My gut and my reason tell me "No, it should not count." This past November a reporter called my father to ask if I had won three straight XC championships in high school. He remembered (correctly) that I had been second my sophomore year, and then he asked the journalist why he was interested in such ancient history (60s). Apparently a runner attending another high school in my old school's conference was shooting for the hat trick, and the reporter was trying to figure out if (or when) it had happened before. My problem with it (when I learned of the exchange) is that my old school is in a different conference now (of recent vintage; the old conference still exists, with most of the same schools). Even if I had won three titles in a row in conference A, why should that be relevant to a conference B (and its records) that wouldn't even exist for decades? In fact, there's a good chance that my school mile record (which still stands, long ago eclipsed as the record in my old conference) is faster than any mile that's been run in the (weaker) new conference. I sure can't think of a compelling reason why it should be the conference record in the new league! Of course, since we all run 1600s now... (don't get me started).
I agree with Ed: league marks start being kept the first day the league exists. Steve At 09:23 AM 1/9/02 -0800, Dan Kaplan wrote: >I don't know what the answer to this question is (my gut feeling is it >should count), but I must object to Ed's analogy below. Hardly the same >thing -- the original question refers to the same school, just before it >had the league categorization, while the response is two different schools >(which obviously circumvents the league aspect of the question). > >Dan > >--- Ed and Dana Parrot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jim - > > > > > Should a mark set by someone from a league member school prior to the > > formal organization of the league be >considered the league record? > > > My gut feeling is no, therefore giving rise to the possibility that a > > school record could be better than the league mark >(which is not a > > problem). This is more to determine what the existing league record was > > (and by extension whether it was broken in a meet last weekend) > > > > Much easier than the four minute mile question (although poring through > > an old T&F News issue is very enjoyable) - of course not. A league is >an > > entity that din't exist when the mark was set. If an 8th grader in a > > middle > > school runs 4:15 for the mile, and didn't get faster when he got to high > > school, the high school wouldn't consider that the school record. It's > > the same thing. > > > > - Ed Parrot -- Steve Grathwohl * [EMAIL PROTECTED] "You need to have a compulsive relationship with the music.You have got to like human beings, even if you despise the human race, because other people are going to make the noises, and you aren't going to do a damn thing." ---Sir Colin Davis on conducting
