Which CA Distance Runners Won 2015?


We didn't get to see them head-to-head at full strength this fall, but it should be no surprise that this statistical competition comes down to another battle between Fiona O'Keeffe and Destiny Collins.


As the new year approaches, I generally tend to look forward rather than back. However, inspiration struck me this week as I thought about the only athletes that record top times in all three seasons: the distance runners.  That means we can rank distance runners using a combination of outdoor track and cross country times, and then compile them into one overall ranking for the 2015 calendar year - and that's what I've done on the following slides.


Methodology:

  • In order to compete in both seasons, a runner had to be in high school across two school years. That means the classes of 2015 and 2019 were excluded (I could have dug for middle school times for this year's freshmen, but this was time-consuming enough as it was).
  • I got the top 10 times for every distance race from each season, and then filled in the missing times for runners that were in the top 10 for some events but not for others.
  • I then added the times for each athlete across several categories, arriving at total times (see the categories below, and the criteria on each specific page).
  • I also ranked the runners for each individual event, then added their rankings together like points in a cross country meet (lowest total is best).
  • For each category, I ranked the athletes by both total time and total points, and in some cases they were markedly different.
  • Only runners who had times in all the events for a particular category could be included; missing even 1 time meant the runner was not eligible in that category.



Boys:

Mid Distance - Mid Distance + XC - Long Distance - OVERALL


Girls:

Mid DIstance - Mid Distance + XC - Long Distance - OVERALL