51 Outdoor State Meets and What I learned...

When we first started the Gill Connections podcast we did it with the goal of uplifting and honoring the coaches who would join us as guest of the show. And while that goal continues today in our fifth season, as we grew our audience from a few hundred to several thousand we explored ways to bring value to each and every person who presses play on their podcast app. Such was born the idea to interview one high school coach from each state to explore what uniqueness's there might be and what similarities there are in the way they qualify athletes to their outdoor state meet, what events do they contest for points, do they do a Meet of Champions meet, and more. This lead us to asking 51 (we couldn't exclude our friends in Washington DC now could we?) high school coaches to volunteer to record a 15-30 minute podcast episode for a unique BONUS series on the Gill Connections podcast.

As the host of the podcast, I was entrusted to interview each coach, give them the questions and guidance to best present the sometimes messy facts of their state meet series and showcase each state with honor and respect. When I first began soliciting volunteers from each state, I honestly thought this might be a fool's errand. Surely there wasn't that much diversity amongst the states. I assumed each state would be 90% similar with just a few tidbits thrown in here and there.

I was wrong.

It became apparent quickly that due to many reasons (geographic size of the state, the population of the state, and long standing traditions) each state has their own unique ways of qualifying athletes to a state championship meet as well as their own events with twists and turns that I could never have guessed. Below are some observations I made as I conducted all 51 state meet interviews with tidbits that I found interesting. Maybe you do to.

Private and Public Schools: The opening question for each coach explored the path of private schools and public school in the state meet competitions. The goal was to see if their particular state was comingling the private and public schools or separating divisions (and therefore separate state meets). The vast majority of the states had one path towards the state meet with both private schools and public schools competing along side each other. A few states do separate out private schools, the best example would be Texas with their NINE separate state meets; UIL (public), and several private organizations (including TAPPS, TCAF, TCAL, and a few more!). Other states such as Tennessee and Maryland separate public and private schools during the state meet qualification meets and ultimately the state meet itself as well. New Jersey public and private schools stay in their own lanes all the way to the state meet but then famously brings everyone together for their Meet of Champions meet.

The Road to State: Next up we tackled the heart of the entire series and looked at how athletes qualified to their state meet. After going over how many divisions each state has (that's its own unique aspect with several dissenting opinions on how many there should be) we looked at the road to state.

Essentially there are three main forms of qualifying athletes to the state meet: 1) some form of qualifying meets (regionals, sectionals, etc) where so many athletes based on their place qualify for the next round, 2) a straight descending order list where the top X number of athletes qualify for the state meet directly, and 3) a combination of the first two where place and qualifying time or descending order list allows an athlete to compete at the state meet.

Overall, when presented with these three options it begs the question of what kind of sport is Track and Field? Are we a time trial sport where descending order lists and automatic qualifying times get you to the big dance or are we a competition sport where placement, head to head battles, qualifies you? The number one concern amongst everybody interviewed was 'how do we get the best athletes to the state meet regardless if they have an illness during the qualifying time period, false start/foul, or are unlucky to be in a stacked region where they would have qualified in any other part of the state but not the one they're in.

Different states tackle these concerns in different ways. Due to geography, a state like Hawaii elects to do a straight descending order list for the state meet. Texas, which could be forgiving for also have a geography issue, is a qualifying only state where the top two athletes from regionals qualify for state and no more, which leaves many three place regional athletes not able to compete at the state meet yet still earning full ride college scholarships. The other aspect that we didn't get a chance to discuss to indepth is the amount of athletes per team per event allowed for entries. Some states only allow 2 per event, with many concerns that a team could easily have a 3rd (or even 4th!) athlete good enough to qualify while other states opened that up to four and even five athletes. A few states (typically in a descending order list qualifying process) allowed unlimited athletes per school as long as they hit the qualifying mark or where in the descending order list amount.

I could write an entire article on how many classes each state has. California and Indiana disregards how many students are in each school and boil their athletes down to a one class system producing a single state champion in each event. Other state such as Alabama and Mississippi have as many as seven classes producing seven state champions in each event.

*Don't even get me started on tie breakers to get to the state meet. Iowa has some changes to make. If there's a tie for the last athlete to go to the state meet the first tiebreaker is who placed higher at their regional meet. If the tie is not broken by that, the tiebreaker is made by which school is ahead in the alphabet! That's right, if an athlete from Ankeny HS and Riverside HS are tied by time/distance and place at regionals, the Ankeny HS athlete would go to the state meet because A comes before R. I think I'd rather have them break it by a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors than the alphabet!

