May is the month when student athletes from around California go through a series of competitions in Track and Field events to decide who will make it to the state level competition at the end of the month. Briefly, here’s how it works. Every high school is part of a local league consisting of a half-dozen or so similar schools. League competitions (prelims and then finals) narrow the competitors to the top athletes in each race/event. Those winners then advance to CIF regional finals. So you might have all the league winners from Orange County, for instance, competing in the CIF prelims. Again, the top competitors advance to CIF finals and the winners there go to a Masters meet and get narrowed down again. Finally, the top athletes meet at the state finals.
The important point is that at every level along the way, most competitors are left behind. Most…
