These were certainly great accomplishments during 2011. I would like to add Connor Winter to the list. Coming back from injury, Connor won the 800m, 1600m, and the 3200m at the state meet for the second year in a row. I understand that no young man in Colorado has won all three events once at the 5A level, let alone three times. And Connor came within .5 seconds of setting the all-time 1600m record in Colorado earlier in the season. If that isn't the #1 accomplishment during 2011, it should rank in the top three.
I would second that regarding Connor Winter and go a step further and say his State meet performance was the #1 story in 2011! Nothing against Dior Hall but that 13.18 was a PR by a half second......that is incredible but points to one outstanding race while Winter had won all three events two years in a row!! To handle that pressure over the course of 48 hrs is pretty amazing......we may not see the likes of him for awhile. Also Danny Carney should go into the top 3 as well with being in the hospital for two days and then coming back and getting second at NXN SW....talk about gutsy. As a former college coach I know who I would be recruiting first! Oh by the way Ellie Fulton's 4:42 was accomplished running in the second/third lane line almost the entire way.....can you say 4:37ish! That would put her in the top 10 all-time girl milers...hmmm there is my top 3.
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coxcfan
It seems you may be more biased to long distance and that is fine but hurdles or not Dior ran a time in an event that was the 4th fastest time ever. Not just this year but ever. Connor should be listed yet there are several times where athletes triple at state and that is not even on a national stage. She could also probably triple at state if she chose to. Just want you to think about the accomplishment because you effectively downplayed it and drop her out of the top 3. It is your opinion, just wanted you to think about it again. 4th fastest time EVER and she did it as a freshman.
I have debated whether to jump in on this question or not. The "no" side of the debate was winning until this morning.
There's a little bit of nuance in the title of the article that was intentional on my part, but maybe not transparent to all. As someone who writes about track and field/cross country, I'm drawn to a great story--perhaps a little more so than a great performance. These two categories do overlap extensively, of course, but aren't quite the same thing.
Connor Winter's distance triple was a great performance, but it was a better story in 2010 than in 2011. It might have been a better story had he seriously threatened any records at the state meet, but those bids came earlier in the season. A lot the same could probably be said for Boris Berian's 400/800 double. Still a huge achievement, but a bigger story in 2010.
Perhaps a clearer illustration of the difference between a story and a performance is the first item on the list--the Walsh boys. The Walsh boys would have been blown out in the 4A or 5A state track meet, plain and simple. Landry Cogburn would have placed, but no other points would have been earned. But there was still a compelling story told by what they did at the state meet (and, for that matter, leading up to it).
The Fort Collins girls cross country story was compelling not because they went to NXN again (that's hardly news any more), but because we'd all more or less written them off prior to NXR-SW. Kind of reminiscent of the September and October the Colorado Rockies had a couple years back.
Anyhow, you still may not agree with my selections--and that's fine--but the story line was a bigger consideration in the list than the magnitude of the achievement. Honestly, I feel out of my league trying to weigh the magnitude of the achievements.
I am a huge distance fan. I think Connor Winter's story is impressive. He did miss his senior year cross country season to injury only to come back triumphant with an outstanding state track performance. He followed that up with a #2 showing in the mile at the Midwest Distance Classic, placing him 12th on the 2011 national prep list. Hard to say which of the top 10 that could have or should have supplanted as it is a subjective list based on Alan's yearlong extensive coverage of all of Colorado's top stories.
That being said, Dior's 13.18 gave her the 2nd fastest prep time in the nation for 2011 and I believe gave her both the Freshman and 15 year old girls national records. Track and Field News gave her #2 All American Ranking prep ranking in her event which was the highest for Colorado boy or girl. A truly awesome performance!
