| 2019 XC Expectations.docx |
A history of Arkport Cross Country at States
From what I can find, the first Arkport athlete to represent the school at the state meet was Brian Gowiski in 2006. Brian was a junior and finished 21st in the class D/DD race. He returned to the state meet in 2007 to finish 7th. In 2008, Casey Wellington finished 14th as just a freshman, following it up with a 10th place finish in 2009. Mary-Frances Aini also represented the team in 2009, finishing 19th overall as just an 8th grader! From there, Hunter Clark is the only other qualifier I have found. Hunter joined the team as a senior in 2015, and went on to finish 25th individually at the state meet.
From what I can find, the first Arkport athlete to represent the school at the state meet was Brian Gowiski in 2006. Brian was a junior and finished 21st in the class D/DD race. He returned to the state meet in 2007 to finish 7th. In 2008, Casey Wellington finished 14th as just a freshman, following it up with a 10th place finish in 2009. Mary-Frances Aini also represented the team in 2009, finishing 19th overall as just an 8th grader! From there, Hunter Clark is the only other qualifier I have found. Hunter joined the team as a senior in 2015, and went on to finish 25th individually at the state meet.
Scoring and qualification in cross country:
I wanted to put together a brief blurb on how scoring works in cross country for those of us that are new or do not understand how it works. There are two different formats, the first of which is league meet scoring:
Cross country is similar to golf in that the lowest score wins. The top 5 runners on each team comprise that score of that team. The 6th and 7th runners, however, are counted in the scoring and count against the scores of other top 5 runners on opposing teams. Quite often, a strong 6th and 7th runner can be the difference between a win or loss in a duel meet. The goal is to get in the top 7 runners as fast as possible, with as few members of other teams in front of them. A duel meet is clinched when the top 3 runners on a team beat the first runner of an opposing team. In league meets, teams are scored directly against each other, for example if we race Addison and Avoca in a league meet, there will be three separate scores - Ark-Can vs. Addison, Ark-Can vs. Avoca and Avoca vs. Addison. To the right is a sample result from a league meet.
In this meet, Hammondsport vs. Ark-Can would be:
Hamm: 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 13, 14 = 26
Ark-Can: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 = 30
This is a pretty tightly scored one. To see how the 6th and 7th man affect the scoring, if we put our 7th runner (Jake) in front of their 5th (Eli) then our score remains the same, but their score bumps up a point to 27.
Scoring Ark-Can vs. CS:
Ark-Can: 3, 4, 5 , 10, 11, 13, 14 = 33
CS: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 = 24
Scoring Hamm vs. CS:
Hamm: 1, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14 = 32
CS: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 = 26
Invitational Scoring (Including Counties, Sectionals, States, Federations, Nike Regionals and Nike Nationals):
The scoring in an invitational, like McQuaid, is head to head with all of the teams in our race. For example, the scores in the league meet above, if changed to invite scoring would look like this:
CS: 35 points
Hamm: 43 points
Ark: 48 points
While the outcomes are still the same, the invite setting does not matter if Team A takes 1st, 2nd and 3rd ahead of Team B's 1st runner if the 4th and 5th runner of team A do not pull their weight. A great example of this was sectionals for the girls last year. The Geneseo girls were phenomenally talented upfront finishing 2nd, 5th and 19th, followed by a 53rd and 74th, while Red Creek took 11, 15, 17, 18 and 24th. The depth of Red Creek was enough to win the meet by over 30 points! Something to keep in mind for this fall.
Sectionals and States:
The top 7 runners on each team are able to compete at the sectional meet (with up to 3 alternates that come to the meet and warm up in case of sickness, injury, etc. to a top 7 runner). The state meet is comprised of the winning team's top 7 runners, plus the next 5 individual finishers. This past year was an unusual circumstance in which the top 5 finishers also were the top 5 individuals (no one from Red Creek finished in the top 5).
Federations:
The last meet hosted by NYSPHSAA is the federation championships at Bowdoin State Park. This is an interesting meet because it has lost some traction over the years because of the Nike National Championship race. A team that participates in the NYSPHSAA State Meet and finishes as one of the top 5 teams in the Merged Results will automatically advance to the Federation Meet. If any of these five teams fail to accept the advancement, the committee cannot automatically accept the 6th spot.
The winning team from each class at the NYSPHSAA State Meet will automatically advance to the Federation Meet if they finish between 6th or 10th place.
At-large bids are considered at this point. The remaining ranked teams from the NYSPHSAA State Meet are compared to the Top Teams from the At-Large Ranking that was voted on at Friday's meeting prior to the meet (teams not qualified for the NYSPHSAA State Meet). The top remaining team from the NYSPHSAA State Meet merge and the top remaining team from the At-Large Ranking are compared. A majority vote of the 11 Sectional Coordinators is then taken to determine which of the two teams advances to the Federation Meet. This process continues until a total of 16 teams have been selected to the Federation Meet.
