I'm only talking about Class B boys. I may be delusional, but over the past 10-15 years the bottom end of each qualifier list is much poorer than it used to be. For example in 1999 I ran a 2:09 800m, qualified and to my knowledge that was the slowest qualifying time in the 800 I had ever seen. I look at this list of 800 qualifiers and there are 5 times slower than 2:09. In 2000 I ran on a 4x800 relay team that qualified with an 8:44, we had a kid that had never run an 800 before regions on that team too. We got demolished in the slow heat at state. An 8:44 would be the 4th fastest in the state in 2011! We also ran a 3:44 4x400 and didn't qualify in what I thought was the weakest region in the state. A 3:44 this year would be close to placing. If you look at just about every running event the bottom qualifiers have IMO poor times.
Thoughts on why this is happening? If anything you would think it would be getting more competitive.