#79 - Are Your School Records A Mess?

How Accurate Are They?

April 16, 2025

Inside This Issue

Are Your School Records A Mess?

This is an article I’ve been meaning to write for a long time, even though I know it will upset some of you. Here’s the thing: the school records that young athletes focus on and train to beat should be accurate. They should be absolute and not arguable. A record should not be subject to doubt and it certainly should not be BS. As a sport, we owe at least that to the athletes who work so hard.

Many of the problem records stem from the fact that many high school coaches—even good ones—are not actually people who follow the sport beyond their own team. They don’t know how the sport works beyond “we’ve always done it this way” or “this is the way we did it when I was competing.” Some of them might be able to argue in depth about the fine points of NFL rules, but when asked what a legal wind is for a record they would scratch their heads.

To compound the problem, many coaches go to their ADs to talk out thorny records questions. And typically, an AD’s knowledge of the sport is even more lacking.

Our athletes, however, work hard, and they deserve have accurate targets to aim for. They’re also smart enough to know if their school records are garbage.

Without further ado, here’s some of the red flags that I actually have seen in recent years. Is your school committing some of these no-no’s?

The Non-Verifiable Mark: Exactly what it says. The record that is quite impressive, but no one knows where it happened or exactly when. I’ve had schools ask me to track down some of their mystery marks. It’s a fascinating and time-consuming process if you‘re a historical research nut like I am. Sometimes I’ve verified them; just as often I’ve proven that they were some variety of BS: a typo, an exaggeration, whatever.

The Star Alumni Mark: A questionable mark produced by someone who is a “star”—perhaps he went on to the NFL, or perhaps he’s a current coach at the school or an old dude who’s a big athletic booster. Whatever the story, the coach or AD can’t bring themselves to erase the mark, even though there have been better marks since, because they don’t want to offend this person. Usually they solve this by saying, “Let’s call it a tie and leave it up there.” I have had one coach complain to me that the AD is the recordholder with an ancient hand time and refuses to allow him to recognize an FAT school record. Another told me that an alumni booster put so much pressure on the AD to preserve their record that they weren’t able to properly recognize the rightful modern recordholder.

The 100-Yard Dash: You heard me. Yards. There actually are schools in this state that never dealt with the move to meters. I remember looking up at a record board at a rural school and seeing 9.9 as the 100 “meter” record. They didn’t even bother to convert it. Their current sprinters probably think they need to be world-class to come close to the record. And don’t pat yourself on the back if your school added 0.7 or 0.8 to convert the 100Y mark to meters. That’s a conversion that Track & Field News has never used, because the difference between 100Y and 100M is too big and there are too many variations in finishing speed for top sprinters.

Insane Conversions: This is more of a philosophical issue, the notion that anything can be converted. There are coaches who want to convert wind-aided times to legal, who want to convert cold weather times to ideal weather times, who want to convert any old distance to new distances. I even heard from a school that converted low hurdle marks to high hurdle marks. Just stop it. Apples and oranges are apples and oranges.

The 8lb Shot: Back in the day (pre-1980) the weight for the high school girls shot was 8lb. When it changed to 4 kilos (8.8lbs), many schools did not get rid of their now-light implements. Over the years, with coaching changes, etc., some of those illegal implements have occasionally found their way back into competition (at meets without weigh-in, of course). Sometimes innocently, sometimes not. Many years ago I remember a top thrower being accused of using a light shot. She fled the competition with the offending implement, throwing it into a dumpster in the parking lot. It was, you guessed, an 8lb shot. Look very closely at women’s shot records from small meets if the result is far better than the thrower did at meets with weigh-in.

The 8lb Shot, Part 2: Obviously, if your school has a girls shot record from 1979 or earlier, it should have been thrown out a long time ago.

The Bent High Jump/Pole Vault Bar: Hard to tell in hindsight if a bar was badly bent at a meet 20 years ago, or if a proper measurement was done. Just be aware that it happens. If a jumper breaks a school record these days, please make sure the officials are on the ball. One athlete last year thought he had cleared 7-feet, only to find on remeasurement that it was more than a little bit off.

