Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Connecticut State Meet featuring Marty Ogden from MySportsResults.com

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BONUS: Connecticut State Meet featuring Marty Ogden from MySportsResults.com · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
• 0:03
  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
• 0:06
  understanding around the country, we're going to be
• 0:08
  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
• 0:12
  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
• 0:16
  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
• 0:21
  state. We'll be talking with a local
• 0:23
  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
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  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
• 0:34
  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
• 0:38
  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
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  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
• 0:45
  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
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  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now, Okay, Let's head to the
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  Constitution State, the beautiful state of Connecticut.
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  We've got Marty Ogden with us to help us flesh out understand how
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  things go down for track and field state qualifying in the
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  state of Connecticut. Marty, how are you doing today
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  and why don't you start by giving us kind of a 30,000 foot
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  level of your experience with Connecticut outdoor state track
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  and field? Well, thanks Mike, for inviting
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  me. This is, this is a great
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  opportunity. What what a fantastic you're
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  doing to try to educate all of us from different states, but
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  how we all do things. So thank you very much.
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  I've been running since high school.
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  I ran for Danbury High School and then I ran for Southern
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  Connecticut State University. As soon as I graduated high
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  school, I started coaching. I went back to my alma mater,
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  coached there for about 10 years.
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  We had some pretty good teams, won some state championships,
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  nationally ranked, started that tradition, that of of Danver
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  High cross country and track and field there.
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  And then I moved on to Weston, where we had some state
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  Titleists there doing really well at Weston.
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  Coached for a short time at Sacred Art University.
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  A couple of stints. Get my grad work done there.
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  And the past several years, though I've been working for my
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  sports results, I've kind of left the coaching realm, but I'm
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  still highly involved in Connecticut.
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  I cover the state either with video interviews or writing
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  articles and I also do a lot of broadcasting for the the state
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  running network or National Federation.
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  Whoever needs me there to do the all the state needs and New
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  England championships. I also have had a running camp,
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  the running Academy for 20 years.
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  This was my last year we're going to merge with Fost Running
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  Camp who's coming down from New Hampshire to come to Connecticut
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  and I'm going to work with them for for time to come.
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  So yeah, I I've been also doing keeping the state records for
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  Connecticut for the past several years.
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  So I, you know and I was the chairperson of the outdoor track
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  committee for a couple years. So I've I have a variety of.
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  Experiences in the Nutmeg State, as you like to say.
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  Absolutely. That was the other nickname.
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  I was going to go with Connecticut, The Nutmeg State,
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  Absolutely. I love it.
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  Well, Marty, so we obviously got the right person here to
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  represent the state of Connecticut.
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  Let's start with I know some states have separate private
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  school or public school tracks to the state meet, if you will.
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  What about Connecticut? Are we all?
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  Does every school compete against every school?
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  Or how do we do private versus public?
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  We are all in it together. Schools of choice, magnet
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  schools, public schools, everything's competed against
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  one another. A number of people say there
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  should be a split between private and public schools, but
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  we'd have not gone there in Connecticut yet.
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  Got it. And how many classes are there
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  and what do you call, you know, some people or a single a, AA,
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  what do you do there in Connecticut?
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  We're even simpler than that. We're we have Class S for small
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  schools, then we have class M for the next largest schools and
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  class double M and then we have class L and double L so that's
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  five divisions or we call them classes.
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  And you know, it's kind of makes sense.
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  Double L is extra large kind of thing.
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  So those are the large schools and Class S to smaller schools.
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  I like when they keep it simple. Small, medium, medium, large,
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  extra large. I like that.
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  That's great. So we have five classes.
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  Love that. So do all five classes qualify
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  the same way? We'll get into the actual
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  qualifying here in a second, but do they all do the same steps
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  towards the state? Meet Well, any performance
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  within a regular season meet qualifies for the state for the
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  class meets. Obviously the smaller classes
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  have slightly, you know, easier standards and it gets a little
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  tougher for the double L but so any any dual meet, any
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  Invitational qualifies you for the state meet.
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  So. So there's no there's no, Are
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  you saying there's no area districts, regional meets?
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  We used to have sectionals along like when I was in high school.
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  Long time ago, but. I don't know.
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  Since I've been coaching, everybody automatically
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  qualifies for their class championship if they make the
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  standard. So there's just a standard and
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  you can qualify on the first meet of the year or the last
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  meet of the year. That's correct now.
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  What we also do though is then we qualify for the State Open.
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  We have an Allstate Open everybody from all the all
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  classes whatever all you know public private everything goes
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  to State Open. And we at one thing we have
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  unique in Connecticut or in New England is we have a New England
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  championship which is it's even more prestigious.
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  So we are basic you know thing that there's a team scoring for
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  the class meet based on your population then there's a team
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  scoring for the all Connecticut State open we call it.
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  And then and then the top six from the state open qualifies
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  for a non scoring New England championship.
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  Okay. So let me make sure we get this
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  right. So we have 5 state championships
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  in the classes of the small M, double ML, double L and those
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  get qualified, you have a mark to hit for each throwing event,
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  running event, jumping event, correct.
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  So, so, So does that mean technically if let's just use a
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  number, let's say 10/8 is a qualifier for the 100, if 100
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  kids in that class run 10/8 or better, they would go to the
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  state meet. I just want to make sure, I mean
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  that's would be hard to do of course, but.
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  Just say okay, there's no cut off.
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  Like, oh, if that happens, only the top 24 go.
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  It's okay you you hit the qualifying standard, you go.
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  There are occasion like we have had to increase the standards
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  the past few years and sometimes this you know this goes one of
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  your questions later on you're going to ask me was about what's
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  your one complaint. Sometimes we do get too many.
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  We have up to 40 kids sometimes in some events that's too many.
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  But that's the that's for the state meet.
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  To get to the state open, though, there's generally, well,
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  we you're out five for each class.
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  And there could be a wild card if they what they do is they
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  figure out where the 12 fastest qualifying performances from all
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  the classmates and that becomes a wild card standard.
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  So this way generally we only have a 24 or so for for the
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  different for the state open. But you could have more if if
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  somebody from a class makes that wild card standard.
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  So if there's like a class that's really deep, like double
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  L might be really deep and say the two mile.
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  They might have 7 or 8 qualifiers from that one class
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  is because they're they're much deeper than some of the other
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  classes. So you have the class state
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  championships qualified on a standard correct.
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  Then the top five plus the wild card option go to this all class
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  state champions. Yeah, the Meet of Champions.
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  Some states called the meet of Champions.
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  We call it the state open and there's a team.
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  There's a team champion for a I'm sorry for a for S&M and
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  double and each one of those and now we go to this meet of champs
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  this all not all comers, that's not correct.
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  All Star like the best of the best from each class goes to a
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  state championship and is there a team title coming out of the
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  Oh yeah I like this I I really do like like the the almost at
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  all covers again the the Allstar the meet of Champions I like
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  that a. Lot.
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  It's great because it takes different strategies to win
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  different you know. So if you you need to have
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  several really good athletes to be able to win the state open,
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  but maybe you just have a team with a lot of very good athletes
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  and you can focus on the class meet, especially like if the
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  smaller schools. They they can you know win the
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  class meet and you know they might not be able to compete
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  against the larger schools. Although Bloomfield is a very
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  small school in Connecticut, they they just won the state
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  open last year and they won several state opens on the girls
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  side. So that that does happen where
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  small small schools win. But generally, obviously the
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  larger schools have, you know, tend to win, but not always
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  though a lot of the medium schools.
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  Do win the State Open, which is great.
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  It kind of gives everybody a chance to kind of come home with
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  some type of at least a chance at at being excellent and
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  winning state championship. And describe the let's start
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  with the class state championships.
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  How is that meet held? Are all of them done at the same
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  venue? Do they all have their own
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  separate venues? Is it a one day meet, two day
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  meet? Describe that for us.
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  We we got lucky a few years ago we merged all the the class
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  meets to 1 venue in New Britain which is Central and
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  Connecticut. There's a very large stadium
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  called Wolberg Park and Veterans Stadium and they have like you
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  know world class soccer stadium and everything that I think
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  Central Connecticut plays there. But it's a it's a great track, 9
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  lanes college track. They have a fantastic throwing
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  area right outside the stadium that's some people find that
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  controversial like to have the throwing in the stadium but the
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  javelins shot in desk roll within a 20 feet of each other
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  you know. So that's kind of cool.
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  It's a really great stadium and what we do is over three day
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  period we hold the five meets. So they'll start one meet at
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  10:00 AM in the morning. The other meet starts at 4:00 in
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  the afternoon for two days and then then one class is like on
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  the the the individual day at 4:00 and then they all come back
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  on the following Monday and that's when we have our Allstate
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  meet the state Open Championship.
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  So say that again. I heard three day meet for the
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  five, five classes and and and that meet is typically what days
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  like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Usually.
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  Well, usually it's after Memorial Day, so it's usually
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  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, OK.
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  And then the following Monday, everybody comes, everybody comes
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  with the same stadium, correct? Yep.
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  And it's a one day meet then I suspect.
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  That's just a one day meet. Yeah so you get you you someone
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  is winning two state titles within seven days.
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  They're winning their class state title and the the the meet
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  of champs. If you what do you what is the
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  name for that? What do you call the
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  Connecticut? State open.
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  CI Officially it's a CIAC. State open.
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  It's a lot of C's OK good. Perfect.
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  And then you have something unique in New England.
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  You have a New England championships which encompasses
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  a few different States and so how Connecticut qualifies their
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  athletes as they take the top six from the all class to that.
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  Yeah, from the state open, yes. For each of the six, each of the
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  six states in in New England, they get to bring their top six,
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  got it? So so it should be theoretically
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  36 sometimes. Some teams decide not to come
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  because you know, like this year it was this past two years way
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  up in northern Maine. So a lot of teams didn't want to
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  make the long trip up to northern Maine and then next
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  week and come back for yet one of the national meets.
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  So that happens sometimes and then a lot of times some states
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  will let you backfill. So the 7th or 8th or 9th place
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  finisher might be able to qualify.
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  Some states just put the top 6 and that's it.
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  That's up to individual state and what is the culture there in
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  Connecticut in regards to that state title?
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  Is it more prestigious to win your class to win your allclass
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  meet? To qualify for the New England
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  meet of champs? What's the culture there as far
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  as like the real pride for for these high school athletes and
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  coaches? That's a that's a great question
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  because I guess it depends on what the individual the team
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  has, like some teams. They're they're all into the
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  state Open Championship. That's, that's their whole focus
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  of the year. They might not even set up their
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  lineup to win the classmate. They go for the state Open.
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  But it depends on what kind of what kind of horses you have,
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  what kind of tools you have. Do you have the tools that
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  contend for the state Open title If you don't and then maybe your
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  focus might be on the class meet and say if you don't have a
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  class meet title, you know, not a chance to win a class meet,
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  then the focus might be, hey, let's try to get this relay into
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  New England's. That might be the focus.
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  So I get you know, I've, I've done all three in my coaching
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  career. You know you focus on just
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  getting the team to England's or getting some individuals to
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  England's and some years it's like no, we're going for the
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  class because we got a shot at that.
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  Well it depends on I guess I, you know, the prestige of it
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  all. It depends on you know what you
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  want to hang your hat on at the end of the season.
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  What do you want to be proud about at the end of the season?
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  You know at the it's whenever you have your banquet.
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  What are you going to brag about, if you can?
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  Have a shot at the Open. I think a lot of teams will
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  shoot for the Open, but that's got, you know, you really need
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  to have like 5 or 6 real studs to win the Open.
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  Yeah, that's a great point. Just a minute ago I said some
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  team is going to win two titles within seven days.
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  That's not actually accurate, that there can certainly be five
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  class state champions and then someone who got second in one of
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  the divisions because of the makeup of their team could
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  actually win the all class. So you could win the all class
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  without winning your single class.
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  Yeah, yeah, I thought about that here, explaining that.
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  The first state Open title I won way back in 1998, we were
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  defeated by a team in the class meet so they were a little bit
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  strong in us at the class meet and but we had better points at
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  the open so because obviously you need to have.
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  Some more stars at the open and you need to have more depth.
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  Class meets well anything unique in regards to what Connecticut
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  does for their individual events.
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  You know, if we think the standard events are the 1248,
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  maybe the mile, two mile 4 by 8, four by one, long jump, triple
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  jump, pull ball, high jump. Yeah, we think I got.
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  There Javelin, I know a lot of yeah that's that's one event.
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  We also have the four by eight, the first event of the day
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  that's that's kind of unique. I know like I think California
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  just put it in last year. I think for about 20 years we
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  were I think the only state or maybe one of the few states had
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  the 5000 meters that was removed from our.
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  From our state championship around 2002 or three or
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  something like that. But we do have several
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  invitations to have the 5000 meters but not but not for state
• 15:44
  meat anymore. That's not, that's a I would not
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  even have thought about that being a unique event to have
• 15:48
  that have been. That's awesome.
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  I wish they would keep that. That's awesome.
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  Yeah, the one thing the CIAC, our state association does do.
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  Our State Open is on Monday, the following Saturday's New
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  England's usually and then the following Tuesday, Wednesday,
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  pretty much the few days before the National championship meets.
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  We do conduct an official state championship for the
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  steeplechase, heptathlon, decathlon, and hammer throw
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  competitions. Oh, that's awesome.
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  Yeah. So, you know, I mean we're not
• 16:21
  as strong as Rhode Island, you know, because Rhode Island, it's
• 16:24
  part hammer throw is part of their state meets, but.
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  We have been developing some pretty good hammer throwers the
• 16:30
  past several years, so that's that's kind of exciting it, it
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  doesn't. It doesn't count to a team title
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  or anything that, but it's a separate thing.
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  You can be crowned state champion.
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  You get invited to the Allstate dinner and all that stuff.
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  If it meets, that is awesome. I love to see that.
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  That's another reason why we wanted to do these.
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  That is awesome. That I wish it was part of the
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  official state media. Maybe we can get there.
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  But to be able to give these kids and the coaches the
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  opportunity to coach the multis, to coach the steeple, to coach
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  the hammer, that makes us stronger on the collegiate side.
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  Which turn makes us stronger on the international side, It has
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  to. It has to happen in our high
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  school level. So that is amazing.
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  That's awesome. Here, yeah, we had two all
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  Americans in a steeplechase last last year.
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  Actually 3 All Americans. We had two boys and a.
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  Girl that got all American and steeplechase last year, great.
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  It's how it's normal event for us.
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  We get. We had several opportunities to
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  compete in the in the in the steeplechase and the hammer
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  throw. Not as many as the heptathlon or
• 17:26
  decathlon, but. We definitely have several
• 17:28
  opportunities to compete in those other meets.
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  That's great. Marty, settle a debate for us.
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  Do the culture in Connecticut or maybe just you and and how you
• 17:38
  talk about track when you qualify for the end of the year
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  meet whether it's this the class ones or the allclass
• 17:45
  championship. Do you qualify for the state
• 17:47
  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  I've heard it both ways, and I know which way I say it, but
• 17:51
  what do you how do you say that? You know it can't be
• 17:54
  interchangeable. I think we would know if you see
• 17:56
  the one, but I think. I probably say qualify for
• 17:59
  states more frequently. I think that's what I say, too.
• 18:01
  Yeah, I love it. All right.
• 18:03
  And then you get 11 Rant, small rant.
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  If there was anything you could change, only one that you could
• 18:11
  change about your state qualifying system there.
• 18:13
  Connecticut what might you? Do well we have an advantage in
• 18:17
  Connecticut is that we are a smaller state.
• 18:19
  So, you know, some of these bigger states, it's so hard to
• 18:22
  qualify it is. You know, not easy, but it's
• 18:26
  easier to qualify for the state meet and the state open, because
• 18:29
  we don't have, you know, 12 different classifications and
• 18:32
  regions all over the state and everything.
• 18:34
  And so the only thing I would have to say kids are getting
• 18:38
  faster nowadays at all levels of the sport, so maybe we have to
• 18:43
  start toughening the standards in some events.
• 18:45
  Because you know, you know when we have 40 kids qualifying, I, I
• 18:50
  look really quick, look looked it up real quickly.
• 18:52
  I saw some events at 40 kids qualifying with the state meet.
• 18:56
  That's making the state meet a little too long.
• 18:57
  I think it might be better if we kind of toughen them up a little
• 19:01
  bit. I just, I just feel bad because
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  it's such a big deal to qualify for states.
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  So if you brought the time down, you know 10 seconds and two mile
• 19:10
  or something, that would exclude a lot of kids but same time.
• 19:13
  It's, you know, it's get we're just getting to be so many kids
• 19:17
  that are doing such fantastic things that it should be, you
• 19:21
  know, we should try to keep the numbers down a little bit lower.
• 19:23
  I think you started that by saying, you know, kids are
• 19:26
  faster these days, and I agree, kids are faster.
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  They're throwing farther, jumping farther, jumping higher,
• 19:30
  etc. And you know what?
• 19:32
  I blame you. I blame the coaches.
• 19:34
  You guys are doing such an amazing job throughout every
• 19:38
  high school, college and the elites.
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  It is quite amazing what's going on out there.
• 19:43
  And so you know what, Connecticut coaches you complain
• 19:46
  about? How many kids are hitting the
• 19:47
  qualifying standard. You coach too good.
• 19:49
  Stop doing that and we won't have that much.
• 19:51
  Marty, I blame you because you're the one publicizing the
• 19:54
  sport and making it more exciting for everybody.
• 19:56
  So it's great. I'll take that blame.
• 19:58
  Marty, thank you so much for stepping up and representing the
• 20:01
  great state of Connecticut. Very educational.
• 20:03
  I love the uniquenesses of the class.
• 20:06
  State meets and then the all class.
• 20:07
  I'm a big, big proponent of like a meet of champs type for every
• 20:10
  state. So I do love that very much and
• 20:12
  I'm really in love And something I learned did not know at all
• 20:16
  before we hit record today. I love that you do this
• 20:19
  unofficial. Let's let's make these.
• 20:21
  Official Steeplechase, Multis and Hammer that is absolutely
• 20:26
  fantastic. That is helping our young kids
• 20:28
  have opportunities for college opportunities.
• 20:31
  So Marty, thank you again for representing Connecticut today.
• 20:34
  Thanks a lot, Mike. I appreciate it.