HS Athletes Of The Year named

[gh]

Stories now on front page. Absolutely nobody will be surprised, of course, to learn that Fernandez and Hasay were the choices.

[richxx87]

Re: HS Athletes Of The Year named

Absolutely nobody will be surprised, of course, .

The wry wit of GH at its finest.

[doug091463]

i think demps should have got the mens track athlete of the year, hi s 10:01 for 100 meters makes him the 73rd best performance ever in a championship event, while fernandez's times while it shows he is a great prospect, he is not yet world class. i like the hasay pick for her high school record for 1500 and to me very importantly she was 4th at world juniors and 2 of the girls who beat her are 2 years older.

note i dont consider anyone world class who has never been in the tilastopaja top 100 all time list in a championship event, what is interesting to me will be which athletes ever get into the top 100 in a championship event, for the USA athletes i think a lot of sprinters, hurdlers and field events, but very few distance runners.

[Marlow]

i think demps should have got the mens track athlete of the year, hi s 10:01 for 100 meters.

Running that 10.01 HSR and making the USA OT semis is (Big Picture) much more significant feat than Fernandez's HSR, however, this is a HS award, and even I, distanciphobe that I am, would have to agree German was The Man on the HS scene.

[guru]

i think demps should have got the mens track athlete of the year, hi s 10:01 for 100 meters.

The thing that gives Fernandez the edge is his dual event exploits in the mile and the two mile, especially that mind-boggling Ca state meet double. Head to head it's tough for Demps to overcome that, though I agree his 10.01 performance trumps Fernandez's 8:34.

Did Demps even run a 200 this year?

[Marlow]

Did Demps even run a 200 this year?

Yup - 21.32 SB; 21.04 PR ('07).

[Bruce Kritzler]

Note that #"s 2,4, & 9 are in Gatorville now.

[bad hammy]

The thing that gives Fernandez the edge is his dual event exploits in the mile and the two mile, especially that mind-boggling Ca state meet double. . .

Plus the way he ran solo in all of those great races, CA state meet and beyond . . .

[gh]

i think demps should have got the mens track athlete of the year, hi s 10:01 for 100 meters makes him the 73rd best performance ever in a championship event, while fernandez's times while it shows he is a great prospect, he is not yet world class. i like the hasay pick for her high school record for 1500 and to me very importantly she was 4th at world juniors and 2 of the girls who beat her are 2 years older.

note i dont consider anyone world class who has never been in the tilastopaja top 100 all time list in a championship event, what is interesting to me will be which athletes ever get into the top 100 in a championship event, for the USA athletes i think a lot of sprinters, hurdlers and field events, but very few distance runners.

If being world-class is required, then we can pretty much guarantee that you'll never be choosing anything but sprinters. There's few things that 18-year-old bodies can do at a world-class level. Sprinting's one of them; throwing heavy things is decidedly not (Dallas Long notwithstanding).

I would hope that members of our voting panel are able to place somebody's performance in the proper historical perspective within their event and use that as a prime criterion for their rating, rather than how two people relate to the world list from disparate events.

[doug091463]

of course in the USA i will almost always be picking sprinters that is the strength of the united states at every level from age group to open.

in kenya if i was choosing their high school athlete of the year (even if all their ages could be 100% proven) i am sure i would almost always pick a mid distance or long distance runner as that is by far their strength.

in finland their top athlete at every level would in most years would be a javelin thrower as that is finlands current strongest event.

track will most likely lose demps to the nfl.

the usa is looking for a distance hero, but the sprinters in the usa are where the distance runners want to be, the best depth wise in the world, depth meaning top 50 or 100 ettc. although jamaica has the 2 the incredible combo of bolt and powell.

[26mi235]

Laura Roesler 800 (plus 100/200/400/XC champ at state) finished ahead of Price at the Trials and is under-ranked here.

[gh]

For some historical reference, the list of all-time winners is here:

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/archive/HSAOYs.pdf

[mcgato]

I like how Obea Moore is listed as being from Muir, Pennsylvaniasadena, CA.

[Powell]

If being world-class is required, then we can pretty much guarantee that you'll never be choosing anything but sprinters. There's few things that 18-year-old bodies can do at a world-class level. Sprinting's one of them; throwing heavy things is decidedly not (Dallas Long notwithstanding).

I agree that comparing HS athletes' performances to best senior athletes creates an unfair bias in favor of some events. You should compare them to international athletes of the same age group. Demps was the fastest junior in the world this year. Fernandez and Hasay were nowhere near.

And BTW, if there's one event in which high schoolers can be world class, it's HJ, not the sprints.

[guru]

And BTW, if there's one event in which high schoolers can be world class, it's HJ, not the sprints.

Agree, and I don't know what the voters were smoking when they ranked Olympic Trials HJ finalist Shanay Briscoe out of the top 10.