The Empty Sand Pit: Another one that is hard to know about 20 years later, but I recall one D1 school that never had nearly enough sand in their long jump pit. The area where the athletes landed was significantly lower than their take-off. A lot of athletes claimed bad records in that pit because they were going much farther than they would have in a legal pit.

The Downhill Throwing Area: I know of several in the state. School records should not be counted from such facilities, though the competitions there are themselves valid. Counting downhill marks is literally a slippery slope. To break such a school record, maybe your discus throwers want to start throwing from atop Mt. Brighton.

The Hurricane-Blown Record: Needing legal wind for records has been a fact in this sport for over 100 years. Many/most coaches blow this off, because they can’t be bothered to buy a $15 wind gauge. Most will say, “The old record didn’t have a wind gauge…” and other variations of “that’s how we’ve always done it.” That in itself is maddening because they’re signaling to the student athletes that there’s no reason to ever do better. One enlightened school had me look at their sprint records, which were held by a genuinely great athlete. The times were way faster than what the athlete had done in every other meet that year. A little research showed that on the day of the records, a 30mph wind was whipping at the athlete’s back (legal wind is under 4.5mph/ 2.0mps). The school adjusted their records to reflect what the athlete had run at in a legal race. (When dealing with historical records where there was no gauge, it’s okay in our opinion to look at whether a race was “probably” windy or not. Historical weather reports can be found, and the athlete’s season record can be studied to establish a baseline.)

The Converted Hand-Time: Lots of schools guilty here, and they can point to the rule books for misleading them. There is the widely-held notion that 0.24 is the proper conversion for hand times to FAT. While this may be useful for seeding purposes (though 0.45 would be more accurate), it should NEVER be used for records. That’s because it fails the accuracy test. Adding 0.24 to a hand time does not magically make it an FAT time! Let me illustrate with an example from the 1999 state finals, where they had hand timers in addition to an FAT camera. In one heat of the 300 hurdles, the differences between the hand times and the FAT ranged from 0.28 to 1.02!!! So when an athlete runs, say, 10.3 hand in the 100, the odds that they ran 10.54 FAT in real life are ridiculously small. Maybe it was 10.58, maybe it was 11.32, and likely it was just about anywhere in between. Hand times in the sprints are garbage, and using a converted hand time as a school record in the sprints is absolutely mindless. It’s putting a piece of fiction on the record board and asking your athletes to work to beat it. They deserve better. If you’re attached to your hand times, the responsible thing to do is put the hand times on a “historical” board and devote your school record board to things that really happened.

The Unconverted Hand Time in the Sprints/Hurdles: Same argument as above. It’s time to restrict your sprint/hurdle records to FAT times only. Now that we’re 25 years into the 21st Century, it’s time to catch up to the 20th Century.

(But hand times in the distances are OK? Interesting question. Quick answer—same inaccuracy problems. However, in percentage terms, the difference is much smaller. The world’s statisticians and World Athletics have basically decided over the years to include them on the same lists for every distance 800m and over. World Athletics allows hand times to count for World Records from 1000m-up.)

A Hurdle Race For The Ages

Will Wilcher soon lose his record?

Thomas Wilcher, they’re coming for you! The state record in the boys 110m hurdles, 13.48, has survived for 43 years. The multi-sport star from Detroit Central (and later the University of Michigan) blasted a 13.48 to win the Junior Olympics, and in the decades since, no once has gotten closer than 13.61. That’s what superstar Kenneth Ferguson of Mumford ran in 2001.

Currently, the Wolverine state is loaded with great hurdlers, thanks to the dominant Belleville program, where Will Jaiden Smith and Schmar Gamble are contenders, as well as their rival at Catholic Central, Zacchaeus Brocks. Smith ran a state indoor record of 7.71 recently, Gamble is the defending D1 champion, and Brocks was the Nike Indoor runner-up with the No. 2 time ever, 7.72.

Luckily for fans, we get to see these guys race each other frequently. The latest clash, at Oak Park’s Spring Classic, can accurately be described as one of the greatest hurdle races in state history. The heats showed that something good was brewing. Brocks won the first heat in 13.85, at a point when the wind died and the flags dropped. Then, as the wind came back up, Gamble ran an eased-up 14.80. Smith blasted a 13.76 in heat 3, and Timothy Pinard, another fine Belleville hurdler, won the fourth heat in 14.57.

