Regional and State Seeding -How is it done?

Each year I am approached by someone and the questions is this; why is my athlete in lane 8 or 1 when he or she has a faster time than the athlete in lane 2 or 7?? Well, you have to remember that the OHSAA has its own seeding formula. The two heats of 8 are seeded by district place and time. How does it work? First of all, preferred lanes in Ohio are 4-5-6-3-2-7-8-1. The fastest runner get lane 1, the slowest lane 8. Now, since there are 4 district coming to the regional meet and 4 regions going to the State Meet, seeding is accomplished as follows: we look at the fastest 1st place times from each district or regional. The fasted 1st place gets heat 1, lane 4, the 2nd fastest 1st place time gets heat 2, lane 4, the 3rd fastest 1st place time gets heat 2, lane 5 and the 4th fastest 1st place time gets heat 1, lane 5. Now start in heat 2 and seed the 4 2nd place athletes in lanes 6 and 3. Now go back to heat one and start seeding the 3rd place athletes in lanes 2 and 7, and back to heat 2 and seed the 4th place athletes in lanes 8 and 1.

So as you can see a 2nd place athlete in a district or region can have a faster time than a 1st place athlete in another district or region and get a less preferred lane.