Adaptive/Unified/Wheelchair Participation: It became apparent quickly that the rise in adaptive, unified, and wheelchair participation was occurring throughout the country. Most states expressed participation in one form or another at their state meet, some even going so far as having qualifying meets (sectionals, divisions, etc) to participate at the state meet. The state of Oregon goes so far as to count these athlete's events into the state meet scoring system itself while Wisconsin gives a separate team title for these athletes.

In an attempt to help amplify this opportunity, here is my use of ChatGPT to define the different competitions;

Adaptive: ChatGPT defines adaptive athletics as "also known as para-athletics, is a branch of track and field designed to accommodate individuals with physical, visual, or intellectual impairments. To ensure fair competition, athletes are classified based on their specific impairments grouping athletes with similar levels of function and ability.

Unified: ChatGPT defines adaptive athletics as a program that brings athletes with and without intellectual disabilities to compete on the same team. This inclusive approach fosters social inclusion, teamwork, and mutual respect.

Wheelchair: ChatGPT defines wheelchair athletics as a form of adaptive sports where athletes with physical disabilities compete in track and field events using specialized wheelchairs. This brand of athletics provides competitive opportunities and promotes physical fitness and social integration for individuals with mobility impairments.

What's the score?: Traditionally eight places are given points in a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system. However...not everyone subscribes to that tradition! New Mexico scores six places for both individual and relays however individual winners receive seven points and relay winners receive 10. Speaking of relay points, we learned that Oklahoma and Texas DOUBLE the points for relays! That's right, a relay winning team receives 20 points (by the way Texas UIL also only score six places instead of 10)! Rhode Island just started scoring eight places this past year after scoring six places before. Illinois scores nine places with the 9th place receiving .5 point. Virginia is a work in progress as they score six places during District and Regional meets but then bump that up to the traditional eight places at the state meet.

Meet of champions? With single class states such as California and Indiana the state meet is the de facto Meet of Champions. All other states with multiple classes have to ask themselves "who is the actual #1 state champion in each event?" Some states such as (New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arkansas and others) answer the question by inviting all the state champions plus next best marks to one final meet for everyone to race/compete against each other therefore crowing the 'true state champion'. New York (more on them later) combines their two divisions plus the private schools into a MoC but do it on the same day as the divisional state meet!

Most noted that having a Meet of Champions in a lot of states is hard to navigate (or impossible) due to culture and geography. The Texas TF Coaches Association started a MoC eight years ago and the Atlanta Track Club host one for Georgia, but both are a bit of hit and miss to garner all eligible athletes. Lots of coaches remarked that once the state meet is over there is a lot of competition for the athlete's attention; graduation, football preparations, college considerations, not to mention Nike/New Balance/Adidas National Championships and USATF/AAU track meets. Blaine Pederson of Bozeman (Montana) HS noted "it takes 11 hours to drive across the state. I'm not sure {a MoC} is possible!"

Other ways to recognize the top athlete in each event include the states of South Dakota and Wyoming who give out a special award (Gold Medal of All Classes for SD and Best of the Best medal for WY) to the athlete with the top performance in each event at the state meet. Wisconsin is another unique state that doesn't have a MoC but they do host a freshman state championship after the traditional all class state meets. This meet is open to any freshman regardless if they participated in their sport or not (some baseball players have come out and found out they are better on the track than they are on the diamond). This meet attracts nearly 500 athletes!

It would be in error not to include the New England Championships as well. The states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont get together to host a MoC for all six states after their respective state meets are held.

Now let's look at the uniqueness of events among the different state meets:

Loooooong Hurdles: An event that looks a bit different depending on the state are the intermediate hurdles for boys and girls. The most popular distance for this event is the 300m. However several states either have a long tradition of, or have recently converted to, the 400m distance as seen on the collegiate/professional side of track and field. The states that currently run the 400m intermediate hurdles include Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina. It should be noted that no matter the distance every state with the exception of Iowa runs this event at the 30" for girls and 36" height for boys; notably Iowa runs the boy's event at 33".

STICK!: With apologies to everyone who had to listen to me tell the same relays joke on nearly all 51 episodes, every state runs the traditional 4x100m and 4x400m relay events. After that, it gets a bit unique. Several states include the 4x200m relay with each team staying in their lane the entire race; it's New Mexico who uses a "wild west" approach and has their runners cut in on the second leg mimicking a traditional 4x400m hand off strategy. Since I famously qualified for the Alabama state meet as an athlete in the 4x800m relay, I assumed every state runs the event. WRONG! Not only does every state NOT run this event there were many states (California being a notable one) who have in the past few years only recently added this race to their schedule.

