by Dan Kearney   Abstract Some states are consistently faster than others at high school cross country running. To use a recent example, in 2011, a New Jersey boy won the individual title at nationals in San Diego and a team from the same state won the team competition in Oregon. People often speculate that reasons ranging from climate to tradition affect running speeds above all else. Moreover, some suspect that the states that excel at running are simply the wealthiest ones. This paper aims to find if wealthier states are, in fact, faster than poor ones. Full Article

Runners usually don’t develop into sprinters. Speed is often a gift that comes unwrapped at a young age.  Aldrich Bailey, a senior at Mansfield Timberview in Arlington, Texas, has that gift. He made that known the summer after finishing the fifth grade when the young speedster blazed through 200 meters in about 25 seconds.