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Races are generally 3 miles, but in 2000 C.I.F. approved a change to the 5k distance (3.1 miles). Scoring Low Score Wins: As in golf, the object in cross country is to compete for the lowest score possible. In other words, a team that scores 35 points places ahead of a team that scores 40 points. This means that when two or more teams are competing, the first place team has the lowest score, the second place team has the second lowest score, the third place team has the third lowest score and so on. Scores Are Based on the Top Five Finishers: Although seven to twelve athletes from each team compete at the varsity level and as many athletes as a team has compete at lower levels—eg., girls junior varsity, boys junior varsity—only the first five finishers are counted in determining a team's score. For instance, let's say La Mirada's first five finishers place 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8 in a meet against Cerritos. Cerritos' first five finishers, in turn, place 2, 6, 7, 9, 11. This will illustrate 2 points: (A) low score wins, and (B) what is called displacement. Let's take a look. A. Low Score Wins:
La Mirada wins! B. Displacement: In looking at the scoring above, it may have occurred to you that the 10th finisher does not show up in the scoring. What happened to him? First, it is clear that he was a La Mirada runner because if he ran for Cerritos, he would have been their 5th finisher and earned them 10 points instead of 11. Second, it logically follows that although he does not figure directly in the scoring, he does figure indirectly in that he caused Cerritos to lose by 1 point more than it would have without him, i.e., he has displaced a Cerritos runner. Obviously, in close meets displacing can make the difference between winning and losing; hence the 6th and 7th athletes on the same team are just as important as the 1st. While it is exciting and helpful to have a star or two on a cross country team, cross country is still a team sport. A Lock, Or 3 in the Box: If you think about it, you probably recognize that as runners are crossing the finish line in a cross country meet between two schools (not in an invitational), there is a point at which one team will clearly win if it has a number of its runners across the finish line before the other school's runners have finished. The magic number is 3. In any dual (or double dual) meet, a team that takes the first three places (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) has a lock on winning the race because even if its 4th and 5th finishers are, at the very worst, 11th and 12th (remember, each team has seven runners who can score or displace) in the race, the opposing team cannot possibly score lower. Take a look:
La Mirada wins by 1 point! Coach's Note: As you can see this score was close. In the event a race ends in a tie, the winner is determined by the position of the #6 runner from both teams. The team with the highest 6th place runner is declared the winner. What if Lower Division Races Have More Than One Team? Up to this point we have given examples of the scoring of varsity races in which only the top seven runners on each team compete. In other words, a varsity dual meet has a maximum of 14 runners, a triangular meet has 21 runners. What happens at the lower levels—like girls junior varsity in which any number of runners can compete? Scoring is essentially the same as at the varsity level. Low score wins and the first five finishers are counted in the score while the 6th and 7th runners may displace. In fact, the only difference at the lower levels is that once the 7th runner from a given team crosses the finish line, no more runners from that team may displace runners from the opposing team(s) and thereby affect the score of the opposing team. Let's try another example with Cerritos. Let's say that La Mirada girls' junior varsity takes the first 10 places in the race. Cerritos takes 11, 12, and 13 and Bellflower 14 and 15. Cerritos also takes 16 and 17. (Remember, once five runners from each team have finished, the scoring is completed.) On first inspection, it would appear that Cerritos' score is 69: the sum of 11, 12, 13, 16, 17. But once La Mirada's 7th girl crosses the finish line, no more La Mirada finishers can displace Cerritos girls. In short, so long as Cerritos has a minimum of 5 girls, each of those girls is automatically awarded the next five places after the 7th La Mirada girl. This is called a sweep, in this case for La Mirada and, in terms of scoring, can occur at the varsity level as well as at lower levels. The actual scoring in this instance is shown in the example below:
La Mirada wins by the lowest cross country score possible and Cerritos loses by the highest cross country possible. (For example, last years Girls J.V. team placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th at league finals. Their combined team score was an invincible 15 points! As you probably figured out, in Cross Country the lowest score wins.) What About Invitationals? In an invitational and similar cross country competitions—e.g., CIF finals—a great many teams run against each other in a given race. Once again, however, it's still low score that wins, and only the first five finishers for a given team count in the scoring. Furthermore, at the varsity level, each team may still enter only its top seven runners in a varsity race. Therefore, at the varsity level, scoring in an invitational is similar to scoring in a dual or triangular meet. Some invitationals run their races on a grade level format—seniors vs. seniors, juniors vs. juniors, etc. Dual and Tri-Meets: La Mirada competes in the Suburban League of the CIF Southern Section Conference. Our dual or tri-meets will usually have 4 races (depending on how many athletes the other schools have) in the following order: Boys Frosh/Soph, combined Girls JV & Girls Varsity, Boys Varsity & JV. Meets begin at 3:15 p.m. and races are usually run 20 to 25 minutes apart. Results: Race results take time to compile. Meet officials receive place cards and use them to calculate team scores and individual times. These results are made available as soon as possible after each race. Awards: No awards are given at dual meets, only at invitationals. At invitational meets awards are usually given for individuals and team performance's. Individual awards may be given in a finish chute, after each race is completed, or at the end of the meet. Who We Compete Against: CIF Section: Southern Artesia |