What is Cross Country

Scoring or “We came! We ran!? How did we do?” 

Cross Country is a true team sport. Every person on the team has an effect on the team’s outcome. You can compare team scoring in cross country to the game of golf: low score wins. Times do not affect team scores (usually). Typically, each varsity and junior varsity team can run between seven and ten runners (sometimes more). 

Each individual finishing a race is issued a card in the finish chute with that individual’s finish place written on it (These cards must be turned in to the Coach or manager) For example, the first finisher gets #1, the second #2, etc… The places of the first five runners from a team are added together to compute the team score. The sixth and seventh runners on the varsity and all the additional runners on the JV serve to “bump” an opposing team’s score higher by finishing ahead of the opposing runners. 

If there is a tie in the team score, the tie is broken by comparing the finish of the sixth runner on each team. There have been state championships decided this way. EVERY RUNNER ON THE TEAM IS IMPORTANT! Whether you finish first or 800th​ , your performance is important, if not to the score of the meet, at the very least, to the overall attitude and work ethic of the program. 

Race Tactics 

Cross Country racing on the surface appears to be simple, right? The fastest runner wins, how tough can it be? The important thing to remember is that Cross Country is a team sport​. In fact no other sport emphasizes the meaning of team more. In order to have a good team all of the runners must be able to perform well. Therefore, the most important aspect of cross country tactics is pack running. The most important result of pack running other than the score is the “spread” or “gap” time. This is the time from when a team’s first runner finishes until their fifth runner finishes. Great teams have spread times of less than 20 seconds. Most good teams have gap times less than 60 seconds.