2011 High School track and field

[XCfun]

It is unfortunate that there are always a few personalities who find a reason to be critical and negative.

The Seabury Hall girls had a near perfect night. Most coaches can only dream of such a moment.

It's always so easy to second guess and play the "what if" hand.

If Kailea had run the 100 final and then ended up losing one or more of the other races she won, the critics would have been down on her for being greedy and only thinking of her own glory and not the team.

Kailea ran 7 races in 2 nights. She endured 2 disappointing years fighting through injuries. Celebrate her success in 2011 and that of all the Seabury athletes.

Hzy's negative and misinformed comment about the Seabury team not training together is disappointing. The fact is under the leadership of coach Bobby Grossman the Seabury team has become unified, motivated and capable.

[RunJonPaulAMPM]

hzy, its more than just the coaches getting after the athletes to keep moving between events. If they never tried competing in that many events earlier in the season, and if their workouts weren't geared toward being able to handle that many events AND the warmup and cooldowns (which could be as simple as jogging 2 laps, but if you multiply that by 6 events its 3 miles, 6 if you do it for both warmup and cooldown) then there is no way that they would be prepared no matter how much they kept moving.
One of the greater double event performances on Saturday was HPA's Zoe Sims in the 1500m-400m double, where she was able to use her speed as an advantage in winning the 1500, where the leaders were trying to run a tactical race in order to save themselves for either the 800 or 3000, and she was able to still come back and run the 400m with only one event (the 4x100m relay) in-between. I have seen others run the 400m-800m double, but they have a longer rest period, with the 300m hurdles being the event in between them. Also going from an aerobic event to an anaerobic event may be less challenging than the other way around, but it was still an amazing feat! Congratulations to Miss Sims.

[crosscartography1O1]

Throughout the years there have been many hindsight/second-guessing-after-the-fact/armchair quarterback team title finishes at the state meet that could have gone either way, but unless your are directly involved with that program and know exactly what issues influence decisions about athletes and events they compete in, you can't be judging the outcome.

[not1but2many]

Interesting fact: 22 out of the 32 boys and girls events at the State Track & Field Championship Trials had less than the maximum 26 allowed per event. The State Rankings showed that almost every event had enough Consideration qualifiers that went well beyond the top 26, and in the Performance list of the actual entered athletes, only 8 events didn't have the maximum 26.
There needs to be a system in place that will allow for maximum participation of qualifying athletes for those deserving to compete at the state level. It is upsetting for coaches and athletes who work hard all season trying to get a spot into the State Trials, then get eliminated by the maximum entries, only to find out that they could have participated after seeing the numbers competing in the trials. If alternates from the entry list are allowed to fill empty spots after last call at check-in for the trials, you would at least have maximum participation and representation of the top athletes in the state at the championship.

[ILHTrax]

As far as Punahou, the ILH, and other private schools, they do have the advantage of having a student body that is not limited to one geographic location, and large turnout for sports teams because athletes earn credits for participating, allowing them to have "the pick of the litter" when putting together track and cross country teams. I do not disagree that this plays a part in their success, but some of it also has to come from the capability of the coaches.
There are areas in the State of Hawaii and particularly on the island of Oahu over the years that have experienced a "population boom" where new housing developments were being created, and with that, the local high school received an influx of students from all around the island, with lots of talented athletes to choose from. Public schools like Radford, Kaiser, Mililani, and now Kapolei and Campbell under their capable coaching staffs have produced state caliber teams, and some like Pearl City and Kahuku in recent years, have been able to capture State titles. If they printed the list of runner-ups, you would see a lot of these teams consistently listed, and there have been many close calls. It would be unfair to judge those teams, as well as Seabury about decisions made if you are not inolved with many of the factors of the decision making process, such as athletes grades, family responsibilties/income, team and school disciplinary actions, injuries past and present, school and team policies, athlete event preference, participation/entry of other deserving team members, etc. Even with the limitations experienced by some public and small schools, they have been able to produce some outstanding state championship level teams and their victories as well as near misses should be celebrated.

[2LeftFeet]

There were many examples of good sportsmanship during the State Championship on Saturday, athletes wishing each other good luck, opponents cheering each other on and congratulating one another on their peformances, but one bad example was when the HPA girl walked onto the track for the last leg of the 4x400m relay with her warm up shirt over her uniform and no one bothered to let her know. I know that at this point of the season, athletes and coaches should know better, but no advantage was gained by having a shirt on over her uniform, and it was an accidental mistake, not done intentionally. It's hard for student-athletes to learn good sportsmanship when there were several examples of officials waiting to disqualify athletes for preventable infractions, rather than warning them before the start of their event or entering the field of competition.

