One of the big talking points coming out of the boys state meet has been the absurd amount of qualifying athletes that this year produced. During the years of 2021, 2022, and arguably semi 2023 we were down as a state in terms of performances due to COVID-19 taking time away from developing athletes for over a year. Seniors this past season, the class of 2024, is our first post covid group of athletes we have had. The IHSA takes the 21st performances from sectionals in both 1A and 3A (They do 16th in 2A) from the past five years, average that number to get our state qualifying standard. So its great that we are coming out of our COVID times and producing great marks across the board again, but that five year average means we will run into the same issue for the next few seasons. We had the dorms sold out quickly causing people needing to get hotels over an hour away. Especially with weather delays that makes things difficult. So what does next season look like?
So for reference lets look at the main issue from this past year. That was the 3A Boys classification which had more qualifiers than any other classifcation. The 5 year average math is listed here.
Events 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 Standard
LJ 6.84 6.62 6.82 6.75 6.84 6.77
PV 4.17 4.16 4.16 4.16 4.17 4.16
HJ 1.90 1.90 1.90 1.90 1.90 1.90
SP 16.05 13.51 16.43 15.34 16.04 15.47
TJ 13.67 12.89 13.06 13.45 13.53 13.32
DT 47.14 41.52 47.08 47.25 48.11 46.22
4x800m 8:01.73 8:04.54 8:02.27 8:00.36 7:57.81 8:01.34
4x100m 42.96 43.40 42.83 42.88 42.27 42.87
3200m 9:27.13 9:55.01 9:36.45 9:24.93 9:25.58 9:33.82
110H 15.59 16.11 15.35 15.34 15.09 15.50
100m 11.10 11.14 10.94 11.04 10.86 11.02
800m 1:59.41 1:57.85 2:01.58 1:57.31 1:56.57 1:58.54
4x200m 1:29.85 1:31.48 1:30.80 1:29.90 1:29.36 1:30.28
400m 50.27 51.31 50.54 50.14 49.95 50.44
300H 40.26 42.49 41.48 40.40 40.22 40.97
1600m 4:26.02 4:23.68 4:21.60 4:21.94 4:21.27 4:22.90
200m 22.54 22.78 22.26 22.22 22.10 22.38
4x400m 3:25.12 3:35.45 3:27.24 3:25.39 3:24.14 3:27.47
Here is what these Standards compare to this years standards.
Event 2024 Projected 2025
LJ 6.75 6.77
PV 4.16 4.16
HJ 1.90 1.90
SP 15.57 15.47
TJ 13.36 13.32
DT 46.71 46.22
4x800m 8:02.54 8:01.34
4x100m 42.97 42.87
3200m 9:33.35 9:33.82
110H 15.40 15.50
100m 11.07 11.02
800m 1:58.38 1:58.54
4x200m 1:30.64 1:30.28
400m 50.72 50.44
300H 41.10 40.97
1600m 4:23.60 4:22.90
200m 22.33 22.38
4x400m 3:26.76 3:27.47
As you can see, we will run into the exact issue this upcoming year if the IHSA follows the same format. Hopefully some brainstorming is done by the advisory committee prior to them releasing the 2025 standards. Here is a few things that they could look at.
Remove data from 2021. This was the state meet that was right after covid with no prelims. As you can see by the qualification data, the 2021 data is an outlier.
Change the place that they pull from of state qualifiers. Change the place from the 21st performance to potentially the 16th to be on par with 2A.
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