.
I get some "interesting" e-mails and various message boards get messages highly
critical of speed ratings and anybody that pays attention to them.Speed Rating Note 2018
Bill Meylan (Oct 8, 2018)
Katelyn Tuohy had a speed rating
of 175.7 at the Ocean State Invitational in Rhode Island on September 22,
2018 and 177.0 at Holmdel Park, NJ on October 6, 2018. These are the 3rd
and 4th highest speed ratings I have derived for high school
girls ... the top two are Amber Trotter (180.3 in 2001, Foot
Locker best in Orlando, FL) and Melody Fairchild (177.9, Foot
Locker Balboa Park course record). Whenever speed ratings get some
national attention like this, there are several coaches and viewers in
California that get really upset because they hate speed ratings.
I get some "interesting" e-mails and various message boards get messages highly
critical of speed ratings and anybody that pays attention to them.
High speed ratings at Foot Locker, and especially Amber Trotter's 180, are the focus of criticism ... They don't believe this value and other relatively high values for both boys and girls at Foot Locker. For those really interested ... in this article below, I'm going to show the process of deriving Amber Trotter's 180 speed rating.
And Now ... People seeing the awesome performances of Katelyn Tuohy can't believe any high school girl was ever capable of having a speed rating higher than Katelyn Tuohy ... So something is wrong with speed ratings! ... One group in New Jersey loves to criticize me and they consider Holmdel Park as "holy" ground, and nothing could be better than Tuohy's performance at Holmdel.
And this from the Letsrun message board ... "it's just his personal opinion (Meylan), but when you get a website with a large following like Milesplit using them as if they are fact and start considering them when picking wildcards for NXN then it's a real problem." ..... Well Mr. California coach, Bill Meylan has some good news for you ... A number of years back, Rich Gonzalez offered me a spot on the NXN Selection Committee, but I turned down the offer ... The NXR regional qualifiers were coming into play and I have always thought that head-to-head competition was the best selection process and that regional qualifiers give everybody the opportunity to toe-the-line and qualify. NXN is Nike's party and I believe Nike should make up the guest list.
Some Speed Rating Basics
My XC Speed Ratings are a statistical out-growth of Speed Ratings & Figures from thoroughbred horse racing. Speed Ratings in horse racing were developed by two guys at Harvard University (Andrew Beyer and a mathematics doctoral student) ... Once developed, Andrew Beyer quit Harvard to become a full-time horseplayer, book author and columnist for the Washington Post ... the Beyer Speed Figures are included in the past performances of the Daily Racing Form and are commonly noted on horse racing TV shows (Triple Crown races and others). Since high school XC races have many more "runners" than horse races, Bill Meylan simply extended the concept by applying additional statistical methods.
What are Speed Figures Used For ?
Speed Figures in horse racing relate the speed of horses to other horses with numbers that indicate how close they finish to each other on a relative basis ... they tell you how fast a horse has been running in its past races with a single number.
Speed Figures are a handicapping
factor used for betting
purposes ... The race time of the horse is irrelevant
... the numbers lengths he gets beaten by or beats other horses on a relative
basis is the important factor ... Knowing the relative speed as lengths between
horses helps you to bet real money.
Speed Ratings - Cross Country
Relative Time Differences between runners is the important factor in cross country (corresponds to lengths in horse racing)... I developed XC speed ratings with that in mind ... The single number tells you the relative speed compared to all other runners ... and comparing two numbers tells you the relative time difference (for example, comparing a 150 and 145 speed rating indicates at 15 second time difference since 1 point equals 3 seconds).
The entire process is designed so
that a 150 speed rating anywhere equals a 150 speed rating anywhere else ... A
speed rating is NOT a power rating that tells you how good a runner is ... a
speed rating indicates how fast a runner ran relative to other runners.
