WCSSAA Archived Top 25 Performances

An Explanation

For the 2004 Track and Field Season, OFSAA changed a number of competitive rules that WCSSAA immediately adopted. By doing this all of the “old” WCSSAA records were rendered relatively useless as a direct point of comparison with the “new” current records. The changes occurred in three major areas: age classes, hurdle heights and distances, and the weight of throwing implements depending on the category.

The most significant change occurred in age classes though the names of the classes remained the same (midget, junior and senior). In 2003, the OAC year or ‘grade 13’ was officially phased out leaving secondary education in Ontario with four years instead of five. That, plus traditionally higher numbers of participants in the grade 9 and 10 years, lead to age classes beginning in 2004 that had students in grade 9 compete as “midgets”, grade 10 as “juniors”, and grades 11 and 12 as “seniors” with the option for a student to still be able to compete in their fifth year.

For this study there was one other change of names for the archived results. For the 1968 season, OFSAA changed the names of the age classes from “junior, intermediate, and senior” to “midget, junior and senior”. For example, this study recognizes that a junior result from 1964 is the equivalent of a midget if it was 1968 or later. Similarly, an intermediate result is recognized as a junior result beginning in 1968. Unlike the major changes in 2004 which focused on age, the changes in 1968 were only in name.

It was possible before the 2004 changes that a grade 10 student, if entering high school with the age appropriate cohort the year before, could still be a midget if one’s birthday was after August 31st. A junior athlete before the age class change competed for two years in their category which means that if their birthday occurred after August 31st they would still be a junior in their grade 12 year if they entered high school with the age appropriate cohort. Therefore midget records could have been set by students in grade 10, junior records could have been set by students in grade 12 and senior records could have been set by students in their sixth year of high school which would not be allowed in the new OFSSA age classifications. So to compare performances old and new is relatively pointless. If a current athlete was to set a record that eclipsed the former record in an event where there were no changes, like hurdle heights or throwing implement weights, that would be a very special performance.

As well, sprint hurdle heights were changed to be lower for boys in the senior division from 39” to 36”. In the junior boys division the height remained 36” however the length of the current sprint hurdles has been shortened to 100 meters from 110. As well as the age class changes, the junior and senior boy sprint hurdle comparison between pre-2004 and 2004 and beyond is like comparing apples and oranges—they are not the same. The girls hurdle heights and distances have remained the same.

Another competitive change occurred in the weight of throwing implements. The most significant change came in the junior boys division. In the current rules the weight of junior boys throwing implements are as follows: shot, 4kg; discus, 1kg; and javelin 600g. In the pre-2004 WCSSAA the weights of the junior boys implements were heavier in each discipline: shot 12lb; discus 1.62 kg; and javelin 800g. A further change occurred in the midget and junior girls shot put in 2015. In 2015 the weight of the shot was lowered to 3kg from 4kg.

The Data

The data presented for each event and each age class in only as good as the data I could find. From 1981 to the present I was able to find final performances for the top 6 in each event. In most cases these were official results but in some cases I depended on the KW Record. For a number of years The Record published the top 6 results. Before 1981 I had some but few official results, most were depending on at least the winning performance published in The Record and also depending on the accuracy of the reporting and transcribing. There may have been some superb second and third place performances but I didn’t have the data to include them. Finally, I am very careful with transcribing data but I, like anyone, make mistakes so this Archived Top 25 list, like the current WCSSAA Top 10 list, is fluent and subject to change.

What Data Was Used?

