Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Wyoming State Meet featuring Carson Rowley from Cody HS

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BONUS: Wyoming State Meet featuring Carson Rowley from Cody HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
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In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
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understanding around the country, we're going to be
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running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
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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
0:27
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,
0:41
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
0:48
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. All good relays have to have an
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anchor. And if you've been following
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along, this is #51 because we even included you Washington, DC
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as we went around the country, started with Alabama and did
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every outdoor state meet that there is.
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So I'm excited. We're going to learn a lot
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today. We have learned a lot in these
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other 50 championships and states.
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It's been really eye opening and I'm sure today is going to be no
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different. So help me welcome representing
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the great state of Wyoming from Cody High School.
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Mr. Carson, Rowley Carson. How are you Sir?
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Mike, how you doing? I'm doing awesome, man.
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And I just must kind of say thank you, you know, thank you
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for stepping up. You know, this project as we're
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coming to a close here with our 51st.
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You know, it doesn't happen without 51 servant leaders
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volunteering to, you know, step. It's not the easiest thing in
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the world. You're stepping up and
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representing your entire state and so myself, Gale athletics.
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We're just extremely grateful and thankful for you being here
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today for us and helping us learn a little bit about
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Wyoming. Hey, I'm I'm excited to be here.
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I love, love track and love the state championships.
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So when I heard about the opportunity, I was like, I I got
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to do it. Awesome.
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Thank you so much. Well, let's get to know you a
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little bit better before we start hopping into the state
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meet here. Give us just kind of some St.
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cred, man. How long have you been coaching
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in Wyoming? Maybe some accolades, maybe
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you're involved in associations, whatnot.
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Just let us know who Carson Rally is, please.
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Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, Name's Carson Rally and
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I coach at Cody High School at the throws.
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There, here in Cody, WY, this is.
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I just finished year #7 so #8 will be this.
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This spring of last year I won assistant coach of the year for
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the state of Wyoming. So that was pretty humbling to
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be recognized by my peers that way.
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And yeah, as far as other credentials that way.
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Been an official at the state meet now for for three years.
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I run the shot put ring when of course my athletes aren't
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competing. And then?
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Yeah, my, my father, I followed in his footsteps.
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He's a Hall of Famer here in the state of Wyoming, coaching over
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40 years and official at the state meet for 30, I think years
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now has hit that. And actually just a year ago he
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moved to our closest rivals. So he and I get to go head to
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head on the regular. That's funny.
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I love that little mixed Thanksgiving.
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A little. Maybe, you know, a little more
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uncomfortable or maybe a little bit more fun.
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Who knows? Well, Carson, it certainly
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sounds like we got the right person in Wyoming, so appreciate
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that. Congratulations on assistant
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coach of the year. That's a big deal.
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It's a big state, so there's a lot of choices in there.
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So congratulations on that I. Appreciate.
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Hop into it. Let's learn about Wyoming.
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Some states we've learned here in the past, you know, two
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months as we've been doing this series, not many, but some
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states have a separate organizing body for private
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schools that they have their own private school, state
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championship and a separate lane over here for public schools.
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Most we've learned are together. We're all battling together
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towards a state title. What are we doing in Wyoming?
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Private and public schools. Yeah.
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So Wyoming, it's, they're combined.
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So there's 69 public schools recognized by WISHA and 14
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private schools that are affiliated with the
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organization. So.
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Yeah, we they go and it's all all classifications are popular
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enrollment based. And so wherever those private
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schools fit in enrollment, that's what classification they
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compete in, Makes sense. That's the most common that
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makes sense. Appreciate that.
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So let's talk about these classes.
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We've got 69 schools with a varied amount of enrollment.
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What are we doing? How many classes are in our
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divisions? What are, we might call it, Are
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we breaking ourselves up into? Yeah, So you actually this
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interview is at a very interesting time because
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classification's about to end at the end of the school year and
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it's going to get all changed up and all changed.
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So right now and and Cody, the the school that I coach at
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actually is like we're right in between it.
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So it's going to be big changes for our school.
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But right now what they do is there's four classifications, 4A
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is the biggest and it's the top 16 biggest schools.
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Which Cody is number 16 and then the next 16 biggest schools are
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three A, the next 16 are 2A and then the remaining schools all
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are fall under the one A category.
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So that's. So today we have four classes
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correct. So we're about to make a change.
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Well, it'll still be four classes.
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And then so that'll be for this upcoming season.
