Critical Thinking wrote:
watchout wrote:Chock is one of five female athletes that met two specific criteria: Held a HSR at one time (relevant because they were the "best ever" some given event at some point in their HS career), and is still in the top-5 (relevant because their accomplishment has stood the test of time - so far).
How did you pick that criteria? Why top five and not top ten?
And only five? If we are counting non-standard distances (like the 5000), I can think of: Mary Cain, Mary Decker, Cathy Schiro, Mary Shea, Kim Gallagher, Emily Sisson, Lynn Bjorklund, Kim Mortenson, and Polly Plumer. Jorda Hasay if you count her 1500 record, which probably converted out to a little slower than Polly Plumer's mile. Melody Fairchild only slipped to number six after Mary Cain's HSR.
As I quickly corrected myself (though letsrun not having an 'edit' option, it was in a separate post), I meant to say seven. And I didn't include steeple or 10k, which would have added a few more, because those haven't been often competed in ANY era (and, I admit, 5k wasn't often competed for girls until recently, and still isn't nearly as common as 800-2mile events). One small mistake I did notice in my post though: Chock is #4, not #3, All-Time (forgot about Cain's 5k)
The nine that meet such standards are the top 9 in my original post (where I listed my top 10). Fairchild was the only one I included that didn't meet both criteria, because she seemed like the most accomplished of the rest of the bunch.
Going through the list...
1. Mary Cain - was and still is (obviously) #1 in all events 800m-5k (as long as you group together 1500m/1600m/Mile and 3k/3200m/2Mile into a single comparable list).
2. Jordan Hasay - Was HSR holder for 1500m/1600m/Mile (4:14.50 for 1500m) until Cain came along; still #2 in both the combined list and 1500m list.
3. Kim Gallagher - Was HSR holder for 800m (2:00.07) until Cain; still #2.
4. Kim Mortensen - was #1 in the 3000m/3200m/2Mile (9:48.59 for 3200m); still #2 in the combined list and #1 for 3200m only.
5. Lynn Bjorklund - was #1 in the 3000m/3200m/2Mile (9:08.6h for 3k); still #3 in the combined list and #2 for 3k.
6. Emily Sisson - was #1 in the 5k (15:48.91); still #2 and the only runner aside from Cain to go under 15:50.
7. Polly Plumer - was #1 in the 1500m/1600m/Mile (4:35.24y); still #3 in the combined list and #2 for 1600m/Mile and Mile only.
8. Mary Decker - was #1 in the 800m (2:01.8h); still #5.
9. Caitlin Chock - was #1 in the 5k (15:52.88); still #4.
Why Top 5? Because I wanted to keep it strictly to be a comparison of the best ever, which requires a pretty narrowed field, and as we are comparing athletes from a minimum of 3 events (800m, 1500m/1600m/Mile, 3000m/3200m/2Mile), that would give at least 15 athletes to compare (good for picking out a top 8-10 group); expanding to 5k/10k/XC (though the latter obviously very hard to do, given different courses and course layouts on top of different eras, and I didn't really look at 10k for girls because only a VERY small handful of notables had ever attempted in - Shea's record is the only performance on par with the top 5 in all the other events IMO) would fill in any gaps.