Griffin Hay charges past Danny Carney on the final lap of the 2012 5A boys 3200. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
For all the progress we've witnessed in hurdles, sprints, and throws, boys distance events have been at least partly a different story.
It's very difficult to compare distance times from year to year because the factors that lead to great distance performances don't converge at will. Record-setting performances are even more difficult to engineer in distance events (and all the more so at altitude) than they are in other events.
So, picking the times to be used as standards of comparison requires a degree of caution. We need a high-level threshold, but one still moderate enough that we will reliably have several meeting that standard in any given year. I chose 1:58 for the 800, 4:30 for the 1600, and 10:00 for the 3200. At lower altitudes, the choices might be different, but those breakpoints seem to work reasonably well for Colorado. The counts of athletes betterin...