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And then once this season's over, they're going to do a
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reclassification that is enrollment based.
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And so, I mean, this is already set in stone.
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And so we'll know it's coming. But starting next year, all
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schools they just did population or excuse me, enrollment
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hardline. So 700 plus is 4A29 or excuse me
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210 to 699 is 3A. And then 110 to 209 is 2A and
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then less than 110 students all is in one A.
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So Cody, I just want to say so Cody is 620 right now and so
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right now. And then Kelly Walsh High School
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in Casper is the biggest at 2000.
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So right now Cody has the school of 620.
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We've got to compete against the school that's three times our
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size. But now we're going to drop
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down, We'll be a little bit bigger fish in a smaller pond
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because at 6:20, you know, we're going to be.
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Almost three times the size of some of those smaller schools in
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three day. So you're moving from a very,
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I'm going to call it equalized 16/16/16 and the rest to now
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it's so you could have you know making up numbers here 20
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schools in 4A3 and three. I, you know, I know it won't
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average out that way, but we're going in strictly enrollment is
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four and three and two and 1A. Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, that's so we and it's always been this hey we need to
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have 16 so we can have eight in each region and.
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And very formal and the the deciding body it came back with,
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hey, we're going to put less importance on that and more on
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just kind of equal size and and competition that way.
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So that's interesting. So we're going to, there's four
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boys teams that are going to earn A state championship team
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trophy in the outdoor state meet and there's four girls.
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So how do we get there? All around the country we have
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districts, areas, regionals, you kind of alluded maybe it's
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called regionals. What's the first round that we
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have in Wyoming? Yeah.
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So, and this is the part that is going to be fun to talk about a
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little bit because I do think we do a little bit different in
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Wyoming. So there's two ways to get the
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state to the state meet. So one is through regionals.
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So each classification has regionals in in our state
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everything's divided east, West. So Cody would be in for a West
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right now and eight schools come together, they rotate through
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who hosts it. Top eight in each event qualify
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for state but then the additional.
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So that I guess theoretically right, you'd have 16 competitors
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in each event at state, but on top of that we have pre
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qualification standards. In the state of Wyoming.
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And So what that is, is it's a a mark or time that sets before
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the year starts. Everybody knows what it is and
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if you hit that at any point during the season at a
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qualifying meet, you automatically get to go to
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state. So now you still have to be
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entered in regionals and we can get this is where we can get
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really complicated, where we talk about you know how many one
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team can get it and all that kind of thing, but.
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You still have to be entered at regionals, but if you filed out
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per SE or you know or DQ D on the track, you would still
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advance the state. So often times, I mean I you
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know, like I said earlier, I've been doing for seven years.
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I don't think I've ever been to a state meeting where we've had
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just 16 competitors. So we end up having three
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flights at state because of that.
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But let's talk about regionals. How do I?
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How do I enter regionals? And what I mean by that is, and
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I think that time qualifier is going to come in.
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I think you alluded to that. How many am I allowed per event,
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am I allowed to enter? And then how does that time
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qualifier affect that as well? Yep, that's a great question.
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So you are allowed a maximum of four competitors each school is
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and so where the time qualifiers come in or the the pre
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qualification marks come in is that still counts towards your 4
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and that's actually. You know you want to talk about
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maybe some under some talk between coaches about hey what
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what are ways we can make it better or some complaints that
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way. So if you wanted to get 5 people
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to state now you could enter 568 but every single one of those
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athletes would have to hit the pre qualification at regional.
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So I actually when I was in high school I I grew up in a
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different community in Wyoming but one year we had five guys
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run the 100 meter dash at regional.
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It's all five of them in the pre qualm.
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OK so I'm not let's make sure I'm I'm I'm confused so I can
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you said I got a let's use that 100 meter dash that's kind of
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just maybe the easiest one. So you said I have Max 4 per
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event so I can enter 400 meter runners if if let's just say all
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four of them do not have the pre qualified time but I but I do
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have four other runners that have met the pre qualified time
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can I Because you said I could get five or six or something
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there. So how?
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How does that work? Yeah, that's a great
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clarification there. So you have to be if you hit the
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pre qualification mark, you have to be entered in regionals to be
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eligible for state. So if you had like your example,
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if you had four that were pre qualified, you have to enter
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those four in and so if that's the case in in regionals in
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their specific event. In their specific event that
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they're pre qualified, so if that's the case, you know that's
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all you're going to. Be able to enter in and even if
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you had you know four guys that might get on the podium or might
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challenge for the podium but haven't hit that prequal, they
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don't get to compete at regionals.
