While the high school track season draws close to its conclusion, let's take a day to shine the spotlight on North Carolina's middle school talent! Many areas have sent us their middle school championship results over the last two weeks, so this is a great time to look for some potential future stars among the 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade athletes across our state. We can take another look after summer track, when we will have all the 11-12 and 13-14 age group results in our system as well.
For now, though, let's slice up the middle-school-age data in two different ways. First, we have what you could call "true" middle school rankings: these feature performances that only came from designated middle school meets. Then, we can look at the grade-year rankings, which will draw in some extra performances: the state's private schools, which are allowed to run 7th- and 8th-graders in high school competition, and numerous club teams that have athletes in the age groups mentioned above. Together, those two views should get us a really good picture of the young talent getting ready to join the high school ranks over the next few years!