state qualifiers

News about national level high school pole vaulting, pole vaulters, rules, etc. Things that are of local interest only should go in the regional forums below. High schoolers wanting to chat should go to the High School Lounge.

Moderators: Robert schmitt, Russ

User avatar
mooski33
PV Nerd
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 12:27 pm
Location: Washington State
Contact:

state qualifiers

Unread postby mooski33 » Fri Sep 20, 2002 9:01 pm

I was just curious how many ceeds to state each district gets. I know last year the WesCo 4A district only got three, and this coming year they have cut it down to 2, which I feel is rather unfair considering there are districts that are far less competitive then WesCo 4A and are allowed more people to attend state.

xtremevaulter

No Kidding

Unread postby xtremevaulter » Fri Sep 20, 2002 9:18 pm

Yeah we all remember how last year I bareilly missed state by two scratches. That is how competitive our district can be. But there is only supposed to be 16 people in each even at state. so i guess that is why

User avatar
Robert schmitt
PV Lover
Posts: 1108
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2002 7:41 pm
Location: Mount Vernon, WA
Contact:

Unread postby Robert schmitt » Fri Sep 20, 2002 9:42 pm

I've never liked the way they qualify you guys for state. I've brought this up at coaching conventions only to become a verbal punching bag for these dinasours who are soooo resistant to change :mad: , because that is the way it has always been done :no: ! There was a situation two years ago wear our district was stacked in the boys vault with only three qualifiers to state. At the district meet we had 4 boys cear 13', one clear 13'6", two clear 14', and one clear 15'. If memory serves me correct there 13 would have placed 4 or 5 at the state meet. I'm sure Becca will call me on this if I'm wrong. Any way, I feel if you are going to have a meet to determine a state champion than you better have the top athletes in the state at the meet.

User avatar
rainbowgirl28
I'm in Charge
Posts: 30435
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
Gender: Female
World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
Location: A Temperate Island
Contact:

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Sat Sep 21, 2002 2:20 am

Haha I don't have results in front of me and I am too tierd to look them up :P

Districts qualifiers are made roughly by the number of schools in each district. Not by the quality of athletes. And that is going to vary a lot by event to event anyway.

I have seen far worse than you guys are mentioning. David Gaudette was in the same region as Tyson and Eric... I think he jumped about 14-5 (which would have been... 4th? 5th? at state) and did not qualify.

And for 2 years there was NO girls qualifying standard. I saw the number 2 vaulter in State 1A not make it to State because her district had only 1 spot to state. And there was no qualifier or anything else she could do. This girl was a senior and never got to compete at State in the vault.

Oh yes and don't get me started on how awful it was when the 1A meet was an 8 team meet (as opposed to 16 like everyone else).

The best way to fix this is to lower the qualifying standards. There is an automatic qualifier for everyone now... but it is based on the average of the 3rd place finishes at State the past 3 years. There is a lot of popular support for lowering it to the average of the 6th or 7th place finisher.

If you want to see the WIAA allocations go to the WIAA website. Honestly, it will never be totally fair. You rarely get a State Meet where the top 8 vaulters in the State place in the top 8... or even get to compete. But it is like that in every sport. What is the alternative? Do like NCAAs were and only go by qualifying marks? That ruined a lot of the joy of track meets. Teams didn't care about winning, except at Conference and Nationals... all the rest was just athletes chasing qualifying marks. Which is not the same as athletes trying to win or support their team.

The current system may not always be the most fair to everyone... but I have not seen anything I would like better. Except lowering the qualifying standards :yes:

User avatar
mooski33
PV Nerd
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 12:27 pm
Location: Washington State
Contact:

Unread postby mooski33 » Sat Sep 21, 2002 2:51 am

It is understandable that it will never be fair, but why in the world did my district get lowered to only 2 spots for this coming season? I know its not based on competition in the districts, but we have a pretty huge district...not to mention the state champion and I believe one or two other girls in the top 10 (correct me if I'm wrong, I really don't know). I don't think that the qualifying marks may need to be lowered a bit, but they shouldn't be the only determination of qualifiers. there should still be the top 2 or 3 or even 5 in some cases that get to go because like becca said, it would take away from the meet if they got rid of that. I wish there was a way to fix this all, but its not gonna happen...nothing will change by this season, so I shouldn't worry about it..it just makes me so angry. Oh well.