A few notable distinctive relay facts we learned include:

• Iowa offers SEVEN relays (more on that later) at their state meet
• Two states (Iowa and West Virginia) offer my favorite event the Shuttle Hurdle Relay at the state meet
• Sprint Medley Relay: South Dakota and Wyoming run the Sprint Medley Relay for both boys and girls as the 200m, 200m, 400m, 800m, but our friends in Colorado run it girls only (no boys SMR!) as the 100m, 100m, 200m, 400m.
• In Utah, the small school divisions (1A-3A) run the Sprint Medley Relay (200m, 200m, 400m, 800m) however the larger schools (4A-6A) run the 4x800m instead.
• Similarly in Idaho, the large school division (5A) runs the 4x800m but the other four divisions run the Sprint Medley Relay. In a fun twist the girls run it as the 100m, 100m, 200m, 400m yet the boys run it as the 200m, 200m, 400m, 800m.
• Washington runs the 4x200m only for girls because girl's didn't have pole vault back in the day. However, even though Washington girls now famously have the PV event, they have NOT added 4x200m for boys!
• Mixed Relays: New York is currently investigating adding the mixed 4x400m relay event to their state meet and Nebraska has added a mixed 4x200m to the regular season schedule (but not the state meet...yet!).

Unique/Rare/Uncommon events: Several unique aspects of the state meet events came out in the interviews. For example two states (Iowa and New York) have their boys run the 1600m/3200m events but their girls run the 1500m/3000m events. (It should be noted a few states including Vermont and Hawaii run both the boys and girls in the 1500m/3000m events. New York takes the distance hurdling cake by being the only state that officially runs a steeplechase, allowing athletes to run the 2000m distance for girls and the 3000m distance for boys. Maine is the only state to officially offer a racewalking event by hosting the 1600m racewalk at the state meet. Connecticut until around 2002 was the only state that offered a 5000m distance at state. Sad to see that go. They redeem themselves by hosting an unofficial state meet in the steeplechase after the New England Championships. So that's awesome to see! Speaking of the steeplechase, Texas runs the event for High Schoolers at the Texas Relays (the javelin too!) and New Hampshire annually hosts the Clipper Relays where they offer a modified steeplechase event.

NO Hop, Skip, and Jump for YOU!: Every state included the long jump event however the same can't be said for the triple jump. The following states do not offer the triple jump for either boys or girls: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and West Virginia. Let's get that changed!

Free the Vault: Certainly the vast majorities of state participate in one of the most exciting events, but not every state gives athletes the ability to compete in the Pole Vault. Famously Iowa does not conduct either boys or girls pole vault. In the state of Utah, the big school division (6A) pole vault is a scored event however for the other divisions (1A-5A) it's an exhibition only event. And finally Alaska and Washington DC also offer no pole vault for boys or girls

Spearchuckers unite: While not adopted by ever state, we almost have a majority offering the event (23 states) of javelin for boys and girls. With several states having added in the past several years, and others in talks to add it in the upcoming years, the following states officially score the javelin at their state meet: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. PS: Kentucky conducts the Turbojav for middle school athletes however it stops there as they do not offer it as part of their HS state meet series. (let's get that corrected my Kentucky friends).

Combined events: As a big fan of the combined events, I was sadly expecting nearly no one to conduct any sort of combined events at their state meet. WRONG (sort of)! While only two states offer it as a scored event, several states offer an unofficial state meet of sorts which helps improve greatly the participation for these awesome events.

Tennessee offers the Pent/Dec (subbing the Triple Jump for the Javelin) as a state meet event. They do the events a week before the state meet so those athletes can compete at other individual events afterwards. Massachusetts also offers a Pentathlon for both boys/girls as part of their state meet scoring. The interesting part here is that Massachusetts athletes can only participate in three events max (!) yet one of those three events can be the Pentathlon. Hmmm, interesting! Even more interesting, after the state meet during their Meet of Champions they expand the Pentathlon into a Hept/Dec for boys and girls! Even more interesting! (more on Massachusetts later!)

