Hamline elite meet 2022 qualifying times

Gathering Minnesota’s Finest Athletes to Compete

Hello Coaches,

With the new guidelines in place by the MSHSL:

• Recommendation of no more than 8 teams

• Maximum of 250 athletes and coaches at a meet

• All schools within 50 miles of each other

We have decided that we must cancel the 2021 Hamline Elite Meet. Our goal is to bring together the best high school track athletes regardless of class in Minnesota on one day; give them the best opportunity to compete against competition that they might only ever have at the state meet. The new rules put in place by the MSHSL will not allow us to do that this year. This was very disappointing for us to learn after having to cancel last year and now again this year. We looked into hosting a virtual meet and giving away event winner shirts to the best mark from that week, but that is against NCAA By-Laws. Instead of focusing on what we can’t do this year, we strive forward and have sat down with our sponsors and have started to plan for next year already. We will be doing it bigger and have more sponsors along with the ones you know and have made the Hamline Elite Meet the premiere meet in Minnesota during the month of April

The date for the 2022 Hamline Elite Meet will be: April 29th, 2022

Some changes and reasons why:

Field Events Will Flip Flop Genders Every Year Going Forward: 

Even Years: (Following events will start at 5:30 pm)

Girls - Discus, Triple Jump, Pole Vault

Boys - Shot Put, Long Jump, High Jump

Odd Years: (Following events will start at 5:30 pm)

Girls - Shot Put, Long Jump, High Jump

Boys - Discus, Triple Jump, Pole Vault

Rationale: To give every event a chance to compete when the crowds are the largest at the event and take more of a center stage

Removing The 1600 to 3200 Conversion:

You will no longer be able to use a 1600 time to get into the 3200. We will take the top run times in the 3200 for the meet.
 

Rationale: The thought behind the conversion to begin with was for crappy weather in early april and to help those schools who might not have as much competition/people to push them in the longer race like the 3200. The hope was smaller schools would use the conversion and see that maybe they couldn’t have great competition for a 3200 but could for a 1600. 

Example: It is easier to get a group together to push for sub 4:30 for the 1600, than it is to get a group to run sub 9:50. In our conversion, 4:30 was equal to around 9:40.

But instead of smaller schools utilizing the conversion, it has mainly been utilized by the larger city schools. This will make it easier for people to forecast if their athlete will make it into the 1600 or 3200, instead of guessing who might convert times. So we will do away with the conversion for the 2022 Hamline Elite Meet and revisit it after the 2022 meet and see how effective this change was.