Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Minnesota State Meet featuring Meghan Orgeman from Alexandria Area HS

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BONUS: Minnesota State Meet featuring Meghan Orgeman from Alexandria Area HS · 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.
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  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 at 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. All right, we're back.
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  We are rolling, continuing to roll through each of the 50
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  states, plus you. Washington, DC We ain't going to
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  forget about you. And now we're up in one of my
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  It's cold, but it's one of my favorite states.
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  I've had a lot of great athletes when I was a coach from the
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  state. So I do have some fondness for
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  the great state of Minnesota. Help me welcome from Alexandra
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  Area High School, Miss Megan Orgaman.
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  Megan, how are you today? I am great.
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  We've got a home football game today right after school, so it
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  couldn't be a better day. It's going to be.
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  It's a good day. Awesome.
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  I love it and thank you so much for stepping up for the great
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  state of Minnesota. You know, we've had amazing
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  coaches step up and show their leadership throughout this
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  series. And so just want to say thank
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  you to you and grateful for you stepping up and kind of you know
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  you're in the big seat. Everybody's going to be looking
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  to you what happens here in Minnesota?
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  So we're excited to learn about how you conduct the outdoor
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  state meet. I guess my first question is
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  it's Minnesota. Do we have an outdoor state meet
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  because of the weather and all that?
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  You know, our season probably starts.
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  Our outdoor season probably starts in April.
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  So you're not far off. But yes, we have a we have an
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  outdoor state meet. That was a terrible joke.
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  I worked really hard not to make any of those jokes when we had
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  Alaska on here. So I, I, I love Minnesota.
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  So I have to take a little, little stand there.
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  So OK, let's get into it here. Megan, you know some states have
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  a separate organizing body for private schools and a separate
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  one for public schools. Most states, we're learning,
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  actually have both of them together.
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  How we do this in Minnesota private and public schools.
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  We're all together, and in fact, so we have public and private
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  together. We have three classes, and
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  they're intermixed across all three classes.
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  Perfect. OK, nice and easy.
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  And you already kind of answered our next question.
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  How many classes are there? Tell us what do we call our
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  classes class ABCD 1D2D3. What do we do?
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  Yeah, Minnesota has three classes, and.
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  Actually one of my rules, I'm the president of the coaches
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  association and we just moved to three classes in 2022.
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  So it's really fun to be part of that process.
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  We were two classes and we recently moved to three classes.
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  It the largest class is AAA, middle class is AA, and the
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  smallest class is single A. And how we do that is the top
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  six or sorry the top 64 teams go into AAA, then the next 96 are
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  in AA and then the remaining are in single A.
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  And you reminded me, shame on me.
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  I've done this, you know, 20 something times already up to
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  this point. But we had such a great
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  conversation before we hit record.
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  I think I just forgot. Please introduce yourself.
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  Yeah. You know when you said you're
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  president of the association, I was like Oh yeah.
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  Everybody should know who we got representing Minnesota.
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  Please take 30 seconds or so. Give us a 30,000 foot level
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  introduction of yourself. Megan.
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  Sorry for that. My fault.
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  You know Megan Orgeman, I am a school counselor and the head
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  girls track and field coach at Alexandria area High School.
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  I also coached the boys. We have our or Co LED program
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  had a lot of success in Alexandria.
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  We've you know we have won sections for the last 12 years
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  in a row and won our our conference championship for the
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  last nine years in a row. When we had two classes we were
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  one of the smallest classes and in 2016 we won State.
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  But all of that is just pebbles in a pond.
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  I get to work with developing confidence in girls.
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  In the spring, through the sport of track and field, and that's
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  why I do it. I also am the current president
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  of the Minnesota Coaches Association and have this is so
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  relevant because not only did I help with our classes, but I got
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  to help with revising our state standards just two weeks ago.
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  And so I've been a part of a couple of really exciting
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  projects, super grateful to be where I'm at.
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  I'm at my dream school and my dream job, and I'm not going
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  anywhere. Pebbles in a pond.
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  I'm going to. I'm a steal in that one.
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  I like that one. I like that.
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  So thank you for that. Again, I'm so sorry.
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  I just skipped right over that. So tell us, it's interesting you
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  said we're down. We're up to now three classes,
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  AAA, AA, single A. And that's interesting.
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  You and I were talking about an athlete that I recruited in
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  Minnesota years ago now and I do remember it being two classes.
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  How long ago did you go to three and maybe what were some of the
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  reasons? Yeah.
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  So in Minnesota and actually in the nation track and field,
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  that's the largest participation numbers when we look at
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  athletes. We were in two classes.
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  We had met the high school leagues threshold to actually be
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  close to four classes, but we thought you know that was
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  something that we were passionate about pushing for.
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  And so we did the data and we crunched the numbers and got the
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  league to give us a a vote yes for three classes in 2022.
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  And so you know that's been a lot of growth.