In the final, Smith aggressively jumped out to a quick lead, a la Grant Holloway. Gamble and Brocks both chased hard as they drew away from the rest of the field. They stayed close, but never could catch Smith, who crossed in 13.53. Brocks and Gamble hit the line together, tying in 13.69. Thumbs up from the wind gauge, with a 1.9 reading.

Blurry screenshot of the historic finish. (Instagram)

Smith had missed Wilcher’s record by a mere 0.05, its closest shave ever. The 13.69 for Brocks & Gamble ranks them in a tie for No. 5 all-time. It was the first race in state history with three under 14-seconds (as well as 13.90, 13.80 and 13.70).

Smith, the only senior among the three, went on to win both the 300 hurdles (37.60) and 200 (21.74 into a 1.9 headwind) with state-leading times.

Oak Park’s Meet a Winner

The new Oak Park track appears to have plenty of bounce.

With state-leading performances in 13 events, there’s no question that the Spring Classic made a big splash on the track scene. For an early April meet, the results were absolutely phenomenal. Just a few highlights:

  • The historic boys hurdle race (discussed above), producing all-time performers 2, =5, =5. Obviously, the fastest race ever in April.

  • In the boys long jump, indoor national champion Quincy Isaac of Canton unleashed a mighty 25-2.25 leap with a 0.5 wind, missing the state record quarter-inch. Another April record.

  • Nevaeh Burns’ 55.18 in the 400 is the fastest ever in April.

  • Jeremy Dixon of Kalamazoo Central blasted 10.56 in the dash (1.9 wind). The old April best was 10.59, and that was by Tyrone Wheatley!

  • WIll Jaiden Smith’s 37.60 was only the second time in history someone hurdled so fast in April. Troy legend Keith Wheeler did so as well, nearly 40 years ago.

  • Catholic Central’s 41.84 in the 4×1 is the fastest ever in April. Likewise for the girls 4×1, with Oak Park running 47.39.

  • Oak Park also produced another April record, a 3:48.97 in the 4 × 400 by Dayshana Kellogg, Janae Coleman, Leah Thomas and Nevaeh Burns.

What’s going on? Great athletes and coaches, of course, but that has been a constant in our state. What’s changed? We all know about super shoes, the carbon fiber spikes that have revolutionized distance times. What a lot of fans don’t realize is that the same revolution is happening in the sprints. Carbon fiber works. And while the shoes can be pricey, we are at the point where most if not all of the serious sprinters in the state are wearing the carbon fiber spikes. (Any coach who disputes this is welcome have their athletes wear non-carbon fiber spikes at regionals and state to prove their point!)

Another big factor—and the reason I see this meet getting even bigger—is the track. This was the first meet run on Oak Park’s new Conica surface. Track manufacturer Conica is based in Italy and the track was built to World Athletics specifications. It’s clearly a superior surface to most of those I’ve seen in the state.

Other Prep Highlights

  • Emmry Ross of Onsted had a monster meet at the Napoleon Invitational last Friday. 55.28 in the 400, a state record 2:03.84 in the 800, and a 55.9 relay leg.

  • Victoria Garces blasted a 10:21.97 for 3200 at the Freeland Invitational.

  • Senior Malachi Mosley of East Kentwood ripped a 47.80 for 400 at the Grand Haven dual.

  • Swan Valley’s Sydney Kuhn has returned to the 300 hurdles after two years away. She’s run a state leader 43.33 so far, not too shabby.

  • Traverse City Central soph Lorelai Zielinski threw a big double at Davison’s Shake Off The Rust meet: 45-6 & 142-0.

  • At the Dearborn city meet, Divine Child soph Aubrey Wilson sprinted 11.85/24.51.

  • Ben Goran of Spring Lake, who broke the state frosh record indoors with a 15-0 vault, has gone 14-3 outdoors so far.

  • Grand Haven relayed 1:27.01 in the dual against East Kentwood. It’s the fastest time ever in April.

Random Pro/College Highlights

Yup, I fell behind on newsletters for a variety of reasons (and this one is being written at a hospital bedside as my dad recovers from his second broken hip in three months). So a lot of things here that I wanted to put in newsletters but didn’t get around to in a timely fashion:

  • Ottawa Hills alum Benne Anderson (Syracuse) just missed making NCAA All-America first team by placing 9th in the mile in 3:57.63.

