Believe it or not, there are many different scoring structures and even different events contested at state meets across the country. Some states don't have the triple jump and others contest more events than VA does. What is even more interesting though is how some states value relay points more than individual points. The most common example is doubling the points for relays.
That led us to think about how that would look in VA. More so, would it be a change worth making?
The thought process behind having double the points for a relay (making it scored 20, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 instead of the 10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1 normal scoring) is because athletes are only allowed a certain number of running events. In Virginia that is three possible running events per meet.
That essentially means if you're an elite athlete it makes less sense to run on a relay than an individual event if your team is going for the team title.
Take Na'Taja Ballard for example. She could win the 100, 200, 100H, and 300H at States. She could also run on Branch's 4x1 and 4x4 relays and would be the fastest leg on both. But her maximum points scored either way would be 30 and really her running on a relay may only make the difference of them winning versus finishing fourth (5 points). It comes down to sacrificing the team (relay) for the team as a whole by focusing more on individual running events.
If you were to double the scores though, at least in this example it makes a 10 point swing which makes it a wash as total points are concerned. Now there is also the discussion of taking away points from other teams and the such but for the sake of this argument we are just focused on one side of it.
So what do you think, should the points be doubled?