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  We changed from a two day state meet, we'll get to that later
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  but now to a three day state meet.
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  And so I think that it's giving kids way more opportunities to
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  have that experience of competing at the best of the
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  best at that state level. That's great to know because
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  there are many states on both sides of that right.
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  So there are some states that only have one class or two
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  classes and maybe they're thinking about adding another or
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  in there some school or states that maybe have 4-5 or six and
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  they're thinking maybe they should attrition for a specific
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  reason. So appreciate hearing the
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  reasons there. In Minnesota why we added up to
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  a third one. Illinois recently went from a
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  two class system to a three class system as well and there
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  and we know classes in session right now because of the I'm.
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  Sorry about the bell. Yes, you might hear another
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  series of three bells. Just to give you a warning,
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  everybody's been at school at least some point.
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  We all know what that bell meant.
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  We we got it, we got it. There's not a in pouring or
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  outpouring of kids in your classroom right now.
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  So that's all. That's the good point.
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  OK, let's talk about the state series.
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  All throughout the country, we call the first round or second
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  round many, many different things.
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  Area district sectionals, you mentioned sectionals a minute
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  ago and state, what's the first round that we have to get to the
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  state meet in Minnesota. That question could be answered
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  in two ways. For AAA and AA, we call it it's
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  day one of the section meet or section prelims.
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  Typically that's on like a Tuesday or Wednesday of that
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  week and then on a Friday or Saturday is day two or our our
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  section finals. Now some of the smaller schools
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  in single A will have a subsection meet well the week
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  prior. They'll have a qualifying meet
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  to get the right teams and kids in place because they, I mean
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  their their sections are huge. I mean, we have.
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  Between 22 and 26 teams in each section for single A.
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  And so a subsection really does narrow down the number of
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  athletes at the prelim and final meets.
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  And you're calling this sections, not sectionals.
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  Is that correct? Sections.
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  Yep, perfect. Thank you.
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  And how do I qualify for that meet or what are the
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  stipulations? Meaning is it a free for all if
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  I have 7 Millers that I think might be able to make the chance
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  the state meet? Do I put 7 in or do I only have
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  two? What are we doing there?
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  Every team across all three classes gets 3 athletes per
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  event. So you get to pick where you put
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  your athletes and what athletes make it.
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  There is no qualifying standard for the section meet and so it
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  really is up to that coach of where they're going to place
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  their athletes. So if I have 4 stud Millers, one
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  of them needs to find the two mile or the half mile or
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  something like that. OK, all right, so we have
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  section prelims on, say a Tuesday, or we have a
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  subsectionals to start off with in our Class A, and then we go
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  to our section finals. How?
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  What's the next round and how many are qualifying for that
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  next round? Yeah, so we are our prelim day
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  we made. There are some events that are
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  finals and so for example for prelims girls high jump is a
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  final while on the final day, so Saturday let's say day two boys
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  high jump goes. And so like on day one, we've
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  got girls high jump, boys pole vault, girls long jump, boys
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  triple boy shot and girls discus and those are final events on
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  that day. We also have a really unique
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  schedule on our prelim day for the most part where relays
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  aren't run and so it is all prelims and open events.
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  We start with the 100 meter hurdles.
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  So it's kind of weird to not start with like a four by eight
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  or something. So we start with the hurdles and
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  our last event is a final and that's the 3200 meter and so.
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  There's no relay, yeah, Yep. So we end with a 3200 meter on
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  day one. That is a final.
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  The rest of the events are all prelims and then on day two like
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  we have boys high jump is a final, girls pole vault, boys
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  long jump, girls triple girls shot, boys discus and then our
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  relays run and we every relay event is a final.
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  So there isn't a prelim and a final in the relays.
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  It is what it is. We start with the four by eight,
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  we end with the four by four and.
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  And that's kind of how the meet is set up as far.
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  I don't know if you wanna like as far as qualifying for the
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  state meet, I think that's coming up.
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  Yeah, because so after the sectionals this prelims and
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  finals, is the next round the actual state meet then?
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  Yes so how where do I have to do in sectionals place wise or time
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  wise or what not to get to the state meet then?
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  There are two ways to qualify in Minnesota.
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  And this happens when any event is a final event.
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  So if it's day one, those field events are the 32 is a final
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  event, day two it's all relays and all and all the other
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  events. So the top two advance.
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  So top two relays, top two, and individual events advance the
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  state automatically. So if you are top two, you are
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  going on to state. State is going to be that next
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  Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The other way you can qualify is
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  that we the athlete has to the athlete or the relay has to hit
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  a standard, a state qualifying standard at the final.
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  So it can't be done at a prelim. So it couldn't be done on day
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  one of the 100 for example. It needs to be done on day two
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  at the 100 meter final. So if they hit that standard and
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  we have wind gauges in the whole shebang, then they can qualify
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  also based on standard. So you don't have time standards
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  to get into the sectional, but once you come out of that
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  sectional, there is a time standard or a distance or height
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  standard to go to the state meet.