To derive speed ratings, final times and the time differences between runners
are correlated with the known speed ratings of the individual runners and known
speed of specific races AND groups
of runners (of known quality and speed) ... graphical and statistical comparison
are made to determine the speed of the particular race being evaluated ...
subjective estimations are commonly necessary in the early season, and speed
ratings typically improve in accuracy as the season progresses ...
Statistically, it is partly an iteration process. Good historical
data is applied and helps when needed. Statistical iteration involves
guessing, but experience helps to make better "guesses" to arrive at an
acceptable solution.
Reproducibility ... Anybody using my speed rating process with my baselines and libraries of past races will derive speed rating values very similar or equal to my own ... This assumes a user has a knowledge of application and some experience (absolutely required) ... Speed Ratings are not precise numbers, they are best fit approximations ... Humans and horses are imperfect and variable data points which means variable margins of error ... Some races (most with good historical data) are fairly easy to speed rate and reproducibility amongst different users will be excellent (equal or within a point or two) ... Some races are "uncertain" due to a lack of data, so good "guesses" come into play (experience is real helpful here).
I treat XC speed ratings as if I were
using them to bet upcoming races (for real)
... I want them to reflect what happens in a race relative to all other races,
otherwise the utility is greatly diminished. I tried my best to bet real
money on Kelsey Chmiel at the Great Edinburgh Scotland last January
because her speed rating was close enough to Claudia Lane and I knew
Claudia had been sick ... in addition, Claudia was running her first XC race
ever outside of California, was crossing multiple time zones to race, would be
running in real mud for first time and would probably be wearing long spikes for
first time ... Looked like a great betting opportunity and the United Kingdom
allows betting on these types sporting events ... Unfortunately, there was
betting on the Senior races but not the Junior races
.
Girl's Foot Locker Race 2001
Background Information ... I encourage anybody interested in the Foot Locker 2001 races to watch the Fox Sports Net replay (start-to-finish) ... it is available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrOOeMhPTA ... dominating performance by Amber Trotter and a great competitive boy's race.
It was warm and very humid at the Orlando
Disney World golf course in 2001 (about 80 degrees at race-time for the girls)
... you can see dew on the grass ... the TV commentator noted the course is
rather slow with many rolling hills and the turf is is soft and "spongy" with
the humidity making it a strength and endurance course ... The girls ran before
the boys and one newspaper article noted the girls' may have made the course
faster for the guys by "squeezing" the dew moisture out of the grass making the
spongy areas drier (but who knows ... the final race times tell the story for
Meylan).
Amber Trotter's coach (Jerry Drew) was interviewed before the race and said Amber was healthy and "everybody knows about the anorexia problem" ... Trotter was forced to miss the spring track season because of her physical condition caused by the eating disorder ... other articles noted Trotter was improving her physical condition throughout the cross country season and was hoping for an all-out effort at Foot Locker.
Speed Ratings ... the speed ratings were determined by two methods ... (1) the known speed ratings of the individual girls were correlated with the final times and time differences between runners to "fit" (derive) a race adjustment to calculate the final speed ratings ... this is my "reference runner" method ... How fast any individual runner runs is determined by how how fast everybody else ran ... the actual final times are irrelevant (this really annoys some track coaches) ... the time differences between runners is fitted with their prior speed ratings and projected speed ratings ... as normal in statistics, outlier data needs to be excluded ... (2) the race is evaluated as a "group" based on comparison to previous years results at Foot Locker (individuals are ignored) and the race as-a-whole is compared graphically and statistically to the historical data ...Method 1 is the preferred method, and is the determining method for Trotter's 180 speed rating ... But Method 2 gets the same result when done correctly.
