When I was a freshmen at Jamestown High School, I started to really get excited about the sport during my outdoor season when I ran times of 4:40 for 1600 meters and 10:20 for 3200 meters. After running a 4:48 in my first 1600 meter track race that spring, I knew the time was decent for a ninth grader, but did not know how good it was in relation to other freshmen. Well I wanted to find out and this compulsion to get the answers I was looking for in part helped to lead to the creation of MileStat.com. I started compiling a Virginia freshmen list of top 1600 and 3200 meter times on the message boards of DyeStat.com. The lists helped motivate me to continue to drop my times and become a better runner as well as give me a feeling of achievement for my race performances during that outdoor season.
Now as a high school coach, it has come full circle with now me pointing my freshmen runners in the direction to find out where they stand against other freshmen. It has been just as exciting as a coach to see my young athletes get excited about the sport, their running, and their "freshmen rankings" as it was for me then. When researching freshmen times on the site after my first sub 5 freshmen miler, I discovered that there are way more ninth graders in Virginia running under 5 minutes for 1600 minutes than I would have ever imagined eight years ago when I was a freshmen myself. Maybe there were 50 plus freshmen breaking 5 minutes then as I definitely did not have access to many results then in the pre-MileStat.com days. However, I think this website is a great tool in motivating young athletes and may play a part in more kids achieving a higher level of performance than previous years. I do not say that as the webmaster of this site, but as a coach because I have started to appreciate the site more as a coach this year.
This website definitely has a front page focus of the state's top tier athletes who are predominantly upperclassmen, but coaches please all point your new athletes to this site as well as it has great resources to allow the newcomers to track their success and development from start to finish of their high school career. As for me, pointing attention back to the freshmen is a refreshing return to the origins of MileStat.com and why I fell in love with this sport and developed the passion for it that drives me everyday. The site was started by a naive, but excited high school freshmen and continues to live and grow with the influx of new freshmen every year being introduced to track and field. Freshmen athletes and parents....welcome to a great sport and we hope you will enjoy it for years to come. Coaches...lets help our young talent become more informed and motivated athletes through MileStat.com and other resources.
Encourage them to become students and fans of the sport as well as fast runners!
Top 50 Freshmen Boys 1600m Times
Top 50 Freshmen Boys 3200m Times
When I was a freshmen at Jamestown High School, I started to really get excited about the sport during my outdoor season when I ran times of 4:40 for 1600 meters and 10:20 for 3200 meters. After running a 4:48 in my first 1600 meter track race that spring, I knew the time was decent for a ninth grader, but did not know how good it was in relation to other freshmen. Well I wanted to find out and this compulsion to get the answers I was looking for in part helped to lead to the creation of MileStat.com. I started compiling a Virginia freshmen list of top 1600 and 3200 meter times on the message boards of DyeStat.com. The lists helped motivate me to continue to drop my times and become a better runner as well as give me a feeling of achievement for my race performances during that outdoor season.
Now as a high school coach, it has come full circle with now me pointing my freshmen runners in the direction to find out where they stand against other freshmen. It has been just as exciting as a coach to see my young athletes get excited about the sport, their running, and their "freshmen rankings" as it was for me then. When researching freshmen times on the site after my first sub 5 freshmen miler, I discovered that there are way more ninth graders in Virginia running under 5 minutes for 1600 minutes than I would have ever imagined eight years ago when I was a freshmen myself. Maybe there were 50 plus freshmen breaking 5 minutes then as I definitely did not have access to many results then in the pre-MileStat.com days. However, I think this website is a great tool in motivating young athletes and may play a part in more kids achieving a higher level of performance than previous years. I do not say that as the webmaster of this site, but as a coach because I have started to appreciate the site more as a coach this year.