How to Score a XC Meet

Cross country is different from most sports, in that the lowest score wins. Only the first 7 finishers from each team are used in calculating the team score. The finish places of the first 5 runners on each team are added together to get the team’s score. The 6th and 7th runners are called “pushers” or "displacers", because they can push the other team(s) score(s) up by finishing ahead of the other team’s 5th place runner. These concepts are best illustrated by example. Note that the numbers represent the top seven spots earned by each team.

Example 1:

Blue 1 2 7 9 10 11 13 (team score = 1+2+7+9+10 = 29)

Red 3 4 5 6 8 12 16 (team score = 3+4+5+6+8 = 26)

Red wins 26-29.

Example 2:

Green 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (team score = 1+2+3+4+5 = 15)

Purple 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 (team score = 8+9+10+11+12 = 50)

So why is the first scorer for Purple counted as 8 instead of 9? Remember only 7 runners count in the scoring. So the 8th finisher for the Green team is removed and the finish places are adjusted prior to calculating the score. Thus, Green wins 15-50. This is the best (largest possible margin) score possible in cross country.

Example 3:

Nike 1 4 5 7 11 12 13 (team score = 1+4+5+7+11 = 28)

Adidas 2 3 6 8 9 10 14 (team score = 2+3+6+8+9 = 28)

To break a tie in cross country you go to the 6th runner. The team with the best 6th place finish wins. So Adidas wins since their 6th place runner finished 10th and Nike’s 6th place runner finished 12th.