Saved analyses
Where the girls' bests would finish in each boys' final
Question: If Washington's fastest girl ever (4:33.29) or the fastest U.S. high-school girl ever (4:21.81 over 1600m) had run in each boys' 2A, 3A and 4A state 1600m final of 2022-2026, where would she have finished?
Result: Washington's best (4:33.29) would have placed 15th to 24th: in the last five of all 15 finals and last in 4. The U.S. best (4:21.81) would have placed 8th to 18th, in the top eight (scoring places) once.
Operation: For each of the 15 finals, place = 1 + number of boy finishers faster than the benchmark; fieldSizeWithEntrant = boy finishers + 1.
Scope: WIAA 2A, 3A, 4A boys' 1600m finals, 2022-2026
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- Compares a girl's single best-ever race with boys' times from one championship race each; boys' season bests are faster than their state-final times, so this favors the girls.
- Finals run at different paces; a different runner in the race could change how others ran.
- Ties are counted in the benchmark's favor (only strictly faster boys are counted ahead).
How many boy finalists beat the girls' bests
Question: Of the 276 boys who finished a 2A, 3A or 4A state 1600m final in 2022-2026, how many ran faster than Washington's fastest girl ever and than the fastest U.S. high-school girl ever?
Result: 257 of 276 boy finalists (93%) ran faster than 4:33.29; 177 of 276 (64%) ran faster than 4:21.81.
Operation: Count of boy finishers with seconds strictly below each benchmark; list of boys slower than the Washington benchmark.
Scope: WIAA 2A, 3A, 4A boys' 1600m finals, 2022-2026
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- The 19 boys slower than 4:33.29 all finished 15th or lower in their finals.
- Only 2A, 3A and 4A finals; 1A, 2B and 1B finals are held at a separate meet and are not included.
Boy finalists' times against the girls' bests, by year
Question: How do the times of every boy 1600m state finalist compare with the fastest girls' marks, year by year?
Result: Nearly every boy finalist's time falls below (faster than) the Washington girls' best; about two-thirds fall below the U.S. girls' best; every boy finalist in four of five years beat the fastest girls' champion.
Operation: One row per boy finisher (2A, 3A, 4A) plus, for each year, rows for the Washington girls' best, the U.S. girls' best (1600m split), and the fastest of that year's three girls' state champions.
Scope: WIAA 2A-4A 1600m finals 2022-2026 and girls' benchmarks
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- The benchmark rows repeat the same value in each year so they draw as a level line; they are not results from that year.
- Times are in seconds: 240 = 4:00, 270 = 4:30, 300 = 5:00.
Top-10 average, boys vs girls, by year
Question: Across the three 2A-4A finals combined, how do the 10 fastest boys and 10 fastest girls compare each year?
Result: The girls' top-10 average was 16.6% to 19.2% slower than the boys' each year, about 42 to 48 seconds.
Operation: For each year and sex, mean of the 10 fastest finishing times across the 2A, 3A and 4A finals; gapPct = 100 x (girls' mean / boys' mean - 1).
Scope: WIAA 2A-4A 1600m finals 2022-2026
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- State-final times, not season bests; one race per athlete.
- Top 10 at the state meet is not the top 10 in the state; some fast runners do not reach or do not race the final.
2026 top 10, rank by rank
Question: In 2026, how did the nth-fastest boy compare with the nth-fastest girl across the 2A-4A finals?
Result: Each girl was 18.3% to 20.1% slower than the boy of the same rank; the 10th-fastest boy (4:09.03) beat the fastest girl (4:48.99) by about 40 seconds.
Operation: Sort each sex by time across the three finals; pair by rank; gap = girls / boys - 1.
Scope: WIAA 2A-4A 1600m finals, 2026
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- One year; see top10-by-year for 2022-2026.
Has any Washington girl run faster than 4:33.29 since 2014?
Question: Is 4:33.29 still the fastest 1600m by a Washington high-school girl?
Result: No: the fastest season-leading mark since 2014 is 4:40.35 (2025), and the best before 2014 was 4:38.09 (2005).
Operation: Compare each season's Athletic.net Washington girls' 1600m leader, 2015-2026, with 4:33.29; check the pre-2014 best reported by The Columbian.
Scope: Washington girls' 1600m, 2005-2026
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- Athletic.net lists depend on results being entered; a mark run outside Washington might be missing, though Athletic.net includes out-of-state meets such as the Oregon Relays and Nike Outdoor Nationals.
- Athletic.net 1600m lists may not include 1600m splits taken inside mile races.
- Pre-2014 coverage relies on one news report.
Boys' and girls' final field sizes
Question: Are the girls' finals as full as the boys'?
Result: Girls' and boys' finals were about the same size every year (16 to 24 finishers), so the girls' times do not come from thin fields.
Operation: Count finishers in each final.
Scope: WIAA 2A-4A 1600m finals 2022-2026
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- Field size reflects the WIAA qualifying format, not total participation in the sport.
Boy finalists faster than the fastest girls' champion
Question: Each year, how many boy finalists beat the fastest of the three girls' state champions?
Result: Every boy finalist beat the fastest girls' champion in 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026; 55 of 56 did in 2023.
Operation: For each year, the fastest of the 2A, 3A and 4A girls' winning times; count boy finishers faster.
Scope: WIAA 2A-4A 1600m finals 2022-2026
View this analysis
- One championship race per athlete.
wa-1600-finalists-2022-2026.csv
text/csv · 18.2 KB (18,641 bytes)