WCSSAA is an organization of 16 secondary schools under the OFSAA Districts 6 and 11. It began when Districts 6 and 11 combined in 1980. Before 1980 the organizations were the Twin City High School Athletic Association (TCHSAA) that comprised of the schools in Kitchener and Waterloo, and the South Waterloo Athletic Association (SWAA) which was made up of the Cambridge high schools as well as the rural high schools in Waterloo Region. When the meet first began in 1980 the records did not start with the first meet. The records were a continuation from the previous TCHSAA and SWAA meets. Whatever the best performance was from these previous meets became the new record to start WCSSAA. In some cases the record was from a previous TCHSAA performance, in others the record came from SWAA. What is amazing that when the “new” WCSSAA began in 2004 there were still 15 records existing from before the amalgamation of the “old” WCSSAA in 1980. The oldest record was a remarkable Senior Boys Shot Put Record from Cam Crosby of Grand River C.I. in 1969.

Because the records from TCHSAA and SWAA were included in the newly formed WCSSAA in 1980 I decided that I would include performances pre-1980 wherever I could find the data for the WCSSAA Top 25 Archived Results.

What Schools were Included?

I included any school that was under the TCHSAA or SWAA umbrella. If for a particular time schools were not under that umbrella than the performances were not included. For example, St. Jerome’s Catholic High School was part of TCHSAA and WCSSAA until 1990 when it closed. After, they competed in District 8. For the past number of years WCSSAA and District 8 run meets concurrently to qualify athletes for CWOSSA. Records and results for each organization are kept separately. For the purpose of this work the focus is on the WCSSAA meets only.

Data Challenges

Track Events: The primary challenge was the move from yards to meters. In 1970 track and field in the Region moved to metric. Therefore the Top 25 includes only performances that occurred in 1970 and beyond.

Field Events: Like the track events, the field events moved to metric in 1970, however I was able to make the conversion from feet and inches to meters and, depending on the data I had available, I was able to go back in some cases to the early 1960’s.

Are These Personal Bests for the Athlete?

No. These are the performances at the WCSSAA meet or its precursor. Most of the athletes in the Top 25 qualified for CWOSSA and even OFSAA where their performances most often improved. Earlier I mentioned that Cam Crosby’s WCSSAA record from 1969 in the Shot Put has never been broken in Waterloo Region. However, he had a better performance at CWOSSA and an even better performance at OFSAA where he won the gold medal in 1969.

Athletes’ Names

I was as careful as I could be with athletes’ names but there were a number of examples, even in the same set of results, where an athlete’s name was spelled differently. Also in some instances I may have had only a surname to report or a surname and a first initial. I am hoping to have all of these inconsistencies corrected with the help of anyone reading this report.

School Abbreviations

BCI: Bluevale LVS Laurel

CHCI: Cameron Heights MDCSS Monsignor Doyle

ECI: Eastwood PHS Preston

EDSS: Elmira SSS Southwood

FHCI: Forest Heights St. B. St. Benedict

GCI Galt St. J. St. Jerome’s

GPSS Glenview Park St. M. St. Mary’s

GRCI Grand River WCI Waterloo

JHSS Jacob Hespeler WODSS Waterloo-Oxford

KCI Kitchener

Records/Notes

 If in the Record/Notes column there is an asterisk (*) this indicates that a record was set during a WCSSAA meet.

 If in the Record/Notes column there is an asterisk and TC (*TC) this indicates that a record was set in the TCHSAA meet including possible schools: BCI, CHCI, ECI, FHCI, GRCI, KCI, LVS, St. J,

St. M, WCI

 If in the Record/Notes column there is an asterisk and SW (*SW) this indicates that a record was set in the SWAA meet including possible schools: EDSS, GCI, GPSS, JHSS, MDCSS, PHS, SSS, St. B, WODSS

 If the Note say SW or TC without an asterisk there was no record but the performance was in a pre WCSSAA meet

 If the Note says KCI the performance happened at a school meet and the only reason it is included is because this performance was not as good as a same year OFSAA gold medal performance by that particular athlete. I felt the result could be trusted. I don’t include individual school meets if there was a multi-school meet in the same year before CWOSSA.

 If the Note says TRI, the performance was at a meet held between Galt, Glenview Park and Southwood.

 If there is no Note beside the performance then the performance occurred at a WCSSAA meet from 1980-2003