Ninth Qualifier

Texas has an interesting qualifying process for the UIL State Track and Field Meet. We have six classifications that are based upon school population. Flower Mound High School where I coach is in the largest classification called 6A. We have 3700 students and to most people from smaller towns we look more like a college campus instead of a high school.

The Flower Mound Jaguar Athletic Center

Athletes who advance to state must go though the following qualification process

District- Top 4 athletes and Top 4 Relays advance to the Area Meet

Area- Top 4 athletes and Top 4 Relays advance to the Region Meet

Region- Top 2 athletes and Top 2 Relays advance to the State Meet

Flower Mound is in Region 1-6A. We compete against teams that are primarily located north of the DFW metroplex and west all the way to El Paso. The distance from the westernmost El Paso Franklin High School to the easternmost McKinney High School is 690 miles. From this massive Region 1-6A we only take two athletes and two relay teams in each event to the state meet.

In 2011 the UIL decided to expand the state meet by adding a ninth qualifier. From the four regions in Texas there would now be a “wild card”. From the UIL Track and Field Plan “This qualifier will be the individual and/or relay team with the best overall time, mark, or height from all regional meets per classification that did not finish first or second”

The state meet is at the University of Texas and the track does have nine lanes for the ninth qualifier. We have been fortunate enough to take advantage of the ninth qualifier several times and especially in the distance events. Last year using the ninth qualifier we were able to have three athletes in the 1600 and 3200. That extra qualifier helped us to win the 2022 State Championship.

One big downside to the ninth qualifier process is the difference in weather between the regions. For example Region 2-6A in Waco this past week had a 6.4 m/s tailwind. This obviously was a big advantage for the sprinters and a big disadvantage for anyone running more than one turn.

Still brutal to not qualify to state with a 10.37!!

At the Region 1-6A Championships there was talk amongst the coaches about adding more qualifiers to the state meet. After over ten years of the ninth qualifier coaches are more vocal about asking the UIL (University Interscholastic League) to add more qualifiers. Each year there are regions that are stronger than others in a particular event and a top athlete does not advance to the state meet.

From the twitter world

The tweets above are focused on the distance events. I think it would make sense to increase the field size for all events to 16 athletes. This would require prelims and finals for the sprints and relays. The main problem with this idea is how to schedule all of these races. Right now the Texas state meet spans three days from Thursday to Saturday. If we doubled the number of participants how would the UIL adjust the schedule. Do we start the meet on Monday? Three classifications 1A, 3A, 5A, one week and 2A, 4A, 6A, the next week? Not sure if the University of Texas would be excited about hosting the meet twice or for one week. Maybe we should look at going to two separate locations?

Many questions need to be asked, and it’s not as simple as just saying, ‘Let’s increase the size of the fields.’ Texas also has a great history of track and field and is slow to make changes. This state has produced athletes like Michael Carter and record-breaking relays like O.D. Wyatt. With a rich history of track and field success, including multiple Olympic gold medalists and world record holders, Texas remains a dominant force in the sport and continues to produce some of the best athletes in the country. There are many who believe things should stay the same and if the ultimate goal is to declare a state champion, then the meet is perfect.

Great O.D. Wyatt story by Dave Devine