ArkansasTrackStats

ArkansasTrackStats.com

Commentary.......Message from the Publishers: Inaugural Season Observations

12/18/2000

This past fall ArkansasTrackStats.com became a reality with online reporting of high school and some junior high cross-country meet results and best performance information. Over 1300 high school runners had times entered in our data base and we estimate that well over another 1000 junior high runners competed last fall. Some districts even have elementary programs with Rogers alone reporting over 300 elementary runners in their annual Mini-Mountie Classic Meet.

Gathering the meet results is no small feat and we are most appreciative of those coaches and meet sponsors who provided results whether for meets they sponsored or meets in which their teams participated. Without meet results we have no website. Instructions for sending us meet results can be found in the Who We Are section of the site. Special thanks goes to Coach Koonce, president of the Arkansas Track Coaches Association and Head Coach at Lake Hamilton, for encouraging us to develop the site, providing data and getting the word around in various ways. Also, thanks to Coach Pevril of Mt. Home for frequent updates and information and for the Cross Country Preview. Thanks are also in line for Coach Efurd of Rogers, Coach Ward of Siloam Springs and Coach Krumwiede of Berryville for their frequent input and vocal support.

Two members of the media deserve special mention. Jim Hall of the Benton County Daily Record and Bridget Bauer of The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas wrote numerous cross country articles and gave considerable input as to what type of data would be helpful to sportswriters in improving coverage of the sport. Thanks also to Neal Shulenburger and Darren Ivy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for some good coverage, including articles on the state meets and All-Star meets.

The Top 50 Best Times seemed to be well received in spite of everyone knowing that times can vary significantly in cross country depending upon weather and course conditions. Several of the athletes commented to us at State that they liked seeing the top times. The underlying All Performances Listing is the only one of its kind for Arkansas high school cross country and provides a comprehensive listing of best times calculated on a per mile basis. Also, having meet results seemed to generate quite a bit on interest based on emails we received when we were tardy in getting results posted!

We hope you found the site to be useful this fall and we hope that you continue to check in to see what new data has been added. The site received over 4000 hits with very little promotion other than word of mouth. We appreciate all our visitors.

We are looking forward to track season which will be getting underway very soon with the Indoor season. Please spread the word to your track teammates and athletes as the site is not just for cross country.

We are always interested in hearing from you, so please do not hesitate to send your comments to stats@ArkansasTrackStats.com.