  • Coldwater alum Dylan Targgart (South Carolina) placed 4th in the NCAA shot at 64-9.25.

  • Seaholm alum Ben Barton (BYU) placed 4th in D1 heptathlon at 5898.

  • Renaissance alum Kaila Jackson (Georgia) placed 3rd in the D1 60 (7.15) and 7th in the 200 (22.96).

  • Oak Park alum Aasia Laurencin (UM) placed 6th in the D1 hurdles (8.09).

  • In the NCAA D2 800, Grand Valley’s Scott Spaanstra (ex-Brighton) placed 6th in 1:50.33 and Samuel Allen (*ex-Norrix) placed 7th in 1:51.26.

  • All the men went to high school in other states, but it’s worth noting that the Grand Valley high jump program is going through the roof. A 1-2-3 sweep for the Lakers at nationals: Eli Kosiba (1st, 7-3.75), Jaivon Harrison (2nd, 7-3.75), Jonathan Rankins-James (3rd, 7-2.5), plus Marcus Gelpi (=6th, 7-0.25). And Kaylee Diamond (Lowell) won the women’s event at 5-11.25. (Note that Kosiba barely missed a bronze medal at World Indoors, placing 4th at 7-5.75.)

  • Saline alum Dolan Gonzales (GV) placed 5th in the D2 vault at 17-2.25.

  • Kenowa Hills alum Myles Kerner (GV) won the D2 shot at 63-0.75.

  • Clarkston alum Ben Haas (Hillsdale) won the D2 weight at 75-1.25. East Kentwood alum James Mackey placed 3rd at 68-7.75; Myles Kerner placed 4th at 66-7; Plainwell alum Michael Griffey (GV) was 7th at 65-5.

  • Plymouth alum Lauren Kiley (GV) won the 3000 in 9:26.14 and placed 6th in the 5000 at 16:16.51.

  • Forest Hills Central alum Brooke Bowers (GV) placed 7th in the D2 vault at 13-8.25.

  • Zeeland East alum Shelby Ulven (GV) placed 7th in the D2 weight at 63-8.75.

  • Michiganders at World Indoors: Lakeland alum Grace Stark placed 5th in the hurdles in 7.74 after PRs of 7.73 & 7.72 in the rounds. The ultra-close final had the top 5 finishers within 0.03. And note that Stark’s three races were the three fastest ever by a Michigander.

  • Aasia Laurencin, now representing St. Lucia, ran an 8.06 heat at Worlds before finishing 8th in her semi.

  • East Kentwood alum Gabriela Leon placed 5th in the pole vault at 15-1.

  • Big Rapids alum Erika Beistle threw the discus 198-4 for 2nd at the Texas Relays. Then she surprised with a massive 218-7 at Allendale, the No. 3 throw ever by a Michigander. That missed the world lead by an inch. She went to Ramona, Oklahoma for the windfest, and while it worked out for many others, she had a rough day with 6 fouls.

  • At the TEN, Shuaib Aljabaly (ex-Coldwater) ran 28:57.10.

  • Hart alum Kellen Kimes was 4th in the Florida Relays hammer at 216-3.

  • Pioneer alum Zofia Dudek (Stanford) placed 3rd in the Stanford 5000 in a PR 15:23.46.

  • East Grand Rapids alum Evan Bishop (Oregon) ran 10,000 in 28:30.22 at Stanford.

  • Grand Slam Track: Grant Fisher was one of the big stars, winning one of the $100,000 slams by outkicking the 5000 field in 14:39.14 (51-second final lap) and then running a strategic 3rd in the 3000 (8:03.85 with another 51+ finish). Freddie Crittenden placed 3rd in the hurdles at 13.35 then last in his 100 heat at 10.97. Grace Stark had been signed to run but then pulled out. Given the money lost by cancelling, that could indicate injury.

  • Utica alum Trent McFarland (UM) ran 1:47.50 at Texas A&M; Northville alum Brendan Herger ran 1:47.96 to win his heat.

  • Walled Lake Western alum Kennedy Jackson (Mississippi State) scored a big PR 5470 in the Texas A&M heptathlon.

Other Things

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