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Now the one example that's where I said you could have 5678 would
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be if every single one hit that pre qualification standard.
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Then you could enter in five and that was the example when I was
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in high school, we had five guys who all hit that time and so all
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five did that. That's the one.
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You get to do that at regionals then.
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So we had five at regionals instead of four.
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So I I can enter a four Max regardless of their time.
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But if I happen to have five and is it only five?
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Like what happens if I have six or seven that admit the prequal?
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I can enter them. So I've never seen a case where
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it's been six or seven, but I have seen a couple cases where
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it's 5. And that might lead me right
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into explaining how they make this qualification line because
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that actually is going to be really helpful.
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So and everybody is, I know it's this black box, it's this
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running average. You know, if you ask coaches,
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they don't nobody really know. So I actually in preparation to
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talk to you, I went and looked, I was like, hey, let's pull this
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out, let's see what the exact rules are.
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So what the exact rules are is that old, that standard, the old
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standard. So from the previous year is
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multiplied by three. And then they add the 6th place
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finish state from the most recent season and then they
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divide it by 4:00. So I mean that sounds very
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mathematical, but basically what you're doing is it's a, it's a
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weighted average that's tweaked based on the 6th place finish
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each year. And so you have small variation.
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So yeah, at the state meet, you know everybody cares about state
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champion, everybody cares about the runner up because that's
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Allstate. And then we're all really
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interested to see what 6th Place is, because that's what's going
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to affect next season. That's true.
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It's funny. It's like, hey, yeah, that's
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cool. Who got six though?
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What was that place? What was that time?
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Exactly. That's good, That's good.
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OK. So you haven't seen it, but as
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we don't know if I have six or more it pre qualit, if I can get
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in, you know you've seen 5:00, so we know 5, right?
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OK. Yeah.
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And I I guess that was my point in bringing up what the, what
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the the qualification standard, I mean it's set up that we
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should really only have. 6:00-ish people statewide or
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classification wide make it be prequel.
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So if you had six from the same team, that would be a really,
12:49
really astonishing team. You have you know some coaches
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listening right now going hey man I had 6-4 minute Millers
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what would I do in Wyoming. So you know what's happening.
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So when we're at regionals, you said then the top 8 go to state.
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So let's use that 100 meter dash.
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We've got you know 24 competitors, 8 of them, the top
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eight are going on the state and if I also if I get and I hit
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that time qualifier, I also go to state.
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Correct. Yeah.
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And so we we end up. Go ahead.
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Well, I was going to say how many because you know, that
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opens yourself up to like you could have, you know,
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conceivably 100 people in an event, right, if they all beat
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the qualifying time at regionals.
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What's the most you've ever seen in an event going on to state?
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Yeah, that's that's a good question.
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So, yeah, you're right. Theoretically that could happen.
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I think practically I've never seen more than three heats or
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three. Flights in the field events and
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so I I think we've seen 18 competitors a few times in the
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throw specifically I think maybe 19 and a lot of that you know
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and we'll talk about this a little bit later.
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I'm assuming as we you know Wyoming, we're going to battle
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the weather. And so I think we see a lot of
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times in the sprints especially, you know we've got snow at
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regionals and so you know we don't want.
14:07
Our 100 meter dash guys really going hard.
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So even though they're pre qualed, you know we're going to
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you know have them job or just have them entered and then a a
14:16
race time scratch which would still allow them to go through
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the state. But then you have eight kids, 8
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athletes are going to step up and and qualify.
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So I I think there's been some years maybe that that has
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happened that we could have maybe upwards of 20, but
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generally it's in that 16 to 18 is what we see.
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Yeah, that that's probably more realistic way of that actually
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happening though. You're right.
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It's like, hey man, I've already qualified.
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I'm good. I'll see you next week.
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Yeah, that's a good point. OK, so let's talk about the
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state meet then. Are we doing all four or eight
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championships at one venue on one weekend?
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Does that venue rotate? Is it a college, high school?
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Is it a one day, 2 day, three day, four day meet?
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Talk to us about the state meet. Yeah, absolutely.
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So the state meet takes place every year, the third.
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Weekend in May in Casper at Kelly Walsh High School And so
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it's the state is actually WISHA.
