Above are the times for Mulecamp '05 - Stage 1

Many folks have asked why we don't rank categories separately. But are the categories that different in placement?

Looking at the times, if the categories are so different, you should easily tell which categories placed where, right?

As you see from the graph, it isn't obvious! This is further supported by looking at some of the actual distribution.

Here are the top 15 shooters listed with category and stage times:

Place	Category	Time
1.	Gunfighter	20.02
2.	Traditional	22.67
3.	Gunfighter	24.37
3.	Traditional	24.37
4.	Gunfighter	24.60
5.	Senior	25.12
6.	Modern	25.61
7.	Traditional	26.24
8.	Junior Boy	26.37
9.	Modern	26.60
10.	Traditional	26.82
11.	Traditional	27.04
12.	Classic Cowboy	27.12
13.	Traditional	27.24
13.	Traditional	27.24
14.	Duelist	27.50
15.	Traditional	27.56

Notice that three of these are Gunfighters, two were Duelists (Duelist and Classic Cowboy) and one was a Senior - and a "non-two hander" won the stage.
Also notice that the distribution is not linear for the first 20 or so shooters. The line becomes essentially linear for shooters 20 through 350, then slightly changes, then linear, and finishes non-linear.

Using all shooters, you can begin to see a pattern of where an individual shooter placed within the group. Although we may initially think we need to break out the categories separately, as long as they all shoot the same course of fire, it doesn't make a lot of difference.

Conclusion:
Using the entire sample is effective - provided the course is the same for all categories.