Re: Is it possable to lose state ranking through losing first place in your internals
I'll simply say what I know.
First of all, in terms of the EXTERNAL mark that you obtain, no, no one is going to take your mark or rank
BUT, the internals work this way. Your group of cohort run into the HSC to grab a whole set of ranks, it doesn't matter who got the top rank or who got the last rank, these ranks, from the highest to the lowest are assigned to all of the candidates according to the ranks of the internals.
Your state ranking is determined with BOTH components. Therefore, say that you got ranked 2nd in the internal and 1st in the external and the other person came 1st in the internal and 2nd in the internal, you will pretty much be the same, there will be a subtle difference, and it really depends on how much better you have scored in the externals, comparing to the person who beat you in the internal. In that sense, yes, you can still get 1st.
But in most events, I must say, it's unlikely...people ranked at the top are normally quite consistent and when there is a genius that is so much better than everyone else in the year, (which is the case where this person would get an awesome rank, whereas others can still perform miserably), the presence of such a person would have been widely known in the first place.
But in the case when the competitors are the people are coming 1st and 2nd, and reversing their ranking in the externals, it is pretty much safe to say that they will get pretty much the same mark... (what is the difference between rank 88 in the state and rank 89 in the state anyway)