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Who's our governing bodies actually, you know, spend some
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money a year to help maintain and improve that facility as
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well? And it's all all classifications
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at the same time. So it is, it's amazing
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spectacle. You know, one of the things that
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I love to tell people, that's why I love the state meet so
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much is it's actually a semi sunken stadium.
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And so there's a big grassy hills all around and that's
15:27
where the team camps are. So you show up at the state meet
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and it's just an explosion of color, right?
15:31
Everybody's wearing their team colors and has their team tent
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and they're, you know, just around 1/2 of basically it's.
15:38
The front stretch and turns one and two is where these hills
15:42
are. And so especially turns one and
15:43
two, that's where most of the teams are and you just explosion
15:47
a car everybody representing and it's a three day meet.
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So in recent years to try to cut down on hotel stays and travel
15:54
and and whatnot, 'cause, you know, Wyoming is a huge state.
15:57
I mean, coming from Cody, it takes us 3 1/2 hours to get to
16:00
the state meet by bus. And so with that, you know,
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everybody's pretty much spending the night and so to cut down on
16:07
that and some travel. Thursday is mostly distance and
16:10
then some of the distance relaying to allow kids to double
16:13
and triple up a lot easier and but it starts like mid afternoon
16:17
or early afternoon and then Friday is a full event slate
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starts at 9 AMI think and we go to five or six at night and then
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Saturday is championship Saturday and that's usually done
16:28
at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon is when we run I think it's 2:00
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usually is when we run the four by four so.
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I'm trying to get done at again a reasonable time to allow
16:35
schools like us and I I think some of the longer schools are
16:38
five, 5, 1/2 hours like Evanston down in the southwest corner.
16:41
I think that's about their bus ride to to Casper every year.
16:45
So I'm trying to keep that in mind.
16:46
That's really a kind of affects the schedule.
16:48
And then one more thing that just changed is they moved all
16:51
the pole vaulting events to. Thursday, Friday.
16:55
So we, I alluded it earlier with regional, state, state track
16:59
weather in Wyoming is the thing. It usually snows one of the
17:02
three days and so the idea a couple years ago by the
17:06
commissioner was to hey, let's get that pole vault done
17:09
Thursday, Friday. So if we do have to either
17:12
condense or delay a day that we're not having either kids
17:16
pole vault inside which doesn't count towards any records or
17:18
anything or having to cancel the pole vault event.
17:21
So that's been something that's changed.
17:23
Really I think this was. I think it's only been two years
17:25
that that's changed that's a that's a really smart concession
17:28
to make like they moved them earlier just in case we have to
17:30
push them later. That's that's a really good
17:32
point. Maybe you do that with your high
17:33
jumpers too or something like that.
17:35
That's really good. I like how you described
17:37
Saturday Championship Saturday. So all eight team trophies are
17:41
given out on Saturday. That's that's really cool.
17:44
I like when you do it that way. It's just makes it a it's a
17:47
that's a fun day. A lot of happy kids that day and
17:50
coaches, man, I love it. You know we're learning.
17:54
We have learned that you know a lot of the we know track and
17:57
field is the one of the is the most inclusive sport right?
17:59
Big, tall, short, doesn't matter.
18:01
There's some place in track and field for you to be successful.
18:04
A lot of states we have learned throughout this series are
18:06
adding adaptive or unified or wheelchair events, anything like
18:09
that going in Wyoming right now. That's a great question too.
18:13
So this took a more research on my part before we got a a chat
18:18
here today. And currently no.
18:21
I will say but. In the September 23rd, 2023
18:25
board meeting, they did actually approve it for the 2024 track
18:28
season, some additional events. So looking through their minutes
18:32
there, we're now going to offer shot put, long jump, 100 meter
18:35
dash, 400 meter dash and the four by 100 meter relay all in
18:40
the unified track and field category.
18:42
So that's really exciting and especially for, you know, my, my
18:46
particular high school, we've had a really, really strong
18:48
history of doing unified sports. You know when we do the end of
18:51
year awards banquets, I mean they have a whole several
18:55
sections of different sports that we do unified sports and
18:58
then actually our head track coach is the adaptive PE teacher
19:01
for the high school and for our district.
19:03
So that's been something we've we've hosted track meets that
19:06
aren't affiliated with the statewide governing body at our
19:09
school in the past and. Is something that I know we
19:13
haven't had a chance to talk about it because all those
19:15
coaches coach football and that's where their minds are
19:16
right now. But I'm sure once we get closer
19:20
to track season, we're going to talk about how that maybe gets
19:23
integrated with our own program. Who knows?