User avatar
Robert schmitt
PV Lover
Posts: 1108
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2002 7:41 pm
Location: Mount Vernon, WA
Contact:

Unread postby Robert schmitt » Sat Sep 21, 2002 1:04 pm

where I came from they had a qualifing standard that made it to state but no one knew what it was until after the district meet. this standard was not the average of any place over the years. They just looked at the seeding for state and said this is our 8th place seed did anyone else make that this year at a district meet, If so lets invite them. that way it preserved the competition at duals etc... like becca said. and made sure that no one who performed at the district meet well enough to place in the field that made it to state was left behind. Problem solved and a fairly easy solution on both fronts.

User avatar
rainbowgirl28
I'm in Charge
Posts: 30435
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
Gender: Female
World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
Location: A Temperate Island
Contact:

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Sat Sep 21, 2002 4:56 pm

Robert schmitt wrote:where I came from they had a qualifing standard that made it to state but no one knew what it was until after the district meet. this standard was not the average of any place over the years. They just looked at the seeding for state and said this is our 8th place seed did anyone else make that this year at a district meet, If so lets invite them. that way it preserved the competition at duals etc... like becca said. and made sure that no one who performed at the district meet well enough to place in the field that made it to state was left behind. Problem solved and a fairly easy solution on both fronts.


That is a very interesting idea! :yes:

User avatar
mooski33
PV Nerd
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 12:27 pm
Location: Washington State
Contact:

Unread postby mooski33 » Sun Sep 22, 2002 2:09 pm

I am definitely feeling roberts idea, someone needs to tell the WIAA about that! too bad it probably wont' happen this season..thigns like that take forever to get moving..especially in washington!

User avatar
Azbeachboy1
PV Follower
Posts: 487
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2002 8:24 pm
Expertise: College coach
Lifetime Best: 17’1”
Favorite Vaulter: Toby
Location: Phoenix
Contact:

Unread postby Azbeachboy1 » Mon Sep 23, 2002 12:57 am

In Arizona, we state qualifying was 13'9 any one who cleared that made it to state. ON top of that the top two places in region( same as district) made it to state. This rarely mattered because usaually thetop two places at regions already hit the qualifying mark anyways. On top of all of this the next 15 best heights would make it to state. We usaually have about 30-40 guys at state every year. I like the way they do things. One note, you could only hit the qualifying mark at meets with 5 teams or more. Dual meets don't count. Its too hard to trust some coaches out there! :no:
Just fly high, and KISS THE SKY!!!

User avatar
rainbowgirl28
I'm in Charge
Posts: 30435
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
Gender: Female
World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
Location: A Temperate Island
Contact:

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Sep 23, 2002 8:56 am

30-40 guys in the same competition? That is not cool... waayyy too many guys. What is the point of having 20 guys there who have no chance of placing?

I am not a fan of qualifying marks being achieved in the season. But I guess I have already talked about that :P

User avatar
Azbeachboy1
PV Follower
Posts: 487
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2002 8:24 pm
Expertise: College coach
Lifetime Best: 17’1”
Favorite Vaulter: Toby
Location: Phoenix
Contact:

Unread postby Azbeachboy1 » Mon Sep 23, 2002 12:32 pm

rainbowgirl28 wrote:30-40 guys in the same competition? That is not cool... waayyy too many guys. What is the point of having 20 guys there who have no chance of placing?

I am not a fan of qualifying marks being achieved in the season. But I guess I have already talked about that :P

My junior year at state I was the 35th ranked competetor at state. I only went like 13 feet before. At state I had one of the best vaulting days of my life at ended up going 14'9 almost a 2 feet pr. I got second that year. This is the reason they let so many athletes at state. Everyone who has potential to fly high if given the right circumstances should get a chance to prove themselves. The state meet is 2 days long so 30-40 guys have all day to vault, it's not hurting anything by letting them vault. Anyways it's just highschool so it should be all about having fun anyways, were not getting paid for it.
Just fly high, and KISS THE SKY!!!

User avatar
rainbowgirl28
I'm in Charge
Posts: 30435
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
Lifetime Best: 11'6"
Gender: Female
World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
Location: A Temperate Island
Contact:

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Sep 23, 2002 2:27 pm

Is your state meet a championship of all the classes? In WA there are 5 classifications and 2 state meets. At the 3A/4A meet they do the 4A boys and 4A girls on one day and 3A the next. At the B/1A/2A meet, they used to do all 3 girls competitions on the first day and all 3 guys on the second day. Last year they expanded to a three day meet so they moved the 1A boys to Thursday, but kept the rest the same.

The schedule is pretty tight at the small school meet. I worked there 2 years ago... we were one of the first events to start, and very close to the last to finish.

If the fields were significantly expanded there would have to be major changes to the State meet... and it would stretch on for longer than it already does.


Return to “Pole Vault - High School”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests