Would relaxing the wind standards for the 100 and 200 make a difference in who does qualifies (or doesn't qualify) for the state meet? Photo by Alan Versaw.
In the previous article, we looked at the top 30 ranked 2A boys 100 and 200 runners from 2015. Specifically, we looked at how many wind-legal 100 and 200 times they were able to accumulate leading up to the state meet. Since qualifying is based on wind-legal times, there needs to be some level of equity about each athlete having some reasonable opportunity to accumulate wind-legal marks.
For those athletes with five or fewer wind-legal marks in the event, we dug deeper for some sort of explanation. We checked the number of wind-aided marks they accumulated, checked to see if they were only a part-time track athlete, and so forth.
Below, you will see the same data for 2014 (generally regarded to be a windier spring than 2014). Once again, I will leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
As a caveat, the runners shown below are not the actual 2A top 30s for 2014, but the top 30s for all teams that were 2A in 2015 (I don't have an easy mechanism for sorting the data backwards to only those teams that were 2A in 2014).
In any case, here is what we find for 2A Boys for 2014 at 100 and 200 meters (and, by the way, I'll take on 1A Girls for 2015 and 2014 next, since that should produce a larger number of very clearly Eastern Plains athletes--not that the Eastern Plains are the only windy spot in the state during springtime):
Top 30 Ranked 2A Boys - 100 Meter Dash
| Name | Team | Marks | Notes |
| Ty Eichman | Dayspring | 10 | |
| Trenton Shelton | Meeker | 7 | |
| Tullef Rudlong | Lyons | 1 | injured most of season, no addtl wind-aided times |
| Sawyer Pehkonen | Resurrection | 4 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Xander Camp | Cedaredge | 10 | |
| Christian Graham | Dayspring | 9 | |
| Dakota Murrow | Dayspring | 9 | |
| Trey Zupancic | Rye | 3 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Nate Ramirez | Sargent | 2 | played baseball, no addtl wind-aided times |
| Cooper Ward | Resurrection | 6 | |
| Wyatt Schrepfer | Hoehne | 10 | |
| Thomas Payne | Limon | 8 | |
| Shane Finegan | Wiggins | 9 | |
| John Broadhead | Telluride | 1 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Cade Schulz | Wray | 7 | |
| Earl Gaub | Hotchkiss | 9 | |
| Jason George | Simla | 4 | played baseball, one addtl wind-aided time |
| Amos Hodges | Telluride | 4 | one additional wind-aided mark |
| Jake Freeland | Calhan | 3 | three additional wind-aided marks, ran 100 in 4 meets |
| Austin Sander | Highland | 2 | one additional wind-aided mark |
| Dakota Noah | Highland | 8 | |
| Connor Phelan | Rangely | 8 | |
| Kaleb Schultz | Crested Butte | 7 | |
| Connor Courter | Telluride | 7 | |
| Adam Herrera | Ignacio | 2 | played baseball, one addtl wind-aided time |
| Alex Hart | Hotchkiss | 4 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Vladyslav Kambulov | Twin Peaks | 5 | one additional wind-aided mark |
| TJ Bolt | Nederland | 4 | one additional wind-aided mark |
| Rain Landry | Crested Butte | 1 | no additional wind-aided marks |
Top 30 Ranked 2A Boys - 200 Meter Dash
| Name | Team | Marks | Notes |
| Ty Eichman | Dayspring | 9 | |
| Trenton Shelton | Meeker | 5 | one additional wind-aided mark |
| Sawyer Pehkonen | Resurrection | 4 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Xander Camp | Cedaredge | 7 | |
| Cole Caynoski | Vail Christian | 4 | two additional wind-aided marks |
| Cooper Ward | Resurrection | 7 | |
| Shane Finegan | Wiggins | 8 | |
| Christian Graham | Dayspring | 7 | |
| Tullef Rudlong | Lyons | 1 | injured most of season, no addtl wind-aided marks |
| Vladyslav Kambulov | Twin Peaks | 5 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Scott Paddock | Ellicott | 4 | three additional wind-aided marks |
| Nate Ramirez | Sargent | 3 | played baseball, no addtl wind-aided marks |
| Connor Phelan | Rangely | 8 | |
| Christian Knoll | Ignacio | 4 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Trey Zupancic | Rye | 2 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Dakota Wiggins | Crested Butte | 3 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Wyatt Schrepfer | Hoehne | 10 | |
| Thomas Payne | Limon | 5 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Dakota Murrow | Resurrection | 7 | |
| Cole Watson | Resurrection | 1 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Austin Sander | Highland | 3 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Cade Schulz | Wray | 7 | |
| Luke Davis | Resurrection | 1 | two more wind-aided marks |
| Rain Landry | Crested Butte | 2 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Amos Hodges | Telluride | 3 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Jack Thomas | Kiowa | 4 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Jorden Jole | Merino | 2 | no additional wind-aided marks |
| Joseph Allen | Ellicott | 4 | two additional wind-aided marks |
| Gavin Liggett | Limon | 4 | played baseball, no addtl wind-aided marks |