19:24
To you guys, I'm glad you guys are adding that.
19:26
That's awesome. You're giving out with four
19:29
classes. You know there are four shot put
19:31
state champions and four girls shot put state champions.
19:34
Some states, whether it's official through the Athletic
19:38
Association or unofficial through a coaches association or
19:41
whatnot, are hosting Meet of Champions to find the air quotes
19:45
here. True state champion in each
19:47
event. Anything like that going on?
19:49
Yeah. So we we've actually got kind of
19:50
two versions of that. So one at the state meet, they
19:53
also award a separate. Medal that's called best of the
19:57
best and so it's the best of the best girl and the best best boy
20:00
in each event. So on championship Saturday is
20:02
when muscles get handed out and so they've got this trumpet
20:06
fanfare that plays over the loud speakers and they direct
20:09
everybody's attention to a separate award podium and and
20:11
hand those out. So we do have you know the best
20:13
of the best gets awarded that year in each of the events which
20:16
is really cool and then you ask specific better meet a chance.
20:19
So state of Wyoming used to have a meet a chance probably. 80s,
20:22
nineties, I think it went away just from lack of participation,
20:25
right. Everybody's moved on.
20:27
We started to think about college.
20:28
I mean I alluded to what our schedule is, right?
20:30
We're done third week of May, which is also a lot earlier.
20:33
I mean you start second week of March and we end third week of
20:36
May or 11 week season. So that's a lot kind of shorter
20:39
earlier season than a lot of people are used to and people
20:41
just moved on with their summer. But last year we finally had a
20:46
mandated from wishes that we all had to submit our results to a
20:50
singular online descending order.
20:53
We used mile split and before it was like runner card mile split.
20:56
I think there's another a third website that everybody just used
20:59
their own meat management software.
21:02
But last year wishes said, hey, let's all bring it down to down
21:04
to one. And because of that it actually
21:06
got resurrected. It's we call it the Wyoming Trap
21:10
Classic and it's hosted at Kelly also at the state meet venue and
21:15
it's usually meet #8. So we can only our athletes can
21:18
only compete in 10 regular season meets and so around meet
21:22
8-7 or eight is when this falls in the schedule.
21:25
So and it's top nine for field events top eight for track
21:29
events in the whole state at that time of the season and so
21:33
that's that's been really cool you know last year actually our
21:36
senior discus thrower Laura Phillips won in the first year
21:40
back. So that was really exciting for
21:42
me to get a chance to coach her into that.
21:44
And yeah, that was really awesome to see that resurrected.
21:47
I I like that. You know, I think a lot of
21:49
states want a meet up champions. At least a lot of our states
21:52
that have multiple classes anyway and it's very hard,
21:55
right? You meant you made a lot of
21:56
great points about where it is in the season.
21:58
Kids going on to college, spring ball.
22:00
For some people a lot of these national championship meets are
22:04
coming. You know that it is hard to do
22:06
something after your official state meet.
22:08
But we've learned now a couple of states are doing this best of
22:11
the bet like you know you had the best shot put or the best
22:14
discus throw you, you know you're the best of the best in
22:16
the state of Wyoming. That's that's really cool and I
22:18
like this. New twist to a meet of champions
22:21
of OK, it's not going to be after the state meet, but
22:24
because we have the the sending orderless, we're only going to
22:26
invite the top nine in each event.
22:28
That's that's really cool regardless of of class.
22:30
That's awesome. I love that.
22:31
Well, let's talk about your events.
22:33
Let's see if you're doing anything unique from around the
22:36
country. We can assume you're doing the
22:37
102 hundred, 400 and 800 the next two events.
22:41
Are you doing the 1632, the mile, two mile, the 15103
22:44
thousand? What are we doing in those next
22:46
two? Yep.
22:47
So we do the 16 and 32. OK, most common.
22:50
All right. Next, Vince, you're doing the
22:51
110 high hurdles and 100 hurdles for boys and girls.
22:55
Yep, that's correct. You're doing the 300 hurdles,
22:57
Yep. Relays.
22:59
We know you're doing 4 by 1 and 4 by 4, and I've told this joke
23:01
on all 51 now because if you're not doing the four by one and
23:05
four by four, you're not doing track and you wouldn't be on
23:07
this podcast. So what other relays might you
23:09
be doing? Yeah, so we got 4 by 1 4x4.
