Looking at the New State Qualifying Guidelines and Regulations: An Analysis Piece

P.S. Result Analysis for the TPCA of GP Meet #3 is below. (I know that P.S. stands for Post-Script, but I'm going to use it to stand for Pre-Script here. Yeah, I'm kinda a rebel)

As many of you know there is a new system for the Indoor Championships. There are no longer any qualifying standards, but instead each event has a specific standard of people allowed to race. For the 800 there are 24 spots (17 people raced last season), the Mile has 20 spots (33 people raced last season), the 3k has 12 spots (17 people raced last season), and both the 4x8 and DMR get 12 relays (23 teams raced the 4x8 and 12 teams raced the DMR).

At first look, the lack of qualifying standards, but the keeping of what is now being called the SQG – State Qualifying Guidelines, is fantastic. Athletes no long have to worry about trying to get in fast races to hit specific times and can be entered based on place. This is pretty big for races where the previous SQS was difficult to hit such as the 3000m and the Distance Medley relay. That being said, the pressure is still on to run fast, and maybe even more so now in specific races such as the Mile and the 4x8. Normally they would run a multitude of heats in both the 4x8 and the Mile and it allowed for us to watching young runners compete in some events with lower qualifying standards. Here is what the fields have looked like in previous years (charts are tough on the blog, so the years are implied)

(New # is 24) 800 – 17 (2014), 24 (2013), 21, 35, 26, 25, 36, 25

(New # is 20) Mile – 33, 23, 29, 18, 18, 26, 27, 20

(New # is 12) 3000 – 17, 20, 13, 13, 21, 11, 23, 8

(New # is 12) 4x800 – 23, 20, 19, 23, 24, 14, 23, 20

(New # is 12) DMR – 12, 13, 12, 13, 10, 10, 10, 10

Going into writing this I wasn’t sure where I stood and looking at these numbers only complicates things. On one hand I’m very happy that we’ll be racing with 12 teams in the DMR no matter what, which brings more competition to the end of the race and we won’t have to deal with an 8 man 3k every again (you race you medal!?! Jeez, this isn’t the 3^rd round of a sprinting event), and maybe it’s a good thing that the 3k won’t have to deal with 21 runners on the line, which can get very complicated indoors and outdoors for that matter, yet when I look at the fields that had a high number of runners in them for the 3k especially it’s incredible to see how deep these years were. It would have been a shame to cut runners from any of those races, because the talent was so high. Now maybe having 35 or 36 runners in the 800 seems to be a bit much, but again I think it’s great experience for some of these runners from the slower heats to be able to gain valuable racing experience at a state meet. Mike Kolor is a great example of this, or guys like Kevin James who qualified as a sophomore for the 3k in that large field. 

I think the biggest loss here is the 4x800 field in my opinion. We go up and down with the 800 and the Mile and having 24 and 20 runners in both fields seems reasonable to me, but the PTFCA is essentially going to cut the 4x800 field in half. As shown above the 4x8 almost always has ~20 teams race. I think this is great for state meet exposure, and is fantastic for all runners. Now with many teams getting cut from racing the event I do think we’ll see an increased interest in the DMR, which will be interesting. Teams running 8:22 trying to run 10:49 is going to be pretty tough. I don’t see these times being synonymous, but maybe some of the better 4x8 teams who are in the 8-12 range will shoot for the DMR and that will ramp up the intensity of the event. 

But hey, there isn’t we can do about the system other than race in it. So here is the impact, in my opinion, for this new system. Runners attempting to qualify from the top tier won’t be affected that much. These guys want to get into the fastest heat, so they’re encouraged to run fast times because of that, but guys in the 18-30 range of an event who run the standard (now guideline) are nervously waiting to see if anyone has beaten there time. You might run 4:31 in early January in the Mile and not get another opportunity to race the event again and all of a sudden you’re 24^th on the Mile list and are bumped out of the meet. What about the guys from out west who often have a difficult time finding meets to attend due to weather and facility issues that have plagued them quite a bit in the past few years. What about runners like Paul Power who run 8:55 off their XC training and come back to running later on. That 8:55 might not last anymore as a top 12 time and he’d be forced to run the race again, maybe at the meet of champions, instead of tuning up with a Mile like Max Norris had the luxury of doing two years ago. Now we might have people being forced into these end of the season races for faster times and continually running the same event, which they might not like. For a spectator that means I will expect to see the Meet of Champions taken much more seriously this year. Normally runners who hit the standard could afford to race ‘off’ events with the knowledge that they had already gotten into the state meet, but now they will have to consider racing their main event one last time to truly secure their spot at states. 

All in all best of luck to everyone with the new system! 

--ForrestCRN