COLORADO PREP STATE MEET

Medina won the 1600m in 4:16+

Where is Williams from?

D'Evelyn HS. Was 2nd in 4A cross country last fall to Joe N from Denver North.

I just moved out here to colorado from california..and I've noticed that overall all of the "state-meets" besides california's arent really that good performance wise, even with the altitude adjustments. And they also have divisions...whats up with that? I guess having a huge population helps.

You realize that 9:19 is ~9:00, and 4:16 is ~4:11 and 4:14 ~ 4:09, right? Those are pretty good regardless of the state.

California has 4 times as many people as Georgia and were still faster distance wise. New Jersey is smaller than Georgia and they're faster than both. What are you trying to day here?

*say

CALIFORNIA has a tradition of track that goes back a long time. As a little high school sophomore way back in the early 60's I looked at the record books for my event and found Dennis Carr had run 4:08.3 in my event (mile). I was so in awe at California I thought they were all super-human out there.

HAWAII times distance runners with a calandar. They run past the timer he yells, "January.....February.....March....."

California is damn good at Track and Field and is always deep in the distances. Colorado isn't bad though, maybe you just didn't realize how good you had it in California. Come to a state like Nebraska if you want to feel really good about your high school times. It's true what Gerry said about Hawaiians. We've had a couple walk on to our collegiate team after being all state back in Hawaii or claiming to have been very competitive in high school and they can't even keep up on the warm up. They're shocked to find that high school boys regularly break 5 in the 16 here.

Gerry (or anyone else),

Have you noticed that, although California has had many good high-school runners over the years, a relatively high percentage of them quit or fizzle out later on? I've sometimes wondered if the California weather is conducive to rapid early development, but encourages a certain "softness" among California runners to creep in over the years. Conversely, places like Minnesota and Massachusetts (and perhaps Colorado), with harsher winters, seem to produce a lot of tough, grizzled veterans. (I realize that this message may trigger some contentious or rude responses, but I first noticed this quite some years ago, and was curious if others have noticed the same thing.)

Races in california, on average, are in near ideal conditions at sea level. Many other locations in the US, even when at sea level, would be lucky to find conditions similar to those found in california more than once or twice a season. That is why many colleges send athletes to run at mt. sac and stanford for qualifying times. Combine that with a larger pool of participants resulting in more competition and that explains your depth and fast times.

e- wrote:

You realize that 9:19 is ~9:00, and 4:16 is ~4:11 and 4:14 ~ 4:09, right? Those are pretty good regardless of the state.

Speaking from personal experience, having been a former prep elite in Colorado, the altitude adjustment from 5300' to sea level is about two seconds per minute, so this 9:19 to 9:00 translation is about right. I believe that the great weather in California (I did do my undergrad and competed collegiately out there), combined with the ability to do daily training harder and faster at sea level, generally makes for faster prep runners in California. But, if I were coaching, I would recruit a 9:20-9:30 kid from Colorado who ran a mere 40 or 50 miles per week in high school, rather than a 9:00 Californian who trained twice as much. Way more upside as far as I'm concerned.

This is a foolish argument often advanced by people who are trying to convince themselves that they are better off for living in a shittier climate. Pussies come from all over the U.S., likewise with tough guys. If anything the "early development" comes from the depth of competition in CA.

It wasn't an argument. It was an observation, coupled with a possible explanation. The observation, by the way, is not merely that California produces good prep runners. Rather, it's that older California runners -- in their twenties and thirties -- generally haven't been anywhere near as good as one might expect. That, at least, was my perception some years back. Perhaps things have changed. But it's generally struck me that road races in California are more like big block parties than athletic events. In a race like the L.A. Marathon, for example, it's difficult to find a single good runner from California.

I'm not saying it's bad, by the way. Perhaps Californians just have more enjoyable things to do than train to run fast marathons.

I'd be surprised if the attrition rate of kids that go on to continue competing after college or hs is all that much different between CA and other states.

Does someone have a link to the results?