23:11
We do also do the four by 8:00 and then about five or six years
23:15
ago we added the the medley relay.
23:17
So it's 2A200, a 200, a 400 and an 800.
23:22
What? What do you call are you
23:23
calling? Are you calling it the Sprint
23:24
medley or what? What are you calling that?
23:27
Yeah, I think it depends on who you talk to.
23:30
Looking at most the look at most of the like the meet schedules,
23:33
it's just in there is the medley, relay medley.
23:36
Relay and you're running that as a 2248, correct?
23:39
Yep. That's great, man.
23:40
There are more states running some type of medley than I
23:42
thought, so I love that. That's really cool.
23:44
So we're running the four by one, the 4x4, the four by 8, and
23:47
I'm going to call it the Sprint Medley relay.
23:50
Yep, that's that's all the relays we got.
23:52
Very. Cool.
23:52
Let's go over to the field events we're doing.
23:54
Long jump and triple jump for boys and girls.
23:56
Yep, that's correct. We're.
23:57
Doing shot, put and discus. Yep.
24:00
And we're doing pole vault and high jump for boys and girls.
24:02
Yep, that's it. Any type of, oh, you already
24:04
said that's it. I was going to say any type of
24:05
javelin, hammer, multi, steeple, anything else?
24:09
No, you you summed them all up. There's been a couple pushes to
24:14
maybe get some javelin entered, but cause the states around us
24:18
all do javelin. So you know us, we're only 30,
24:20
Cody's, only 30 miles from the Montana border.
24:23
So we get to potentially go up to a few of their meets.
24:25
We've got a lot of schools that go down to Utah to compete, some
24:27
schools that go down to Colorado.
24:29
And so there's been a push to like, hey, these states around
24:32
us are doing the, why don't we get to do it?
24:33
But that's as of today, that's all the events we have.
24:36
Keep pushing. Much like that.
24:38
Meet a champs. Some states are doing unofficial
24:41
events, you know a week or two later as an unofficial state.
24:44
Meet for the multi or javelin or hammer.
24:46
Things that aren't typically in their official state.
24:48
Meet anything like that? Nope.
24:50
Nothing going on like that in the state right now.
24:53
All right, man. Hey, before we go on to a couple
24:55
of fun questions here, Carson, anything that we missed,
24:58
anything we didn't ask, Anything that you're uniquely doing there
25:01
in Wyoming? You're doubling your Relay
25:03
Points. You're only scoring 6 per event.
25:05
You're 4x4 goes off at midnight. Because that's a Wyoming
25:09
tradition. I don't know.
25:10
Anything else unique that we should know about you know from
25:14
a from a state meeting standpoint I I really don't
25:16
think that there's really anything else.
25:17
You know I've got a got a chance to talk earlier about like the
25:20
spectacle that the state I think that's really, really unique.
25:23
I love that we do that as a state.
25:25
Also told you maybe the the state track weather deal that's
25:29
been AI mean I keep sounding like I'm joking but that is
25:33
totally, I mean it's it of the seven years and it's snowed at
25:36
least one day every year that I've coached.
25:40
And then you know I I competed in Wyoming when I was in high
25:42
school. It's snowed every of my four
25:45
years of competing. And so you want to talk about
25:47
trying to and that's something that, you know, every coach
25:50
every, every official, like we have to figure out how to deal
25:53
with that, right. I mean are we shoveling off the
25:55
track? Do we dry?
25:57
How often do we dry the ring? You know, in the world that I'm
26:00
and especially since I've been running shop with the last
26:02
couple years, you know that's been a question that's coming up
26:05
a lot is hey, how are we being most fair to everybody but also
26:10
allowing our athletes to actually be able to compete
26:12
their best at the state meet. So I guess one last thing that
26:15
maybe is a little unique is our state records have to be set at
26:18
the state meet. You can't set them anywhere
26:20
else. And so that again comes in with
26:23
the weather is like that's brutal is that hey, if it's
26:26
snowed on the day that you're supposed to be, you know you're
26:29
primed. You've been running below the
26:31
state record all all season, but it snows the day you're supposed
26:34
to run the 100 meter finals. You know that's tough.
26:38
So that that is one thing that's a little bit different than
26:40
challenging. But I would all say with a
26:42
variety of communities we have and the remoteness of some of
26:45
the communities. I do like the fact that you know
26:47
we come back to a a structured, you know, state meet with the
26:51
official steel tapes, you know and their their timing system
26:55
that that's where we know, you know our state records have been
26:58
set and kept. Tough kids and tough coaches in
27:01
this state. Man, no doubt.