For starters, here are the Girls Foot Locker 2001 results with speed ratings:
Girls Footlocker 2001 Results (with speed ratings) 1 Amber Trotter (12) West Redwood Valley CA 16:24.07 180.3 180 2 Erika Odlaug (12) Midwest Bannockburn IL 17:04.30 166.9 167 3 Natasha Roetter (12) Northeast Lexington MA 17:05.14 166.6 167 4 Molly Huddle (12) Northeast Elmira NY 17:19.59 161.8 162 5 Laura Stanley (12) South Fletcher NC 17:34.54 156.8 157 6 Felicia Guliford (12) West Gallup NM 17:35.67 156.4 156 7 Jackie Zeigle (12) West South Jordan UT 17:41.84 154.4 154 8 Valerie Lauver (12) South Allen TX 17:45.40 153.2 153 9 Amber Harper (11) West Orem UT 17:46.10 153.0 153 10 Heidi Lane (12) West Great Falls MT 17:46.93 152.7 153 11 Julie Allen (12) West Corona Del Mar CA 17:50.51 151.5 151 12 Sally Meyerhoff (12) West Tempe AZ 17:51.40 151.2 151 13 Tracey Brauksieck (12) Northeast Cuyler NY 17:51.87 151.0 151 14 Megan Kaltenbach (11) Midwest Aurora CO 17:52.68 150.8 151 15 Kara Scanlin (12) South Ponte Vedra Beach FL 17:53.19 150.6 151 16 Kristina Roth (12) Midwest Celina OH 17:53.83 150.4 150 17 Mindy Sullivan (12) South Lubbock TX 17:56.74 149.4 149 18 Angela Homan (12) Midwest Delphos OH 17:57.27 149.2 149 19 Liz Gesel (12) Northeast Manchester NH 17:58.19 148.9 149 20 Zoe Nelson (9) West Kalispell MT 18:00.88 148.0 148 21 Jessica Gall (12) Midwest West Lafayette IN 18:01.25 147.9 148 22 Laurel Burdick (12) Northeast Manlius NY 18:03.34 147.2 147 23 Stephanie Madia (12) Northeast Wexford PA 18:06.15 146.3 146 24 Jackie Mulrooney (12) Midwest Hartland WI 18:08.67 145.4 145 25 Nicole Bohnsack (10) Midwest Rockford MI 18:14.01 143.7 144 26 Jessica Cickay (10) Northeast Newtown PA 18:14.64 143.5 143 27 Lindsay Van Alstine (11) Northeast Midland Park NJ 18:16.79 142.7 143 28 Julia Cathcart (12) South Starkville MS 18:23.88 140.4 140 29 Amber Smith (10) Midwest Ishpeming MI 18:34.19 136.9 137 30 Carly Matthews (12) South Winston-Salem NC 18:39.23 135.3 135 31 Jessica Hellender (12) South Cooper City FL 18:51.63 131.1 131 32 Brooke Stewart (11) South College Station TX 19:09.99 125.0 125 |
Going into the race, I had comprehensive speed rating data for the three New York girls ... and tentative speed rating data for Foot Locker regionals and a few State meets outside NY ... I re-evaluated the race at a later time after collecting more data (and better data outside NY) and adjusted the speed ratings.
Some Individual Data
Molly Huddle ... the top NY girl who finished 4th ... Molly was not one of the three favorites in the race despite being really good ... I had her projected to be 4th and that's where she finished ... Here is Molly's speed rating record:
Footlocker Nationals 12/8/2001 4 17:19.59 161.8 162 Footlocker NE-Champ 11/24/2001 2 17:59.3 158.2 158 Federation Meet 11/17/2001 1 18:02.5 156.2 156 NY States - Class D 11/10/2001 1 18:24.5 149.8 150 Section 4 - Class D 11/1/2001 1 17:35.0 160.3 160 IAC Championships 10/27/2001 1 18:16.0 156.3 156 Conwicke-Stock Inv 10/6/2001 1 16:56.0 157.0 157 McQuaid Inv Var AA 9/29/2001 1 17:04.3 156.6 157 Corning Invitational 9/15/2001 1 18:25.2 153.6 154 |
Going into Foot Locker Nationals, Molly was solid upper 150s to 160 speed rating ... now she would be running with a group of girls faster than her, so projecting a speed rating a few points higher is within the realm of possibility ... Her speed rating of 161.8 at Foot Locker is consistent with what she had done and what she might do.