[XCfun]

I would like to use the boys 1500 as an illustration of how important it is that we put our heads together to improve the current method of determining who gets to participate in a state meet.

In the 1500 prelims there were only 15 entries. That means there were 11 scratches for any number of reasons.

There were 3 boys who had 1500 consideration times but were not in the top 26. One of them was a Maui athlete in attendance.

I think that if any of those kids with consideration times were present at the meet and prepared to run their names should have been called so that they could compete. Why not?

We all know that kids are entered into events that they will not compete in.

Our goal should be to give every deserving athlete an opportunity to be a participant.

[n0t1but2]

How about this interesting fact: Under the old scoring system, where only up to 5th place is scored, and individual events were scored 1st - 6pts, 2nd - 4pts, 3rd - 3pts, 4th - 2pts, 5th - 1pts and relays were scored 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 (5th place), the Girls Team score would have been Punahou - 42, Seabury - 40, Kahuku - 28. The old scoring system made first place worth more for individual events and relays worth more than individual events. I'm not sure whether the current scoring system was supposed to help the smaller schools, but the difference was only .33 pts. The other State specific rules like maximum 6 events per athlete instead of 4, or only 3 entries per team are supposed to help the smaller schools, but there isn't much of a difference in the current scoring except that the 6th place finisher goes home with a State Medal. I think the results came out about the same, using the previous score table, when Mililani lost to Punahou by 3 points in 2000.
If you use the scoring in the NFHS handbook for 8 or more schools (10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1) it comes out Punahou - 94.5, Seabury - 67, Kahuku - 54. Where you can see the advantage going to the larger schools with more people able to score points in the finals.

[n0t1but2]

The idea of an alternates list from the entries was kicked around in a few of the track evaluation meetings, and as I recall, one of the arguments against it was that it was an unfair advantage to the local host league(s). If the meet was on Oahu, there wouldn't be any problem finding available replacements to fill open lanes/slots, but the travelling teams would be at a disadvantage, since they wouldn't have paid the travel costs for an athlete who may not be participating.
There is a rule in the NFHS handbook that states, "entry constitutes participation" which is used when an athlete enters more than 6 events, but with the current meet management technology those discrepancies are usually rectified before anyone can be disqualified. The only exception would occur if the athlete enters on a relay team that counts as their 7th event. But the rule where if an athlete checks-in to an event but does not compete, and their penalty is that they are disqualified from the meet, only applies for checking into an event, not entering, but the same spirit should apply, because someone who checks in and doesn't run takes the lane away from the 1st alternate from the trials, or affects the seeding, lane and heat assignments for the trials heats, not to mention that it is just bad sportsmanship to do so. With entries, it does give the coach and athlete some leeway for making decisions later on about which events to run, but it also causes for deserving/qualified athletes who cannot be entered because of the numbers in that event.

[CCfan]

8 of the 11 boys entered in the 1500 that didn't run, ended up competing in another event, either the 800 or the 3000, only 3 entries that didn't run the 1500 were complete no-shows at the trials. In the distance events, most of the athletes/coaches have the "wait and see" attitude when determining which events to compete in, electing to chose events that have the fewer amount of top seeds, giving them a better opportunity to place.
In the finals on Saturday, only one alternate from the trials was able to compete in one of the 3 distance events for both boys and girls. For the most part, everyone that ran in the trials and made it into the finals of the distance events, decided to compete in those same events for the finals and not scratch out. Whether or not they each ran their fullest or just saved themselves for later events can be questionable.

[todaresq]

With all this chatter about how Seabury could have won, it could have gone both ways. Had it not been for Punahou's top vaulter no heighting or Julia Brand being taken out by a flying hurdle in the 100H, Punahou would have finished with more points. Maybe if Dakota has also ran the 800m and just placed or Seabury fielding a 4x100m team instead of Kailea running the 100m, they could have won. Bottom line is... coaches plan out their strategies based on the athletes they have and place them in events where they could either win an individual title or help their team out to achieve a team title. You can never predict what can happen on the night of the events. Good job to all the coaches and athletes, it was an awesome state meet!! Pulled hamstrings, fouling out on jumps or throws, taking a spill at a warm up and dislocating your elbow are just some of the things that happen. Then you throw in the weather factor... now that can really screw things up.
Which brings me to my next argument. Why isn't there a state record and a "state meet" record? We all know that some of the times or distances achieved at the state meet were not some of the best this season and those athletes, well... should be recognized for their best performances. Look at Pierce Murphy's times during the season and his times at the windy state meet. Or Ethan Kim's pole vault, Jenkins 100m time not having a wind gauge makes it a questionable "wind aided" run and the list goes on. So to all those who coach and administrators out there. Isn't it time to change this and start recognizing the island's best high school tracksters for their efforts and not just at the state meet?