27:02
No doubt. Well, let's have a little bit of
27:04
fun here. Carson.
27:05
Help us settle a debate. You're the last one.
27:07
So someone has been keeping track.
27:08
I just know it of all 50. Now one answers to this.
27:12
So you get to be the final kind of cherry on top.
27:14
At least on your bus ride to the the state meet here.
27:18
Do you call it where we. We qualified for state.
27:21
We qualified for states we qualified for the state meet
27:25
What What do we say? Help us out.
27:27
But it gets a final answer yeah I'd said the first thing off my
27:30
tongue is always we qualify for state and that's what you hear
27:32
our kids say and and so that's one or like you punched your
27:35
ticket that would be another thing that we'd like to say and
27:38
then the biggest one and we alluded to earlier but
27:40
everybody's all about getting prequel like that's you know you
27:44
know that you're a stud on your team or you're you know you're a
27:47
stud in the state if you're prequel and that's that's the
27:50
title that most kids I. Like it?
27:52
Prequel and officially state No S no S you love.
27:58
It, Carson. You've been awesome today, man.
27:59
We've learned a lot. You win the the very last one,
28:02
the very last magic wand. If you could change one thing
28:06
and only one thing, my friend, that you believe would make the
28:09
track and field in Wyoming for high school just a little bit
28:12
better, what might that be? Well, you know, I think, I mean,
28:16
that's a great question. I think I got to go to maybe
28:21
adding some more events. You know, I I threw shot and
28:24
disk in high school and then threw hammer in college.
28:26
I would love to see Hammer. I have no idea how we would ever
28:29
implement that, you know, and having enough qualified coaches
28:32
and whatnot. Actually, earlier didn't get a
28:34
mention. I'm sorry going off this topic a
28:36
little bit. We have indoor state in an
28:38
indoor separate indoor season in Wyoming.
28:40
So that is something that's a little unique and that's been a
28:43
big push there specifically is the indoor weight.
28:45
And so I could see maybe that opening the door to adding that.
28:48
But that's that's coming from a from a throwing coach and a
28:51
thrower myself that you're going to get a little more bias
28:54
opinion I guess on that versus maybe something that actually
28:57
changes the a larger format of how to qualify or how things are
29:01
run. Carson that's a great way to end
29:03
this entire series because while you are biased being a throws
29:06
coach wanting the hammer, as a manufacturer of hammer cage,
29:09
trust me, we would be all in for you.
29:12
And to that point, in other states that are listening right
29:15
now, go back and listen to Rhode Island.
29:17
They have it for a state meet event has had it for a long
29:21
time, like decades and decades. And nearly every high school has
29:25
a hammer cage. Just like our pull up
29:27
facilities, some are a little bit nicer, some are a little bit
29:29
less, but it's safe and they make it happen.
29:31
So I think if Rhode Island can do it, I think Wyoming and any
29:35
other states as listen, I think you can do it as well.
29:38
Carson, man, it has been a long and amazing journey here through
29:42
51 state championships and this is a great way to end it.
29:46
I love what you guys are doing in Wyoming.
29:48
I love that you're adding adaptive.
29:50
That's great. I mean that's that's again, the
29:52
most inclusive sports. I love that you're adding those
29:54
in there. I love that you are, you know,
29:56
talking about Javelin and things like that.
29:58
That's awesome. And I love that you hit the
29:59
Sprint Medley Relay. That's it's unique and I just
30:01
love that uniqueness of Wyoming. So Carson, thank you.
30:04
You have been an awesome, awesome relay leg for us as we
30:07
finish out our. An entire series here in April
30:10
and May of 2024. Thank you friend.
30:12
Yeah you bet. I appreciate.
30:13
I appreciate the time to get to share about state that I'm
30:16
pretty passionate about and yeah I appreciate you doing this for
30:19
all the different states. So it's it's really, really,
30:21
really nice. You're very welcome, my friend.
30:23
Go back and check it out. So this is the last day of May.
30:26
I don't know when you're listening to this, but this last
30:27
day of May that we published this one all of April every
30:30
single day and all of May every single day.
30:32
A new state, Alabama, all the way through Wyoming.
30:34
Trust me. You will learn something.
30:37
Thanks everybody. Have a great day.