I've been looking at tfrrs data over the weekend trying to wrap my brain around how crazy fast everything has become over the last 15 years. Here's the data for the indoor 50th place D1 individual between 2009 and 2024.
2024
Men's Mile 4:03.68----->3:58.18
Women's Mile 4:45.50---->4:36.25
Men's 3000m: 8:05.75--->7:54.40
Women's 3000m: 9:28.04---->9:12.40
Men's 5000m: 14:10.99---->13:47.78
Women's 5000m: 16:37.87----->15:59.35
In 2009, 22 D1 men ran sub-4 or sub-4 equivalent during indoor season. In 2024, there's been 20 guys JUST IN THE ACC that have done it. There's been 104 guys in the NCAA that have done it this year. Just mind-boggling numbers.
Even sprints has improved significantly.
Men's 60m: 6.74----->6.66
Women's 60m: 7.45---->7.33
Additionally, here's the 50th place individual in DII between 2010 and 2024:
Men's Mile: 4:14.79--->4:08.78
Women's Mile: 5:04.47---->4:55.20
There's been a ton of threads discussing the reasons why this is happening, but putting the actual numbers to it was eye-opening to me and I just wanted to share it.