[800runner]

Side note: Does anyone else find it ridiculous that the state meet would be limited to 26 entries? As opposed to the previous 32?

In all running events, this (assuming full fields) does not shorten the meet in any way. For events in lanes, it is still 4 heats. For the 1500, it still requires 3 heats (as opposed to 2 heats of 12). It would not be unusual to have a 16 person 3000, as opposed to a 13.

I know that HHSAA wanted to be fair and cut 20% to all sports, but in track it just doesn't seem to make sense. I don't see any difference in the way HHSAA would fund it. The only additional costs would be that of the athletes flying up, but fundraising can take care of that on a team-by-team basis right? Or is there some sort of league subsidy for travel costs?

[808HOTSHOTS]

2leftfeet...... I was shooting the polevaulters when all the girls, including Zoe, were briefed before the start of the 4x400 race. Almost her, the official, exact words were "just make sure you are not wearing any jewelry and and make sure your uniforms are the same thing." Again I was right there. When the race started people were yelling to her about her shirt (per my daughter), it was probably to loud for her to hear. Now at the finish line, as soon as she came in, the official walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder and informed Zoe at that time. The official looked like he wanted to cry. I gotta take the side of the officials this time. From what I hear, she had her warm-ups over her practice shirt which was over her uniform.
Besides that, I think Zoe in the 1500 and Dakota in the 3000, yes the 3000, were the races of the night. On the girls side.

[roadkillracoon]

The OIA (consisting entirely of public/state funded schools) provides a $90 stipend for athletes who place in the top six at their Championships, but I believe the requirements were revised so that it is only given to the place finishers who have an automatic state qualified time or mark.
They also cut out one of their preseason meets and went with timed finals for its Relay meet, Divisional meets and JV Championship, eliminating 3 more meets and bus transportation costs, however most OIA schools athletic budgets only fund them up to the winter season, and anything after that comes from school fundraising. Additionally several assistant coach slots have also been cut.
...but through all of this, the OIA still maintains a maximum 32 entries in their championship meets, since they wouldn't save anything by reducing it to 26. The reduction to 26 at the HHSAA State Championships is only a political action designed to show compliance with the state's attempt to conserve costs by mandating a 20% reduction across the board, but it doesn't save anything.
As far as state records, University of Hawaii Press did publish a book called Hawaii Sports History, Facts, & Statistics in 1999 by Dan Cisco, that listed all of the Hawaii State Track & Field Records at the time, unfortunately it was a one-time edition that was not updated annually. Also, the records in annual Punahou Relays program recognizes their event records that are better than the current State Championships Meet records. I'm all for recognizing state records as long as their is some way of officially maintaining, displaying and recognizing records and there is some agreement about the parameters when, where and how the records can be set and by whom. Some coaches have argued that times and marks set at mainland meets or at college/university hosted meets shouldn't be allowed to be used for entries into the HHSAA State meet, because they could be competing in the same heat with college athletes and gain an unfair advantage over athlete who can only compete at high school meets. There is also the issue of whether any outside meets are sanctioned or ratified by the NFHS and the HHSAA.
Is it still a Hawaii State record if it is a Hawaii resident competing at a mainland meet, or if a visiting school from the mainland sets the mark in Hawaii? Also there is the question of high school age eligibility for records. Finally, we would need someone to sponsor providing some type of award for breaking records, or possibly for those setting state best times and marks for the year.

[2LeftFeet]

Yes, the rules were explained before the event and probably more than once throughout the season and people in the stands tried to warn her, but do you think she left the shirt on intentionally? It was an accident that could have been caught by either another athlete or an official right there on the track, before it became an infraction. The fourth leg runners were lined up well before the incoming runners were making their way down the straight, and an official does monitor the order in which they line up, and whether they are inside of the passing zone triangles, so there were plenty of opportunities to inform her. I have seen other instances at the championship level where this type of mistake was prevented ahead of time. I just think that it was an unnecessary and preventable disqualification.