

In the 1970s the girls' and boys' associations were separate in New York (which is the state I'd guess you're talking about). Louise Mead Tricard, who was in charge of the girls' program, was a forward-thinking person who, when track went metric in that decade, automatically moved the girl's events to international distances: 1500 and 3000. The boys' honcho were desperate to keep full laps and, as in most other states, went with 600 and 3200.

All of this is going by memory, which is hazy, but I believe Louise got canned as director for putting the steeplechase in the state meet. Or maybe it was another event, but in any case it was an event that is now contested.

At the State level girls in NYS now have a very full program of competitive opportunities, including pentathlon and steeplechase, but not, I'm sorry to say, racewalk and hammer and javelin (yet), although those are sometimes contested at lower levels.

[Strangely enough, I think we might see the hammer at the state meet--Rudy Winkler is a NYer, after all--before we see the javelin, though the hammer is much more dangerous.]

*1600 not 600

Iowa also does this. I think those are the only two.

I wish they would just standardise it once and for all.

There's the 1500m, 1600m and full mile/1609m.

Then you have the 3000m and 3200m and the 2 mile which is 3218.69m.

I think they should just pick one and that's it. Seeing how things are internationally and in terms of championships and around the world, it seems best to pick:

1500m
3000m

and be done with the rest finally. It causes too many problems and there are issues with conversions and so on. It would be much better and much more simple if they just stuck to those distances and that was it.

I hope NFHS does something. There isn't even that much attachment to the 1600 and 3200 anyway, the only events that get any sort of real prestige at the HS level are the mile and 2 mile for historical reasons. Even most stats websites and compilers don't even track 1600 and 3200 all-time lists, it's all converted.

1500 and 3000 is the way forward!

I would like 1500 and 5000 but it is probably too long for most.

I would really prefer full mile/2 mile, but would settle for 1500/3000. Anything but 1600/3200.

You are prob right, but I will be devils advocate. Why the hel is a track 400 meters if we are going to have events that are odd numbers and start in weird places. 400 is one lap, 800 is two, 1600 is 4 (1500 is 3.75 laps?)...makes sense? Should we change the 800 to 750 so its half? 1600 is metric and even. Maybe tracks used to be 300 meters? But then how did we get 400 and 800 and 10000?

The 1500 is the shortest event with a waterfall start. It starts on a straightaway as it should.

I believe the state HS associations determine the racing distances. California has the 1600 and 3200. Oregon has the 1500 and 3000. Having the Javelin and Hammer throwing events is another state association decision.

I just want both teams to have fun

Tracks are 400 meters because they used to be 1/4 mile. I love the 1500. A 100 meter straight start is great.

BETTER QUESTION:

Why do men run the 110m hurdles (120.3 yards), and women run the 100m (109.4 yards)?

It would be a very comfortable bathroom break for the sprinters and their parents if we added the 5000 to dual meets.

When I was in high school CT had the 5000 meters. Do they not anymore? We used to have it at duel meets even.

Tracks have been 400m since before I was running (I started in the '70s). How ever long ago the modern Olympics came into exstence is probably how long that's been the standard size. John Parker mentions a 440y, which is to say, 1/4 mile, track at Florida during his time there. Maybe some of you are also aware of a track somewhere, sometime, being that size.

But I can assure you that by the late '70s, every track I was aware of or had access to that would have been official enough to count for records was 400m. The synthetic tracks at the local colleges absolutely fit into this category. Whatever USATF was called then held Nationals at one of them. The 10k was exactly 25 laps. I remember a low-key collegiate 4×800 at another school I watched as a teenager.

Any track that was synthetic with permanently marked lines seemed to be standard (as far as I can recall) although I don't necessarily doubt Parker's recollection from an earlier era. It is clear reading Kenny Moore et. al. from the same period that 5000s and various standard events were held at Hayward including Pre's last race. So I would be willing to bet some amount that the Oregon track was just like the Bislett track and most others - 400m.

So what? you ask. Everyone knows this. Well, by the time I was in high school, this was well established and had been for about a century. Yet, the 1600 and 3200 didn't exist yet. I graduated long before (proabably more than a decade) anyone had ever heard of either one. These new race distances weren't added to meet schedules the day tracks became 400m. It was a hundred years later.