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  So that's how because one of the things that we're learning as we
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  move through the series of big concern is how do we make sure
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  all the athletes who deserve to be at the state meet, make it to
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  the state meet, whether that's because they didn't make top two
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  in this instance, things like that.
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  Some people have a backup if you will and others don't.
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  So you have a quote UN quote backup that if you get third and
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  you meet this standard, how is that standard calculated?
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  Is that a average of something from the state meet over so many
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  years or? Yeah, I love this question
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  because we just got it changed last week and it was a two year
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  project from our Advisory Council.
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  So in the past to qualify for the state meet we took or to
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  create that standard, excuse me, we took the five year average.
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  Of 5th place from the state meet.
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  What we found is that our standard was so rigorous that
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  very few athletes were meeting that standard.
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  For example, boys AA, we only had one athlete last year meet
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  the standard in discus. So it is extremely rigorous and
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  So what you had mentioned about making sure the best athletes
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  are in the state, we weren't convinced that the best athletes
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  in the state were qualifying because our standard was so
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  rigorous. And So what we did is we took a
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  deep dive into our history and we thought of like why 5th
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  place? Why was that determined?
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  And when the Minnesota State meet was first created, we only
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  placed five athletes. Now we've evolved to placing 9
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  athletes and the standards didn't evolve along with what we
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  considered all state or what we placed.
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  And so that was one of our arguments we need to evolve
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  along with that and we also followed swimming and diving and
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  how they create their precedent in our state.
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  So now what we got past is we are taking the three-year
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  average of the 9th place finish from prelims.
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  The reason we chose prelims is those times are typically
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  faster. They're more rigorous.
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  They're a little bit tired on that day too, and and we.
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  You know if you were to use finals for example, let's say we
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  have the 100 meter dash because I've been using that event all
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  day. We had let's say a kid
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  disqualifies then we may not have a nice place piece of data
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  to use in the prelims. We will have nine pieces of data
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  and we want our we want our standards to be rigorous.
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  When we when we checked those we checked the data we probably
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  it's not going to change the standards A tremendous amount.
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  They are going to be rigorous but we're hoping it'll at least
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  allow the best of the best to be in our state meet.
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  That is a really good lesson that little history of we pick.
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  There it is. We're back in school as the 5th
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  place average, the the 5th place average of five years over the
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  5th place. Why?
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  And that you look back in your history, it's like, oh, we used
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  to only place five. That's why history is really
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  important. We're a very traditional sport.
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  However, we should be questioning everything in that
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  sense of like, hey, what was is that right today in 2024 for
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  what we're doing? I love that.
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  And you do it from the prelims not the state meet because of
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  data etcetera there as well. That's interesting.
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  Very cool. You mentioned a three day state
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  meet. So is the state meet for all
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  these three classes, Are they always at the same venue?
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  Are they all together? Do they do separate venues?
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  And you said three days, so I'm going to suspect maybe we're
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  doing them all together here. Absolutely.
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  We have always been at one venue, you know.
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  Right now we're at Saint Michael Albertville High School, but
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  this high school is not a normal high school.
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  It has a college feel. It's a beautiful stadium.
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  Prior to Saint Michael Albertville, we were at Hamlin
• 14:01
  University, which is in Saint Paul.
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  And they also had a great facility, but we really, really
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  like Saint Michael Albertville and so we are there with all
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  three classes. It is a three day meet Thursday,
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  Friday and Saturday. So yeah, we we've been at Blaine
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  that there's a sports sporting complex in Blaine, then Hamlin
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  and now we're at Saint Michael Albertville on that three day
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  meet. Do all three classes earn their
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  team championship on the I'm assuming it's Thursday, Friday,
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  Saturday. Do they all earn it on Saturday
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  or is like maybe Class A win their state title on Friday for
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  the team title? Yes.
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  So how it's organized is single aid.
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  So the smallest class goes Thursday, Friday, their prelims
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  are Thursday afternoon. Their finals are Friday
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  afternoon. For AA, we're Friday, Saturday.
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  And I say we because Alexandria is AA and we are, we're in the
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  morning for the morning session. So there's a morning and
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  afternoon session for each class.
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  So we have Friday morning is prelims, Saturday morning is
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  finals. And then with AAA, our largest
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  Class, A lot of those schools are.
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  In the metro area already, so there's less travel time.
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  So they go Thursday morning, Saturday afternoon and so they
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  have that day in between our rest where they can go home or
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  do what they need to do. So they're the only one that's
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  not a back-to-back day competition.
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  That's the other interesting thing we're finding too is how
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  the state meet with all the different classes that have a
• 15:18
  same venue. And do you do Thursday, Friday,
• 15:20
  Friday, Saturday, Thursday, Saturday?