Not as part of the state meet scoring, but just as valuable, we found 10 more states that hold unofficial state meet type of meets for the combined events. Our friends in Texas host a 'Texas Greatest Athlete' meet in June for both Hept/Dec. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas and Washington host unofficial state meets in both combined events (Arkansas subbing the triple jump for javelin). Two weeks after the New England Championships, Vermont host a decathlon for both genders. That's right the boys AND the girls do a full decathlon. They see over 70 kids per gender compete in this great event! New Hampshire's Nashua South Coach Catrina Lougee hosts the country's oldest Hept/Dec (over 50 years strong!) and have had as many as 120 per gender competing!

And finally the Iowa Association of Track Coaches host a state meet pentathlon while our friends in Utah have several opportunities throughout the year thanks to BYU and a small school in central Utah to do the decathlon minus the pole vault (enneathlon?)

Hammer time: Kudos to the state of Rhode Island as they are the lone state to officially score the hammer event at their state meet. While the great coaches/athletes of Rhode Island stand alone officially, other states have unofficial state meets. Connecticut hosts an unofficial state meet after the New England Championships in the hammer and Massachusetts has historically offered one after their Meet of Champions. We learned the awesome coaches of Ohio conduct an unofficial hammer state meet the Sunday after the traditional state meet. However we have recently heard of the OHSAA officially banning the hammer at any official OHSAA meets, putting this unofficial state meet in jeopardy.

What stood out to me: A couple of unique aspects of this interview series stood out to me. Here are some of my ramblings:

• New York- At one point during Justin Craddock's interview I stopped to ask if he was trolling me. He had just finished stating that New York does not score their state meet, essentially it is an individual event and not a team event. I couldn't believe this was true! Later I found out New Hampshire doesn't either (albeit for a different reason). My head still can't get around this fact.
• Lots and lots of relays-As a fan of the relay events (shoutout to my friends at Drake and Penn!) I absolutely fell in love with the fact Iowa has seven relay events for their state meet. The traditional 4x100m and 4x400m are included of course, the common but not universal 4x200m and 4x800m events put us up to four relays and we've already mentioned my favorite event the Shuttle Hurdle Relay which gives us number five. The last two relays include the Sprint Medley 100m, 100m, 200m, 400m and the Distance Medley Relay 200m, 200m, 400m, 800m on the Blue Oval.
• Receiving the 'No Excuses' award, North Carolina does not the lack of indoor facilities in the state keep them from giving their athletes the opportunity to compete in indoor events. A rich tradition of Polar Bear meets sees coaches hosting meets at outdoor facilities but running indoor distances. This allows for some interesting 60m dash and hurdle races as well as 300m races. They ultimately host their state meet at the JDL Fast Track facility, however they give great leadership to the rest of the country by being the example of no excuses will keep them from giving their athletes the indoor track experience.
• The 'it doesn't make sense' award goes out to my friends in Massachusetts. What once was a one day meet, they instituted a 'no more than 3 events per athlete' rule. However now they've gone to a two day meet, but still have this 3 events per athlete rule. What doesn't make sense, is Massachusetts proudly has the Pentathlon event and yet that counts as one of the three events. Therefore an athlete can participate in the Pentathlon (5 events) and the 100m dash and long jump for example (7 total races/events), but an athlete would NOT be able to do the 100m dash, Long Jump, 4x100m, and 200m dash (4 total races/events). Now that doesn't make sense to me!
• The 'should this be how track is contested' award goes out to Minnesota. Started in 1987 the True Team State Championships meet is conducted where the entire team scores for a team title. This means you'll score all the way down to the 27th place if that many athletes conducts that event. Interestingly, you'll enter two or three athletes per event (depending on the division) but you don't declare the specific athlete to the event. You can make decisions on the fly as you see other school's athletes warming up for a specific event. This brings some real strategy to a track meet and similar to CC an athlete can battle for the 14th place and that could be the difference in the track meet team total at the end! This occurs before the traditional state meet. You need to hear Coach Meghan Orgeman from Alexandria Area HS explain it, I don't do it justice.
• I never though America's smallest land mass state would be leading in some extremely progressive areas for track and field. While Rhode Island has a three class state championship meet that is followed up with an all state (meet of champions if you will) championship meet, it's what they do for JV and Freshman that caught my ear. Rhode Island hosts a JV State Meet for any athlete who did not qualify for the varsity state meet and a Freshman State Meet for any freshman that ran track that year. Both meets give out team scores and trophies! The goal of hosting these unique meets is to keep kids active and interested in the sport of track and field giving them a championship experience with the hopes it keeps them participating throughout their years in high school. I think this is absolutely wonderful and hope this would spread (especially the Freshman State Meet idea) to other states.
• A few states (Illinois and Virginia for example) have strong middle school state meet programs. Full seasons that culminate in a state championship meet experience. Something for other states to consider regarding the development of their high school track and field depth and performances.

