The Program
Making the Team
There are no try-outs. Running times determine placement. Anyone who enjoys running and is motivated to improve their skills is welcome to be a part of the team.
Summer Training, Practice and Team Information
During the summer, the team meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Highbanks Metro Park and Sharon Woods Metro Park. Summer practices start at 8:30am and are over no later than 10:30am. Although these practices are not mandatory, they are strongly recommended. Training during the summer is critical to success and injury prevention during the season. We encourage athletes to invest in a quality pair of running shoes and a stopwatch for training.
Official practice will begin the first or second week of August. We practice everyday at 8:30am at various parks in the Northern Columbus Area. Once school starts, the team practices right after school. Students carpool to wherever we are practicing for that day. Depending on the workout, practices are over between 5 and 5:30pm.
During the season, the team meets every Friday at someone’s house for a “spread” (aka: team meal). Parents sign up to host and help out with the spreads each week. After the spread, the team usually heads to the football game or has team bonding.
Our team participates in fundraisers throughout the year so that we can provide runners with team attire at little to no cost. The fundraisers are easy and fun. For example, we work a couple of 5K races and triathlons, passing out water to the athletes. We also sell pizza during exam week.
Race Information
The top 7 boys and the top 7 girls constitute the Varsity team. The Varsity team in one meet is determined by the top times in the previous week’s meet. Therefore, the Varsity team can change from week to week.
The length of a XC race is a 5K or 3.1 miles. Cross Country is both an individual and team sport. In every race, our runners strive to improve their personal record (PR) or their fastest time. The lowest scoring team in a XC meet is the winner. Only the top 5 runners from a team are used in the team scoring process.
For example, if the top 5 runners from Team A finished with places 1,3,5,7,9, they would achieve a score of 25 for their team. If Team B finished 2,4,6,8,10, their resulting score would be 30. Team A would be the winner by a margin of 5 points.