• 15:21
  That's interesting as well. That's good information there a
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  lot of states. You know, one of the beautiful
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  parts, many beautiful parts about track and field is the
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  inclusivity. Tall, short, big, tall, short,
• 15:31
  fast, slow. There's always some place for
• 15:34
  you to achieve some form of success in our sport.
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  A lot of states have started adding some kind of adaptive or
• 15:40
  wheelchair racing to the state structure.
• 15:43
  Anything like that here in Minnesota?
• 15:45
  Yeah. And actually that was another
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  event that another thing that we got past two weeks ago.
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  So you're so relevant. Yes, you're right on with
• 15:54
  Minnesota and our timing we are working, we want to, we know we
• 15:58
  want to be one of the best in the state as far as events for
• 16:01
  wheelchair athletes. So currently we do have events.
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  We have a 100 meter a 1600 and 800 a 200 we have.
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  The discus and the shot put for wheelchair athletes what we were
• 16:14
  missing. So the only open event that we
• 16:15
  didn't have in Minnesota was the 400.
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  And so last couple weeks ago we added the 400 to our list.
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  As it stands right now, athletes, wheelchair athletes
• 16:25
  compete with their team on the days that their team competes.
• 16:28
  So if there is the 100 meter on the track, they'll do the 100
• 16:32
  meter followed by the wheelchair 100 meter.
• 16:35
  You know, I I hope one of the goals of this series that we're
• 16:39
  doing here is to create conversation.
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  And I hope because I know that not every state is doing this,
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  but one of our hopes here is that people here, not only how
• 16:47
  many states are doing this, but how just in the flow it happens.
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  It has doesn't have to be this special.
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  You don't have to. There are certainly logistics
• 16:56
  you have to concern yourself with, but it's it's a part of
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  the experience. And I think for our young people
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  and for our coaches, I think seeing this is really important.
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  Sometimes you need to see things to know that you can achieve it.
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  So I know there's other kids that will see this and be like,
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  oh, wait a minute, I never even thought that I can do track and
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  field because of my abilities and maybe I can do it.
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  So I love that. Kudos to Minnesota.
• 17:17
  Kudos to Minnesota's coaches for adding that and continue on with
• 17:20
  that, Those events. That's great.
• 17:22
  I love that, Yeah. We can't emphasize enough how
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  easy it is. Like it is really easy to add
• 17:26
  the events. Our vice president, Eric Klein
• 17:29
  has a wheelchair athlete of his own.
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  And so he's very passionate about this and we would be a
• 17:34
  state to consult with. If you are a state out there
• 17:36
  that like to add it, that means there's no excuses.
• 17:39
  If you're listening from another state and want to get this done,
• 17:41
  let's let's make it happen. Love that.
• 17:43
  All right. So we've got three boys teams
• 17:45
  that are winning a state title. 3 girls teams that are winning a
• 17:48
  state team title in the A, AA and AAA.
• 17:51
  Some states do this officially. Some states coaches associations
• 17:55
  do this unofficially. They'll have a meet of champs
• 17:57
  where they invite the top of you know, AAA, AA, single A and we
• 18:01
  find out who the air quotes the the true state champion is.
• 18:04
  Do we do anything like that? We don't have anything like like
• 18:08
  that. The closest we have is called
• 18:09
  the Hamlin Elite meet that is in April and it is an all class
• 18:14
  meet. You have to submit your times
• 18:16
  and distances and then it's it's this really dramatic process
• 18:20
  where the top whatever get released, there's a scratch
• 18:24
  period and then it's announced who got in the meet.
• 18:26
  And that's really the only time that all the classes get to
• 18:28
  compete against each other. OK, let's talk about your
• 18:31
  events. So instead of saying, hey, what
• 18:33
  unique events do you do? You don't know because they're
• 18:35
  not unique to you, you just do them here in the state series.
• 18:37
  Let's go kind of by group by group.
• 18:39
  So we can assume you're doing the 1-2, the four and the eight,
• 18:42
  of course, right. Are we doing in the 1632, are we
• 18:46
  doing 1632 mile two mile fifteen, 3000?
• 18:49
  What do we do? What do we call there in that
• 18:51
  area? Yep, 16 and 32.
• 18:53
  All right, good. That's pretty common.
• 18:55
  It's one of the more common combinations there.
• 18:58
  For the hurdles we're doing. The girls 100 high hurdles and
• 19:00
  the boys high 110 high hurdles. Yep, 300 hurdles for both boys
• 19:06
  and girls. Yep.
• 19:07
  All right. Four by one and four by four for
• 19:09
  sure. Because I'm going to say this,
• 19:10
  everyone, because if you're not doing those two events, you're
• 19:12
  not really doing track and field.
• 19:13
  So of course we're doing those two.
• 19:14
  I think I heard you say 4 by 8. Yep, and we also have 4 by 2 and
• 19:20
  the four by two. All right.
• 19:21
  Any any other Sprint Medleys? Hurdle Shuttle hurdle relays?
• 19:24
  Any other relay events. Not at our state.
• 19:27
  Neat. OK, perfect.
• 19:28
  Let's go to our field events. We're doing the long jump and
• 19:30
  triple jump. Yep, perfect shot, put discus.
• 19:34
  Yep, pole vault and high jump. Yep.
• 19:36
  Any javelin, hammer, throw. Anything else that's that I'm
• 19:39
  missing there? No.
• 19:41
  Javelin is something we're pushing and working towards
• 19:43
  hopefully, but we're not there yet.
• 19:45
  All right. Only about half of us are at
• 19:46
  this point. We're about 2526 so would love
• 19:48
  to add Minnesota to that. Iowa just added Florida just
• 19:51
  added South Carolina. So boy at A at a great state
• 19:54
  that like Minnesota is for track and field.
• 19:55
  There's no. I hate to say there's no excuses
• 19:57
  but there's no excuses to add javelin.
• 20:00
  Love to hear that How about after the state meet.
• 20:02
  Some states will do, typically unofficially you know there's to
• 20:05
  your coaches association or just a passionate coach and program
• 20:08
  does like an unofficial state meet for the hep and the deck or
• 20:11
  the jab or the hammer, anything like that.
• 20:15
  We have USATF meets where our kids will jump into summer meets
• 20:18
  and do it, but nothing official in the state of Minnesota.
• 20:20
  I personally was a heptathlete. I was a multi Venter college, so
• 20:23
  I would also love for that to be a Minnesota tradition too.
• 20:26
  Let this be the catalyst for you to start that.
• 20:29
  Then it starts with one person. My my home state of Alabama does
• 20:34
  it. So I always put that as a
• 20:35
  challenge of like it has done it for a long time.
• 20:37
  So I put that challenge out there.
• 20:39
  Awesome. Thank you so much for that.
• 20:40
  That's great. Let's settle a little bit of an
• 20:42
  argument, a little bit of a debate here, Megan, at least
• 20:45
  inside of your culture, your area around the country, we talk
• 20:49
  about we, you know, we're trying to qualify for the state meet or
• 20:52
  we're trying to qualify for states or just state.
• 20:55
  How do, how do you say it? What what do we say in here?
• 20:58
  We we qualify for state and I went around today and asked as
• 21:01
  many track kids as I could possibly find and they just
• 21:04
  looked confused when I said is it qualify for the state meet?
• 21:08
  It is 100% in Minnesota or Alexander, Minnesota you qualify
• 21:11
  for state. State not not states just state
• 21:14
  a singular you qualify for. State that's another thing.
• 21:17
  I'm hopeful someone listens to all 51 of these and keeps a
• 21:20
  tally. I'm not keeping tally.
• 21:21
  Some data data scientist coach is going to do this.
• 21:23
  I want to know the actual tally because it's fairly close
• 21:26
  amongst the the three. There's OK Megan one more thing
• 21:31
  that we just absolutely have to talk about here and this is
• 21:33
  extremely unique. We have not heard this up until.
• 21:36
  Today with the M's here in Minnesota, Minnesota has AI.
• 21:40
  Don't even know if I'm saying the name of it, right.
• 21:42
  True team state championship. So we kind of have two state
• 21:46
  championships in Minnesota. Talk to us about this.
• 21:48
  Cuz this is extremely unique. Yeah, we're really proud of our
• 21:53
  true team tradition in Minnesota.
• 21:56
  True team was originated originated in 1987.
• 21:58
  Just a brief little history note by coaches.
• 22:00
  So our coaches created it and it really was we wanted to answer
• 22:04
  that there's a need in track and field to have a true team
• 22:08
  competition where every athlete contributed to the team score.
• 22:12
  And so you know and the reality is that a high school league
• 22:14
  state meet you might win state by two or three athletes.
• 22:19
  You know Alexander, we won state in 2016 with five athletes.
• 22:22
  We've been a runner up with two athletes and so when we have a
• 22:25
  team of say 80 girls, not everybody gets a shot at
• 22:28
  contributing to that team score like they might on a basketball
• 22:31
  team or a football team. So true team was established to
• 22:35
  recognize more athletes, have every athlete continue
• 22:38
  contribute to that team score and we have a section true team
• 22:42
  meet and to qualify for state the the entire team qualifies as
• 22:46
  a team to state. So like for a high school league
• 22:48
  championship you might have you know 15 athletes that go from
• 22:51
  your team. This is the whole team going to
• 22:53
  a state state championship meet together.
