If you’ve followed me for the past two weeks or so, you know the drill. In past years, I’ve highlighted only the distance kids, this year I’m spreading the love far and wide. The avenue is through finding the best crews, whether that be jumps, distance, vault, sprints, throws, or hurdles.
The past two weeks with their limited volume of athletes led to each event being ranked. Thanks to the coaches, volunteers, and athletes at schools such as Whitmore Lake, Grass Lake, Lansing Catholic, Livonia Franklin, there were actually outdoor meets (and I’m not forgetting the massive invite at the LAB). Us Michiganders are tough and persevering through less than ideal conditions will be of benefit when it’s inevitably a bad weather day at Regionals. Compliments out of the way, a large number of athletes competed yesterday, so the events are now combined to form CREWS.
How does one get on these lists and how are they ranked?
You need to have three athletes compete in each of the events. From those three athletes, the top times/marks are averaged out, then those averages are ranked. These are taken from the 2022 Outdoor Season only, even the indoor meets during the outdoor season (and if you say, “Matt, you’re a hypocrite on Twitter”, you’re right. But I make the rules here, too bad). Ties are broken by the team that has the highest of their lowest rank (and for Division 4, I took the higher overall rank, but hopefully that’ll be rectified in future weeks). Scroll on and you’ll find an entire ranking of the top teams in each event, but in this section, it’s just the teams with three in both the HJ and LJ.
These are from meets that were uploaded by 8pm Saturday.
Confused yet? Send me a message and I’ll lead you further astray.
In past years, I’ve ranked programs by the number of sub-5/sub-6 milers, but that just concentrates on the distance folks. There are ten other individual events and three more relays. Michigan schools have traditions in jumps, throws, hurdles, sprints, and the vault. We have outstanding individuals who attain national glory both at this level and later in life. It’s my mission here to recognize and rank the teams that excel in the specialized events that make track and field, TRACK AND FIELD.
Over the winter, I ranked college distance programs, and I did an okay job, though I wasn’t impressed with the way I presented the rankings. USTFCCCA does their #eventsquad rankings for each individual event for collegiate teams. I thought I’d blend what they do and what I intend to do, to produce these “best crews”. Prep coaches typically wear many hats, but often you’ll have a throws coach, a hurdles coach, etc. If you have a girl that throws Shot, she’ll typically throw Discus. Instead of dissecting each individual event, I’ll attempt to rank the best hurdle crew (100/110h, 300h), the best throws crew (Disc, Shot), distance (800, 1600, 3200), sprint (100, 200, 400), jumps (HJ, LJ), and finally, Pole Vault getting their own, special category.
The method for the rankings is such:
Times and marks from the 2022 Outdoor Season only
A team must have 3 athletes in an event to get ranked
Top 3 athletes from each team with their best times/jumps/tosses averaged out
The highest rank is given to the team with the highest average in that event
Combining events to form a crew, teams will be ranked by their average rank between events (with ties going to teams with the teams with the higher rank of their worst category)
These are NOT intended to be predictive or an overall rank of one’s T&F team. If you’re wondering why a team isn’t ranked, they likely haven’t competed yet or perhaps they don’t have the numbers to qualify. While my cross rankings attempt to project future performance, these are just a show what has already occurred. And maybe for myself, learn a little more of the names and individuals in those “other” events.
For this initial ranking, I did NOT combine the hurdlers to form a crew, there just isn’t a volume of athletes to create a proper ranking. In future weeks, I’ll have the hurdlers combined and rankings for each division. Message me if you need further explanation. I’m not burning the candle at both ends like the end of October, so I might be nice to you!
In past years, I’ve ranked programs by the number of sub-5/sub-6 milers, but that just concentrates on the distance folks. There are ten other individual events and three more relays. Michigan schools have traditions in jumps, throws, hurdles, sprints, and the vault. We have outstanding individuals who attain national glory both at this level and later in life. It’s my mission here to recognize and rank the teams that excel in the specialized events that make track and field, TRACK AND FIELD.
Over the winter, I ranked college distance programs, and I did an okay job, though I wasn’t impressed with the way I presented the rankings. USTFCCCA does their #eventsquad rankings for each individual event for collegiate teams. I thought I’d blend what they do and what I intend to do, to produce these “best crews”. Prep coaches typically wear many hats, but often you’ll have a throws coach, a hurdles coach, etc. If you have a girl that throws Shot, she’ll typically throw Discus. Instead of dissecting each individual event, I’ll attempt to rank the best hurdle crew (100/110h, 300h), the best throws crew (Disc, Shot), distance (800, 1600, 3200), sprint (100, 200, 400), jumps (HJ, LJ), and finally, Pole Vault getting their own, special category.
The method for the rankings is such:
Times and marks from the 2022 Outdoor Season only
A team must have 3 athletes in an event to get ranked
Top 3 athletes from each team with their best times/jumps/tosses averaged out
The highest rank is given to the team with the highest average in that event
Combining events to form a crew, teams will be ranked by their average rank between events (with ties going to teams with the teams with the higher rank of their worst category)
These are NOT intended to be predictive or an overall rank of one’s T&F team. If you’re wondering why a team isn’t ranked, they likely haven’t competed yet or perhaps they don’t have the numbers to qualify. While my cross rankings attempt to project future performance, these are just a show what has already occurred. And maybe for myself, learn a little more of the names and individuals in those “other” events.
For this initial ranking, I did NOT combine the throws to form a crew, there just isn’t a volume of athletes to create a proper ranking. In future weeks, I’ll have the sprints combined and rankings for each division. Message me if you need further explanation. I’m not burning the candle at both ends like the end of October, so I might be nice to you!
