It’s a time to test high school runners?

I'm with you. HS these days are running ridiculous times. A little... too ridiculous.

These kids go from nobodies on the track to state title contestants in a year??

And then they get into college, and vanish off the face of the earth

Especially these freshmen/sophomores. All of a sudden matching up with the seniors and then become jack-sh!t once they're seniors themselves

This is a problem!!

To appease a bunch of LR posters who believe everyone cheats? No. More kids running fast does not justify testing.

Last year's class makes me wonder.

Testing should be implemented because current HS running performances make people wonder?

Doping clearly happens among high school age runners. Two of Kenya's top U20 runners were recently busted. And in the US we have the Assinga saga.

In US high school distance running with the advent of NIL money and social media exposure the incentive structure re doping in high school distance running definitely changed.

A bunch of 40 somethings demanding that high-schoolers get tested because they're 4:40 mile doesn't hold up as well is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. Go out and do something with you're life other than complain about some 17 year olds who ran faster than you on a online message board.

I agree with you. There was a female high school runner a few years ago who won everything and then when testing started, she flopped. High school runners are definitely doping.

are HS sports big enough a deal to bother? you could in theory test anyone. on down to k-league tee ball. is it serious enough that short of being caught red handed this is worth the effort? i get pro and international sports. but hs?

bearing in mind the sheer volume. we gonna test every kid in every meet anywhere? that's probably hundreds of thousands of kids. even every kid at state -- times 50 states -- is a ton of people.

and to do what, catch 10 dumb kids? out of a million? not worth the effort. as with the dumb trans issue, in relative numbers this isn't a real problem. and if we treat it as a purity thing it's gonna be very expensive.

i also don't buy the underlying premise. to me fitness, diet, equipment have done leaps and bounds since my era. if anything i get surprised that the general trajectory of my area is "slower" even while the fastest kids overall are "faster." i think everyone should be faster. but then i think in an era of endless online resources everyone should be making As and high test scores relative to my time, too.

to elaborate, my general sense is like the first kid progressing from an area is faster. the first few kids at state are faster. but the kids finishing in the mere points places locally are actually slower than i remember. put differently, at the local level, i would place higher now than i did then.

It's not 10 in a million who are doping. For the top ones, I'd be shocked if it's less than 25%. There's all to gain and nothing to lose as you're never tested

For example, there's someone who went from 17 high to 14 high in the 5k XC from junior to senior year, and similar progression in the mile to 4:02. Obvious doper

Agreed. It's relatively clean compared to the global stage but is NOWHERE near completely clean. There's a ton of incentive to make a name for yourself as the best in your class / be admitted to certain colleges so people will take drugs.

How about you start by testing NCAA runners.

May be then you won't have a 1500m runner improving in q year by 10 seconds,making an Olympic final,then only improving by 1 second in 3 years.

Your sense is completely incorrect. Pick a state and look at the top 10 this year as opposed to 10 years ago. Likely only one or two would mix in from 10 years ago.

Except for none of that actually happened. As a high school coach I’ve seen athletes make tremendous jumps out of nowhere and get scholarships.

Almost all of my kids are wondering about these sudden jumps in performance. I have athletes running 47 in the 400m having to beg for walk on spots.

I guarantee you I’m doing more for this sport than you are “message board tough guy”

ps. lol, My 4:44 didn’t hold up at the time. The top guys were around 4:10 when I went to school.

that too!

Regular kids are popping times of 4:15 when they were running 5:15 freshman year. It used to be these kids were doing well to break 4:40 in HS.

5:15 isn’t a good freshman time anymore at all!

random tests, not announced, winners only at major meets, maybe even a few runners up at a place like Arcadia. find one or two and the cat will be out of the bag

A college scholarship can be worth more than many pro athletes make, especially when you consider the benefits of getting into a good school in the first place. Definitely the incentive. PEDs are in very widespread use by teenagers. Perhaps mostly roids by insecure dudes who want to get swole, but they certainly have access.