Top-10 average, boys vs girls, by year

What this dataset measures

The 1600m (high school's version of the mile) is the classic distance race. State finals give complete, official, same-day results for both sexes. The girls' benchmarks are the best marks ever run, so the comparison is as favorable to girls as possible.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

Finisher in a 1600m final; benchmark performance; season

Update cadence

Annually after the WIAA state meet (late May)

Curator

FactHub

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• analyses.json Derived table · application/json · 38.4 KB (39,343 bytes)

  Every saved-analysis result in this dataset, as computed by build.js.

• build.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 8.3 KB (8,515 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds the three tables and every saved-analysis result from the parsed WIAA finals.

• parse1600.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 1.8 KB (1,864 bytes)

  Node.js script that extracts every 1600m finalist from the text of the five WIAA results PDFs (three printout layouts).

Saved analyses

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

• Male and female athletic performance and physical traits Version 2

Sources

1. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2022 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

   Retrieved October 12, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places, marks and grades only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

2. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2023 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

   Retrieved October 12, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places, marks and grades only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

3. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2024 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

   Retrieved October 12, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places, marks and grades only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

4. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2025 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

   Retrieved October 12, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places, marks and grades only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

5. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2026 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships, Mount Tahoma Stadium, Tacoma, May 28-30, 2026 (Hy-Tek Meet Manager printout, linked from wiaa.com Track & Field Past Results).

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places, marks and grades only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

6. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2014 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships, Tacoma (Hy-Tek printout). Event 322, girls' 4A 1600m: Alexa Efraimson, Camas, grade 11, 4:33.29, marked as a meet record.

   Retrieved October 14, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. FactHub republishes only the winning mark and the athlete's name; she is now an adult professional runner.

   Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

7. The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.) Independent news report of Efraimson's 4:33.29 at the 2014 state meet as a U.S. high-school girls' 1600m record.

   Retrieved October 14, 2026. All rights reserved (news article); cited, not redistributed. Linked only.

   Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

8. MileSplit Independent track-statistics report of the 4:33.29 (lap splits 67, 71, 70, 65) as a national high-school girls' 1600m record.

   Retrieved October 14, 2026. All rights reserved (news article); cited, not redistributed. Linked only.

   Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

9. The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.) Reports that before 2014 the best 1600m by a Washington high-school girl was 4:38.09 by Brie Felnagle of Bellarmine Prep in 2005.

   Retrieved October 14, 2026. All rights reserved (news article); cited, not redistributed. Linked only.

   Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

10. Athletic.net Washington high-school girls' outdoor performance lists by season (2026 list linked; each season's list URL is in the season-leaders table). Used for the fastest 1600m of each season 2014-2026. Only the top five of each list are public without an account.

    Retrieved October 14, 2026. Athletic.net terms of use; facts only. FactHub republishes the season-leading mark, grade and meet only, without names.

    Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

11. Wikipedia: List of United States high school national records in track and field Compiled U.S. high-school records: girls' mile 4:23.50 and the 4:21.81 1600m split inside it (Jane Hedengren, June 5, 2025, awaiting NFHS ratification when retrieved); prior girls' 1600m marks.

    Retrieved October 14, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts only.

    Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

12. Runner's World Independent report of Hedengren's 4:23.50 U.S. high-school girls' mile record, June 5, 2025.

    Retrieved October 14, 2026. All rights reserved (news article); cited, not redistributed. Linked only.

    Archived copy captured October 14, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: parse1600.js extracts every 1600m finalist from the text of the five public WIAA results PDFs; build.js computes every table and saved analysis. The 2A/3A/4A places 1-8 match the published dataset sex-gap-sports-performance version 2 exactly (240 of 240 rows).

• Only the 2A, 3A and 4A finals; the 1A, 2B and 1B state meet is held separately and is not included.
• State-final times are one race per athlete and can be slower than season bests (tactical races, heat). The girls' benchmarks are lifetime bests, so the comparison favors the girls.
• Results list competitors by competition category (Boys, Girls). We found no public report of a transgender athlete in any of these girls' 1600m finals or in the benchmark performances.
• Washington high schools race 1600m, about 9 meters short of a mile. The U.S. girls' benchmark uses the 1600m split recorded inside the record mile, not a conversion.
• The U.S. 4:23.50 mile and its 4:21.81 split were awaiting NFHS ratification in the source list when retrieved.
• Athletic.net season lists rely on results being entered; only the top five per list are visible without an account.