• 22:56
  So a lot of teams structure their team culture around true
• 23:00
  team. It's a really big thing in
• 23:02
  Minnesota and really the what's great about it is a lot of times
• 23:07
  you know in a traditional meet the top 8 score and so we're
• 23:10
  really trying to get our top athlete where they need to be to
• 23:14
  get team scores. But here because every athlete
• 23:17
  score, often times a true team section meet and a true team
• 23:21
  state meet is decided by our number three, our two or three
• 23:25
  athletes, so not our best athlete.
• 23:27
  So we really do. It really does bring up the
• 23:30
  intensity of practice and culture for every athlete on the
• 23:33
  team. Everybody's fighting for that
• 23:35
  true team spot on the lineup and it just creates a really
• 23:39
  beautiful team culture. So it's totally changed cultures
• 23:43
  in in the state of Minnesota. So I hear you saying, you know,
• 23:46
  we we could have 5 athletes, heck, I've heard of, you know,
• 23:49
  one athlete winning a state team title depending on, you know,
• 23:52
  obviously the size of the the class and things like that.
• 23:55
  So tell us what's the difference?
• 23:56
  We all kind of, you know, we're listening to this because we
• 23:58
  understand what a traditional state championship is, you know,
• 24:01
  eight places, 10 points for the first one for the 8th, etcetera.
• 24:05
  Tell us what is the difference here?
• 24:06
  What what's the different structure?
• 24:09
  So just like Minnesota High School League, state track and
• 24:13
  field we have three classes. So in true team we have three
• 24:15
  classes. We have A, AA and AAA, the for
• 24:21
  AA and single A. So the smaller divisions, every
• 24:24
  team gets 2 entries and then one relay and in AAA every team gets
• 24:29
  3 entries and one relay and so let's take AAA as an example.
• 24:34
  In my section Section 8 AAA, there are nine teams so we have
• 24:38
  nine teams. We have 3 athletes per event, so
• 24:41
  first place will get 27 points, 9 * 3.
• 24:45
  So the first place athlete in an individual event gets 27 points,
• 24:49
  2nd place will get 26, third will get 25, all the way down to
• 24:53
  the last athlete which gets one point so everybody scores.
• 24:58
  The goal is is to have every athlete finish in the top third
• 25:00
  to try to win. You want to try to push those
• 25:02
  people to and it what what's the intensity of the meet Is unlike
• 25:06
  anything. Because as you're racing or
• 25:07
  competing, you know that if you pass one athlete at the finish
• 25:11
  line, you get one more point for your team.
• 25:13
  So finishes at these meets are truly inspirational and it might
• 25:17
  be a finish between the 20th and 19th athlete.
• 25:20
  Like it doesn't have to be the top eight.
• 25:22
  So you see people do exceptional things across all levels from
• 25:27
  your #3 athlete to your number one athlete.
• 25:29
  So that's one big difference. Another thing that's really big
• 25:32
  is the pressure, especially in the vertical jumps or the
• 25:35
  horizontal jumps to not know height and not follow all three
• 25:37
  jumps because if you know height, you get 0 points, you
• 25:41
  don't get one points, you get nothing And so that creates.
• 25:44
  So the bars in like the vertical jumps typically start lower than
• 25:47
  a normal meet. They increase by smaller
• 25:49
  increments which can be a part of your strategic plan.
• 25:53
  So that. So that's another piece that
• 25:54
  just like I talked about the intensity of these two team
• 25:56
  meets that really brings up the intensity everybody scores.
• 25:59
  You could get a goose egg if you know height.
• 26:02
  And then in relays it's a little bit different.
• 26:04
  So with a nine team relay you get four teams or four points.
• 26:09
  There's our bell, yeah. So with the relays, the top team
• 26:15
  gets 36 points, then it goes to 23, then or no sorry, 36, and
• 26:21
  then it goes down four points all the way until the last place
• 26:24
  team getting 4 points. So relays are worth more points,
• 26:28
  but if you divide that by 4 athletes, they're not worth as
• 26:30
  many points. So we have coaches all over the
• 26:32
  place crunching numbers and figuring out where do we do we
• 26:35
  load the relays? Do we load the individual
• 26:36
  events? Where's our team's best shot?
• 26:39
  That which is similar to, I would say a regular meet, but
• 26:42
  it's just a little bit different.
• 26:43
  When every single athlete matters, you got to spread them
• 26:46
  out a little bit. This is interesting because.
• 26:49
  You know I like how the USTF CCA I'm gonna say recently it's
• 26:53
  probably 5-6 years ago started doing I came if they take three
• 26:58
  or four athletes from each team and they they rank the the top
• 27:01
  shot put team. So you know if you have four
• 27:03
  shot putters. You could you know that are all
• 27:05
  50 foot plus that team might be #1 and you know number two team
• 27:09
  etcetera for shot put disc they do it for every event.
• 27:12
  This reminds me of that of like that kid who is the 4th place
• 27:15
  kid shot putter and or third place and then since shot put in
• 27:19
  your team isn't going to qualify for the traditional state meet.
• 27:23
  But this is a way that they certainly can contribute to the
• 27:27
  team and and and to the team title that that's really
• 27:30
  interesting. It's really fun.
• 27:33
  It really does make those that type of athlete feel important
• 27:37
  to the team on a on a larger level.
• 27:40
  Did you say forgive me, we're in the season.
• 27:42
  Does this happen after the traditional state meet before?
• 27:45
  Where's this happen at? It is before so like mid third
• 27:50
  week of May is we'll have our section meet and then the next
• 27:53
  week we'll have our state meet on the on a Friday, Saturday.
• 27:56
  So it's a two day state meet for our two team state meet it's at
• 28:01
  it's been at Stillwater high school traditionally and it is
• 28:04
  just as packed with spectators as our as our state meet.
• 28:07
  So it is a there's a huge following and again you have
• 28:10
  that team atmosphere We we have kids that get to go to state
• 28:13
  true team state that it will never get to the league state.
• 28:16
  So they get that state feel just as grand, even if they're not an
• 28:21
  individual qualifier. And it's a state championship
• 28:24
  meet. Meaning, does the State
• 28:25
  championship team typically go and get rings or patches or
• 28:28
  whatever they might normally do? So they will.
• 28:31
  We There's actually ribbons that so 12 teams.
• 28:34
  This is another interesting piece.
• 28:35
  So as far as advancing to State, the top team advances
• 28:39
  automatically. So if you win your section, you
• 28:41
  advance to State as a team. Then we have a wild card
• 28:45
  tradition. So the next two through 5 S
• 28:48
  teams that play 2nd through 5th get put into a virtual meet and
• 28:52
  then the next four also get to go in on the wild card.
• 28:56
  So we have 12 total teams. There's 8 sections for
• 28:58
  wildcards, so 8 championship teams for wildcards, 12 teams
• 29:01
  total at the state meet. And it's really fun when you see
• 29:04
  a wild card team come in and win state because they didn't get in
• 29:07
  traditionally they but they they rally and they come through so
• 29:11
  they're the wild card is a whole another level that's really fun.
• 29:15
  So 12 teams total from from that.
• 29:19
  Is there is? Is there a way to make this work
• 29:22
  on the NCAA level? I mean, this is really
• 29:24
  interesting. I mean, this is team depth.
• 29:26
  This is this seems to reward coaching even more.
• 29:30
  I mean, it's one thing and it's hard and it's amazing to coach
• 29:35
  123 athletes to, you know, win the hundred 204 hundred 800 and
• 29:39
  win a state title or an NCAA title that way.
• 29:41
  That's hard. I'm not knocking that.
• 29:44
  But coaching is about the depth. How do you make the 5th play?
• 29:46
  This reminds me a lot of cross country, which is a very team
• 29:49
  oriented sport. Right?
• 29:51
  I love your example of, you know, the 20th person.
• 29:54
  If you could pass just one person in that two mile, make it
• 29:57
  19th. That might be the whole
• 29:58
  difference in the whole meet. I love that.
• 30:01
  Do you? Could you see this?
• 30:02
  I kind of put you in the spot here on this one.
• 30:04
  Could this work on an NCAA level?
• 30:08
  I I would love to see this at every high school in the in the
• 30:11
  United States and at the collegiate level.
• 30:13
  I think it and just to I mean, you could place it wherever you
• 30:16
  want in your season, but it really does boost the morale of
• 30:19
  the team and the intensity of training.
• 30:21
  And so I think it'd be a great meet to have before championship
• 30:25
  meets. Get people ready to rock'n'roll,
• 30:26
  Sharpen your sword, show them that everybody's cheering for
• 30:29
  them. It's really that momentum
• 30:31
  pieces. It's really fun to see could.
• 30:33
  This be the championship. Could could I'll put Minnesota
• 30:36
  on the spot. Would Minnesota ever consider
• 30:39
  dropping the I'm doing air quotes traditional state meet
• 30:41
  and the the the the true team state meet is the state meet.
• 30:47
  I don't think we'll ever drop it because they're so different.
• 30:49
  You know we have our league state meet.
• 30:53
  So to really recognize those elite top athletes in the state
• 30:57
  and I don't want that to go away either.
• 30:59
  We have some really phenomenal athletes that come out of
• 31:02
  Minnesota and they get their spot too.
• 31:05
  I just love that we have both in my hand.
• 31:07
  In my mind, it won't be an and or it won't be an OR it's an and
• 31:13
  Yeah, so one other like a couple of other cool things, an example
• 31:17
  with like the point system. This is another thing that just
• 31:21
  helps paint the picture. So because there's so many
• 31:24
  points, I'll I'll use our team last year, so Alexandria girls
• 31:27
  team won with 950 points. So imagine a track meet where
• 31:31
  you can score 950 points. The 2nd place team Brainerd
• 31:34
  scored 942.5 points, so 7 1/2 point difference, which is
• 31:40
  nothing. It does come down to that 19th
• 31:43
  athlete, you know, passing the 20th or you know how we talked
• 31:46
  about before. It really does come down to the
• 31:48
  small moments. And what's really fun is it like
• 31:53
  a basketball game where you can make changes on the fly.
• 31:55
  We don't declare entries before for a true team meet, So what
• 31:58
  happens is there's a random draw with heat and lane and flight
• 32:02
  assignments in the order within the flight, just based on team.
• 32:05
  So we'll get a heat and lane assignment program that has no
• 32:08
  names on it. It just has teams and so coaches
• 32:11
  will pencil in the names of the kids and have a second
• 32:15
  alternate, a third alternate, a fourth alternate ready to
• 32:17
  rock'n'roll just in case your high jumper gets stuck in high
• 32:20
  jump. Or maybe you notice that Oh my
• 32:22
  gosh, Brainerd. They have three you know stud
• 32:25
  athletes checking and maybe we should put in our our more
• 32:27
  studly athlete in there so you can really be strategic and play
• 32:32
  that game live. You can move kids around to
• 32:34
  different events different heats and lanes and at any given time
• 32:39
  I'll I'll decide what flight a long jumper is and based on what
• 32:42
  track events they do. And so if they have the 100 and
• 32:46
  the four by two and it's early in the meet, I'm going to put
• 32:48
  them in a later flight for long jump.
• 32:50
  So even though the later flight might not be the top flight or
• 32:52
  the appropriate flight with them I get to put it them wherever it
• 32:55
  fits within the entries that they have.
• 32:57
  So it's there's so much strategic gamesmanship I would
• 33:00
  say on the coaches end which makes it really fun.
• 33:03
  So that's a whole nother layer to true team.
• 33:05
  I do really love that part. You know we talk about strategy
• 33:09
  with basketball and football coaches and what plays they call
• 33:11
  and things like that and based off of the defense etcetera,
• 33:14
  etcetera. I really love that for track and
• 33:16
  field. That's a very cool aspect and
• 33:18
  you use the live scoring because every true team meet has to have
• 33:21
  live scoring to make those decisions all the way up until
• 33:23
  the four by four. Like with us, with being so
• 33:25
  close to Brainerd, they're ahead of us.
• 33:27
  We go into the four by four. We knew we had to win it.
• 33:30
  We hoped that they would get third.
• 33:31
  And so we we put in every single athlete that had an event last
• 33:36
  that was our studliest athlete and that's how we want it.
• 33:38
  So it's so intense and exciting. It's a lot of fun to watch.
• 33:46
  So great. OK, Megan, you've done an
• 33:47
  amazing job. We're really grateful helping us
• 33:49
  understand the Minnesota outdoor state meet.
• 33:52
  So you win the prize, you get the magic wand.
• 33:54
  And that magic wand allows you to change anything that your
• 33:58
  heart desires to make the state meet the state series, the
• 34:02
  outdoor track and field season better.
• 34:04
  In your opinion, what might that be?
• 34:06
  If you had this magic wand, I would not change our state
• 34:11
  standards. Qualifying standards.
• 34:12
  I love the hype of a section meet where you have to be sharp
• 34:15
  and hit a certain time or a distance at that meet.
• 34:18
  So I would not change our qualifying standards.
• 34:21
  I would love to add the multis like we talked about before, and
• 34:24
  the only thing I'd love to do is have a way where our wheelchair
• 34:27
  athletes can compete against each other because they're on a
• 34:30
  tremendous amount of wheelchair athletes right now.
• 34:32
  You you might have just one athlete in a class, in an event,
• 34:36
  and they may be the best in the world, which we have, but they
• 34:40
  would get like a pity clap, or get a clap like they aren't
• 34:43
  superior athletes because it's just them.
• 34:46
  And so I I think, I think one other state might have more of a
• 34:50
  unified meet where all of the wheelchair athletes can compete
• 34:52
  against each other. I think that would be really
• 34:54
  cool, at least until the sport grows even more.
• 34:58
  So something along those lines, I think, could make our state
• 35:00
  meet even more exciting. I love it.
• 35:02
  That's a really good one. You've earned that magic wand.
• 35:06
  Megan, thank you so much. You know, really do appreciate
• 35:09
  all of our coaches that are stepping up to represent each
• 35:11
  one of our states. It's not an easy job.
• 35:13
  You do homework when you have this, this little bonus
• 35:15
  material. So you have to come correct and
• 35:17
  know what's going on in your state and everybody's going to
• 35:19
  be listening. Everybody wants to know what's
• 35:21
  the other state doing. So really grateful for everybody
• 35:23
  who is stepping up. And grateful for you, Megan,
• 35:25
  stepping up today for the great state of Minnesota.
• 35:27
  Thank you so much. My pleasure.
• 35:29
  Thanks for including me and I can't wait to listen.