Which State Has Performed Best At State? Here's The Data

* Harrison's Sully Shelton won two state titles at the Georgia Class 7A State Track and Field Championships

- - -

There is a circular conversation that always seems to present itself around May and June.

And it's a simple one: 

Which state has bragging rights as the top producer of high school track and field talent in the United States? 

We'll agree that this question is difficult to answer. After all, there are many variables to that question: Which state produces the top overall talent? Which state develops talent the best? And which state has the most volume of talent? 

These questions require a lot of analysis, as each athletic association across the United States have a different amount of member schools and the number of athletes competing. 

For instance, in the most recently available National Federation of High School Associations participant survey, detailing the 2018-2019 year, California had 1,261 member schools and 55,335 participant athletes in track and field. Conversely, Maryland had just 182 schools and 6,924 participants. 

But generally speaking, if we could agree on an objective barometer for athletic success, we could figure out a relative answer to this question, right? 

Lucky for you, MileSplit has the First and Second Team standards. Essentially, these objective lists quantify how a performance ranks on our scale -- First Team standards are largely considered elite marks by which the best of the best athletes in the United States perform. 

But our 2021 state championship results have been calculating how many athletes within those states fit on to the MileSplit Second Team standards. And so this essentially helps answer a question we have already asked: Which state has the most volume of talent? 

Crazy enough, it's not Texas. And it's not Florida. 

Based on our findings, that metric actually goes to Georgia, which saw 1,019 performance make the MileSplit Second Team Standing. 

Iowa also is surprisingly -- or not, considering on how you look at this -- high, at No. 3 overall, just above Florida. 

States With Most MileSplit Second Team Performers At State Championships

Links/Results From State Championships