Laurel Burdick (Fayetteville-Manlius) and Tracey Brauksieck (Homer) ... these are the other two New York girls ... both schools are within 20 miles of Tully, so I was very familiar with them ... Both girls had solid upper 140s to low 150s speed ratings going into Foot Locker Nationals ... Laurel finished 22nd with 147.2 rating and Tracey finished 13th with a 151.0 rating ... Both totally consistent with what they had been doing (and slightly lower than Foot Locker Northeast) ... Here are the ratings for Foot Locker Northeast:
1 NATASHA ROETTER 12 LEXINGTON MA 17:48.4 161.9 162 2 MOLLY HUDDLE 12 ELMIRA NY 17:59.3 158.2 158 3 TRACEY BRAUKSIECK 12 CUYLER NY 18:00.4 157.9 158 4 LAUREL BURDICK 12 MANLIUS NY 18:13.6 153.5 153 5 LIZ GESEL 12 MANCHESTER NH 18:19.4 151.5 152 6 JESSICA CICKAY 10 NEWTOWN PA 18:20.5 151.2 151 7 LINDSAY VAN ALSTINE 11 MIDLAND PARK NJ 18:24.5 149.8 150 8 STEPHANIE MADIA 12 WEXFORD PA 18:26.7 149.1 149 |
The other Northeast girls (places 5-8 at
regionals) had slightly lower ratings at Nationals (but it turned out those
ratings were more consistent with their seasonal ratings leading to Foot Locker
Northeast which is not uncommon) ... It is common for some runners to have their
best speed rating at qualifiers because that's how you make it to Nationals
... getting there is Job #1.
Natasha Roetter ... she beat Molly
Huddle handily at Foot Locker Northeast ... the times at Foot Locker Northeast
were relatively slow because it was cold and rainy (but time differences are
still time differences) ... Natasha finished 4th at Foot Locker Nationals in
2000 (155 speed rating and the top returner) ... she was undefeated in 2001 and
had been running significantly faster times at meets than the previous year ...
many observers thought she was the true favorite ... she was already a 162 speed
rating, and now she would be running competitively with other girls as fast as
her ... certainly possible her rating might rise ... BUT let's see how fast she
runs compared to other runners (e.g. time differences
)
... The time gap between her and all other Northeast got bigger, including
Huddle (which indicates a possible higher speed rating for Natasha ... and
that's exactly what happened).
Ericka Odlaug ... ran a very smart
race at Foot Locker ... let Huddle and Roetter pace her, and out-kicked Roetter
right at the end ... Broke 12 course records in 13 races (she did not break the
Footlocker Midwest course record; it was completely rain-soaked and muddy) ...
The Illinois girls were racing a 2.5-mile distance in 2001 ... Erika Odlaug had
shattered that Detweiller Park record earlier in the season by over
half-a-minute ... She won the IL State Meet by 45 seconds ... Yes, Meylan had to
"guess" (I dislike 2.5-mile championship races), but she was at least in the upper
150s to low 160s range ... The previous outdoor track season, Erika Odlaug won
the Golden West 2-Mile (10:11.31), was 2nd at the adidas Outdoor Nationals
2-Mile and then won the Junior National 3000 Meters over bunch of college
runners ... So she was pretty fast
... and she was helped by getting pulled to fast time at Foot Locker ... her 166.9 speed rating
was not a surprise to me ... BUT probably unbelievable to some California
coaches because Meylan's Foot Locker ratings are all inflated.
Other Runners (except Amber Trotter) ... Making a long story shorter ... lots of consistency with their Foot Locker ratings versus other race ratings!
Amber Trotter ... followers of speed ratings can recognize this - The race adjustment and speed ratings of the race has already been determined, and I haven't even considered Amber Trotter's performance ... Amber Trotter's speed rating has been determined by the other runners in the race ... How fast they ran relative to each other determined the race adjustment ..... The exact same principal determined Katelyn Tuohy's ratings at Holmdel and Ocean State.
