Age Group National Records

[nvrandyb]

I just recently had one of my athletes jump what is believed to be a National Record for 13yr old girls. She jumped 3.70 (12'1.5"). The only thing I can find on USATF seems to be meet records from the summer - which for 13-14yr olds is (was) 11'5.75". I was able to find a listing from 1998 for Samantha Shepard as an 8th grader jumping the same height. However, I believe, she was 14 at the time.

Anybody know where OFFICIAL United States age group records are posted?

[ras]

Wow, congratulations. That is really good. Could be wrong but I do not believe that there is a standards organization that keeps OFFICIAL yearly national age records for youth athletes. I have seen official looking list for World records but don’t know who maintains it. The only OFFICIAL national youth records I am aware of would be through USATF or AAU (they would need to have sanctioned the meet). Also, not sure if they recognize records outside of the actual J.O. National Championship meet. You might try to submit under USATF, however, USATF only denotes records in two year increments (13-14 - based on year of birth) at that age. Three girls in that age group (called “Youth”) jumped over 12-6 last year.

[nvrandyb]

Thanks, ras. Yea it doesn't seem like there are any lists. That's a shame. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to keep. I've seen the world record age group list. I wonder if there is an actual annual world list for age groups under 16?

I follow track and field statistics pretty close. I never saw anyone over 12' in the 13-14 year old divisions last year. Would love to know where you saw those results - I'm kind of a stats geek! www. eliteyouth.com is the only "youth" performance list I have ever seen and 11' tops the 13-14 division.

[rainbowgirl28]

No one ratifies records for kids that young. There are some unofficial lists. USATF Youth records are only from a very narrow list of meets. I am working on getting their criteria for you.

As far as 8th grade jumpers, Chinne Okoronkwo jumped 12'2 at a JO Regional Meet last summer, but she was old enough for the Intermediate Age group.

Do keep in mind that when groups like USATF and IAAF look at youth records, it's based on the year of birth. So if your girl turned 14 on Dec 30, they would consider her a 14-year-old that whole year, even though she was really 13 for most of it.

Jack Shepard keeps a list of single year US age records starting at 14, but I am out of town for another week and don't have my latest copy of his book with me.

Looking forward to a great season from Makayla!

[ras]

http://www.eliteyouth.com automatically tracks marks only from USATF and AAU Junior Olympics meets. Other marks must be submitted manually and almost no meet managers use it. The best performance list by far is athletic.net. It handles "Youth" but only indicates performance by grade – not age. Other ranking services include dyestat and “Track and Field News” but they are High School only. MileSplit.us tracks middle school kids but is very light on results (only a few states). There is really no good way to handle it. You sort of need to know the kid’s age (ideally birthday) and cross reference the list for the dates of the marks. The girls over 12-6 last season include Kaitlyn Merritt, Meagan Gray and Zoe McKinley.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.eliteyouth.com automatically tracks marks only from USATF and AAU Junior Olympics meets. Other marks must be submitted manually and almost no meet managers use it. The best performance list by far is athletic.net. It handles "Youth" but only indicates performance by grade – not age. Other ranking services include dyestat and “Track and Field News” but they are High School only. MileSplit.us tracks middle school kids but is very light on results (only a few states). There is really no good way to handle it. You sort of need to know the kid’s age (ideally birthday) and cross reference the list for the dates of the marks. The girls over 12-6 last season include Kaitlyn Merritt, Meagan Gray and Zoe McKinley.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out a good way to get 8th graders to show up on the high school performance lists on athletic.net, and not many middle schools use that portion of the site. There is a youth club portion of the site, but it's mostly just got a random smattering of summer JO meets.

Dyestat got shut down, they were good about including 8th graders in their list.

[nvrandyb]

Thanks, all. I am familiar with all of those girls and they are 1 1/2 to 2 years older. We'll just keep pounding away away and be patient for the summer JO season!