Storylines I missed on
I only see two major misses on the season, and even those are kind of harsh to call misses. So overall I can live with a record of 6 hits, 2 pushes, 2 misses, and 2 busts.
1. Relay state records.
I don't think I missed anything major from an individual perspective. But there are a couple of relays that you could say I didn't see coming, like with Druid Hills girls in the 4x100 and 4x200 or Wheeler boys in the 4x200. And considering the fact that they broke 3 state records between them, I think it's fair to call this one a miss on my part. Like I said, it's hard to predict relay perforamances so I'm not gonna be too hard on myself. But out of respect for how good these performances were, I do want to draw attention to the fact that I missed on it.
2. 6A Team Points
I'm also not gonna be too hard on myself with this one because team performances weren't my main focus when I originally set out to write this article. But it's fair to say this was still a big enough storyline that I should have included it. We knew that both Woodward girls and Langston Hughes boys were absolutely loaded coming into the season. I even jokingly asked the Woodward coach back in March if his girls were going to score 150 at state. And I never expected anybody to get anywhere close to Langston on the boys side. I stand by the statement that both teams were capable of scoring over 100 at state. Woodward girls did, barely. And Langston boys didn't because they discovered just how hard it is to do that, especially in a loaded 6A race (kudos to Marist and Alpharetta for making it way more interesting that expected).
I don't think there's too much more I missed on this year. There were some emerging stars that either came out of nowhere or made some big jumps. And those stories are great, but also impossible to predict obviously. I certainly gave those athletes their due in my most improved articles, but I don't think you can call them misses in terms of trying to predict things this season.