State v States: I couldn't get 51 coaching leaders on the podcast without trying to settle a debate that rages throughout the country. All around the country you will hear athletes and coaches alike who will say they qualified for the State Meet or just as passionately they will say they qualified for States. We had some real hardliners on both sides of the aisle and while I'm personally entrenched squarely in the states camp, it appears I'm in the minority. From our 51 podcast guests State beat States handily 36 to 15. I even ran a Twitter poll to gather more data and lost 75% to 21%. I'm not going to stop saying states though.

The Magic Wand: At the end of each episode I awarded the guest a magic wand of sorts, if they could change one thing about track and field in their state what would it be. Some went for very God-like powers (changes in weather, etc), most chose some type of system to get "all the best athletes" to the state meet. Maybe you're wondering what my Magic Wand would be? I personally very much like a one class system. No matter how big or how small your state is I think having one class provides the most excitement at a state meet, it allows us a Hoosier moment if you will. PS: I think that one class state meet should also be qualified too based on a descending order list i.e. no more regional, districts, etc.

And this brings us to our conclusion...I'm so grateful for each and every coach who volunteered to represent their state for this amazing podcast series. Below is each and every one of their names and schools with a hyperlink to their specific episode. If you haven't listened to all 51 of them, I encourage you to start the journey. You'll learn so much that I think you'll be a better coach for it.

List of servant leaders: Thank you to the servant leaders who volunteered their time and took the risk to represent their great state. I am grateful for their participation; Alabama-Ben Dake (Locust Fork HS), Alaska-Melissa Hall (Chugiak HS), Arizona-Airabin Justin (North Canyon HS), Arkansas-BJ Parrish (Bentonville West HS), California-JT Ayers (Trabuco Hills HS), Colorado-Markus Miller (Valor Christian HS), Connecticut-Marty Ogden (MysportsResults.com), Delaware-Mike Tucci (Caesar Rodney HS), Florida-Gary Dixon, Georgia-Jonathan Gambrell (Marietta HS), Hawaii-Mike Harvey (Maryknoll HS), Idaho-Bryan Stith (Capital HS), Illinois-Jarrin Williams (Rock Island HS), Indiana-Chris Kramer (Pike Central HS), Iowa-Sara Schwendinger (DM Roosevelt HS), Kansas-Aaron Ballew (Blue Valley Southwest HS), Kentucky-Jimi Burress (Bethlehem HS), Louisiana-Brad Womack (Patrick Taylor Academy), Maine-George Mendros (Thornton Academy), Maryland-Patrick Malone (Crofton HS), Massachusetts-Tanner Williams (Longmeadow HS), Michigan-Jeremy Annen (Coopersville Public HS), Minnesota-Meghan Orgeman (Alexandria Area HS), Mississippi-Ashley Bonds (Macomb HS), Missouri-Kyle Morse (William Chrisman HS), Montana-Blaine Pederson (Bozeman HS), Nebraska-Kent McCrimmon (Concordia HS), Nevada-Roy Sessions (Centennial HS), New Hampshire-Catrina Lougee (Nashua South HS), New Jersey-Tim Cook (Ocean City HS), New Mexico-Steven Montoya (Los Alamos HS), New York-Justin Craddock (Williamsville North HS), North Carolina-Andy Sparks (Marvin Ridge HS), North Dakota-Jeff Bakke (Red River HS), Ohio-Anjanette Whitman (Beaumont School), Oklahoma-Luke Orvis (Edmond Memorial HS), Oregon-Greg Rohr/Scott Jones (Sam Barlow HS), Pennsylvania-Doug Petrick (Upper Sinclair HS), Rhode Island-James Lourenco (La Salle Academy), South Carolina-Oshay Davenport (Spartanburg HS), Tennessee-Drew Matthews (Franklin Road Academy), Texas-Stu Kantor (TTFCA), Utah-Scott Stucki (Hillcrest HS), Vermont-Dennis Akey (South Burlington HS), Virginia-Jeff Fanale (Centreville HS), Washington-Eric Hisaw (Walla Walla HS), Washington DC-Tia Clemmons (Jackson Reed HS), West Virginia-James Dalton (Morgantown HS), Wisconsin-Mark Hoffman (South Milwaukee HS), Wyoming-Carson Rowley (Cody HS).