A question for HS coaches: If you keep a top 10 performance list for your school including relays, would you include two 4x4 relays from the same season if one of the legs of the team changed, but both marks made the top 10? Or do you just use the best mark for the season for any top 10 purposes?
It is typical to consider a relay with a different of any 4 people a different relay.
Likewise, if you keep the same 4 people and they run a slower time than their best, but still top 10, you wouldn't put that time onto the list.
As an example:
So if relay "A" in 2012 consists of tommy, timmy, tony, and toby and runs 42.2 in the 4x100, getting 4th all time, you would put them into that spot (4th) on the all-time list.
Two weeks later, still in 2012 season, relay "B" runs with Tommy, Timmy, Tony, and Jack (so 3 of 4 legs the same) and runs 42.1 for the new 4th all time. You would then put them onto the list, bumping relay A down a slot, even though 3 of 4 people are the same
2 weeks later, still in 2012 season, Tommy, Timmy, Tony, and Toby run again (relay A) and run 42.4, which is 6th all time on your list. You would not put them onto your list, because this relay has a faster time already on the list. It is not traditional to make an all-time list with the same person (or exactly same 4 person relay) on there multiple times.
Now go forward a year to 2013 season. Tommy, Timmy, Tony, and Jack (2012's "B" relay) now run 42.4, which again would be 6th all time. You would not put them onto the list, because the previous year these exact same 4 athletes ran faster for 4th all time.
Make sense?
I have been at schools that have done it both ways.
I have always considered the best time by the relay team that year to be the one that goes on the top ten list. So, only one time per year for a relay.
Yep, makes sense.
Another question... how do you rank old hand timed performances with FAT marks? Thanks.
We have done it both ways in the past... but Athletic.net's default is to only include the top relay for the year rather than different combinations, so that is the one we currently use (because that way we don't have to do any extra work, and the data is all right there for anyone on our team could see).
As for including hand timed performances in the same list as FAT marks... you round UP the hand times to the next tenth, and then add 0.24 seconds for races shorter than 400m (for example, a 22.01 hand timed in the 200m should be recorded as 22.1h, and if you include it in your record books it should be entered 22.34c and listed behind any 22.34a marks). Some people add 0.14 seconds for 400m+ races, while others don't add time for distance races; some, including Athletic.net, only add 0.14 for the 300H instead of 0.24.
Really, though, I prefer the record keeping style of keeping FAT and HT marks separate for sprint races, because I have found some HTs can be VERY questionable - though that's only really a decent option for a HS that has an FAT system and uses it for most meets, particularly if most of the best athletes that have come through the school have FAT marks, which is probably rare if your school isn't all that new.
Thanks for the replies. I was hoping there was one general method for relays, but apparently it varies.
Regarding hand vs. FAT, we list the HT marks to the tenth, but use the same conversion (add .24) to place them on the top 10 list. Using Watchout's example, we list it as follows:
22.34
22.1
22.45
etc.