Amber Trotter was a work-in-progress
during the 2001 XC season ... Her best speed rating entering Foot Locker
Nationals was roughly 164-167 achieved at Mt SAC ... very comparable to Sarah
Baxter and Claudia Lane ... It was obvious the Mt SAC course ran slow for Amber
Trotter compared to current years ... Based on her 2001 ratings entering Foot
Locker, I would project her at mid to upper 160s (she had a 153.0 rating at Foot
Locker 2000) ... But Something else happened (Wow did something else happen
).
She broke the course record by 31 seconds, but speed ratings don't care about that ... speed ratings care about the time differences between runners of known ability ... Amber Trotter beat Molly Huddle by 55 seconds (or 18.3 speed rating points) and she beat Ericka Odlaug and Natasha Roetter by 40 and 41 seconds ... and all the other runners of known speed ratings ... And collectively, the other runners in the race determined Amber Trotter's speed rating of 180.3.
For those believing Amber Trotter's speed rating is greatly inflated ... If I dropped her rating at Foot Locker by 10-15 points, I would need to drop everybody else's by 10-15 points and that obviously make no sense at all ... I think that would be disrespecting a lot of talented females.
Some Stats of Interest
Here are the official race splits ( http://footlockercc.com/2001/ ):
Amber Trotter's Splits: Boy's Splits (Tim Moore): 800m 2:30 --- 1 Mile 5:04 1 Mile 4:40 2 Mile 10:24 2 Mile 9:32 2.5 Mile 13:05 2.5 Mile 11:59 3 Mile 15:45 --- Finish 16:24 Finish 14:50 |
Trotter had a 23 second lead at 1-Mile and 33 second lead at 2-Miles ... she averaged 5:15 per mile for 3 miles ... Her 13:05 time at 2.5 miles is 16.8 seconds faster than Katelyn Tuohy's 2.5 mile course record at Van Cortlandt Park.
The Boy's 2.5 Mile split is 4 seconds slower than Edward Cheserek's course record at Van Cortlandt Park ... and the Boy's final time is 3 seconds faster than Edward Cheserek's course record at Holmdel Park of 14:53 (Cheserek's speed rating was 208 and Tim Moore's rating at Foot Locker was 207) ... New Jersey guys thought Cheserek's rating was a bit low ... and the California contingent thought his 210 at Foot Locker was inflated.
Katelyn Tuohy ran 16:21 at Holmdel ... Amber Trotter ran 16:24 at Foot Locker ... as noted in the New Jersey Shore Coaches Holmdel results, Holmdel ran about 9-10 seconds fast compared to Cheserek's record race, so adding 9 seconds to Tuohy's time yields 16:30 to make it comparable to Cheserek.
One Graph to Annoy Those Who Hate My Graphs
The speed rating course adjustments for the Girls for
Foot Locker 2001, Foot Locker 2017 and NXN 2017 were not that far apart ... Just
for fun, I
merged the results from Foot Locker 2017 and NXN 2017 ... I merged them because
NXN did not exist in 2001, and in 2017, the talent was divided between NXN and
Foot Locker ... Levels the playing field for comparing the 2001 race to the 2017
races (in terms of quality) ... I used the top 26 from the merge for the
comparison ... The graph is simply the raw data plotted with some labels:
The graph displays a very nice consistent match in quality with runners in finishing positions 6 through 23 ... Another nice matching comparison involves Molly Huddle and Kelsey Chmiel ... Molly Huddle's speed ratings are posted above ... New Yorkers will recognize that Huddle's and Chmiel's ratings look like clones of each other ... and in the graph above, their data points are very close to each other (Chmiel was 159 at NXN and Huddle was 161.8 at FL, and Chmiel did a 161.7 this season); just another indication of relative comparison.
Trotter's 180 is nicely displayed in relation to Tuohy's 172.