The Unofficial TSSAA State Meet Record Book

Brevin Sims (pictured above) broke the state record with a 13.80 this past outdoor season.

For the Record

Before we completely close the door on high school track and field until 2020, I want to provide one last article for the community to digest in the meantime. When you watch the NCAA Championships, Diamond League Meets, Olympics... etc... There are always different records that can be set for every given event. At the Collegiate level you have NCAA All-Time Records but separately there are Championship Meet Records and even Stadium Records. Similarly, for the Olympics you have World Records, Olympic Records, and even more specifically National Records that can be set.

In short, certain records can only be set at certain events under certain parameters.

At this year's state meet, we saw three records set. Whitehaven's Andrew Bynum in the 400m open, Southwind's Girls' 4x200m Relay team, and Brevin Sims's 13.80 in the 110m hurdles. Regarding Sims though, he had already run 13.68 earlier in the season. So which one will count as the record and was it even a record to begin with?

That said, the following is a compilation of the best times ever run at the state meet since 1981 with respect to the new era of parameters and the history of the sport. That year was chosen because it was the first year in which Tennessee used meters to denote the distance of the races. Prior to that competitors still ran 100 yards and the "low hurdles" was a 200-yard race as well. Similarly, girls were racing 80-yard high hurdles prior to 1981. It even says in the results here that "All events are new records."