To qualify as an individual for the NYSPHSAA Federation Meet, an individual must finish first or second in the State Meet in their class, or be one of the next twelve (12) fastest times in the State Meet deleting the possible team members, or be one of the two (2) individuals selected at the section level.
I wanted to put together a brief blurb on how scoring works in cross country for those of us that are new or do not understand how it works. There are two different formats, the first of which is league meet scoring:
Cross country is similar to golf in that the lowest score wins. The top 5 runners on each team comprise that score of that team. The 6th and 7th runners, however, are counted in the scoring and count against the scores of other top 5 runners on opposing teams. Quite often, a strong 6th and 7th runner can be the difference between a win or loss in a duel meet. The goal is to get in the top 7 runners as fast as possible, with as few members of other teams in front of them. A duel meet is clinched when the top 3 runners on a team beat the first runner of an opposing team. In league meets, teams are scored directly against each other, for example if we race Addison and Avoca in a league meet, there will be three separate scores - Ark-Can vs. Addison, Ark-Can vs. Avoca and Avoca vs. Addison. To the right is a sample result from a league meet.
In this meet, Hammondsport vs. Ark-Can would be:
Hamm: 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 13, 14 = 26
Ark-Can: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 = 30
This is a pretty tightly scored one. To see how the 6th and 7th man affect the scoring, if we put our 7th runner (Jake) in front of their 5th (Eli) then our score remains the same, but their score bumps up a point to 27.
Scoring Ark-Can vs. CS:
Ark-Can: 3, 4, 5 , 10, 11, 13, 14 = 33
CS: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 = 24
Scoring Hamm vs. CS:
Hamm: 1, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14 = 32
CS: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 = 26
Invitational Scoring (Including Counties, Sectionals, States, Federations, Nike Regionals and Nike Nationals):
The scoring in an invitational, like McQuaid, is head to head with all of the teams in our race. For example, the scores in the league meet above, if changed to invite scoring would look like this:
CS: 35 points
Hamm: 43 points
Ark: 48 points
While the outcomes are still the same, the invite setting does not matter if Team A takes 1st, 2nd and 3rd ahead of Team B's 1st runner if the 4th and 5th runner of team A do not pull their weight. A great example of this was sectionals for the girls last year. The Geneseo girls were phenomenally talented upfront finishing 2nd, 5th and 19th, followed by a 53rd and 74th, while Red Creek took 11, 15, 17, 18 and 24th. The depth of Red Creek was enough to win the meet by over 30 points! Something to keep in mind for this fall.
Sectionals and States:
The top 7 runners on each team are able to compete at the sectional meet (with up to 3 alternates that come to the meet and warm up in case of sickness, injury, etc. to a top 7 runner). The state meet is comprised of the winning team's top 7 runners, plus the next 5 individual finishers. This past year was an unusual circumstance in which the top 5 finishers also were the top 5 individuals (no one from Red Creek finished in the top 5).
Federations:
The last meet hosted by NYSPHSAA is the federation championships at Bowdoin State Park. This is an interesting meet because it has lost some traction over the years because of the Nike National Championship race. A team that participates in the NYSPHSAA State Meet and finishes as one of the top 5 teams in the Merged Results will automatically advance to the Federation Meet. If any of these five teams fail to accept the advancement, the committee cannot automatically accept the 6th spot.
The winning team from each class at the NYSPHSAA State Meet will automatically advance to the Federation Meet if they finish between 6th or 10th place.
At-large bids are considered at this point. The remaining ranked teams from the NYSPHSAA State Meet are compared to the Top Teams from the At-Large Ranking that was voted on at Friday's meeting prior to the meet (teams not qualified for the NYSPHSAA State Meet). The top remaining team from the NYSPHSAA State Meet merge and the top remaining team from the At-Large Ranking are compared. A majority vote of the 11 Sectional Coordinators is then taken to determine which of the two teams advances to the Federation Meet. This process continues until a total of 16 teams have been selected to the Federation Meet.
To qualify as an individual for the NYSPHSAA Federation Meet, an individual must finish first or second in the State Meet in their class, or be one of the next twelve (12) fastest times in the State Meet deleting the possible team members, or be one of the two (2) individuals selected at the section level.
Below are some important links for the cross country season:
http://tullyrunners.com/ - A website run by a section 3 coach that highlights different meet results. He has an incredibly accurate system that he uses to "rank" performances at different courses. This is denoted by the "speed rating" next to a runners name at meets they race at. While they are not the be all end all, they do provide a nice way to compare performances between courses. Ex. If a runner runs a 20:00 5k at the McQuaid Invite, that might warrant an 83 speed rating, while an 83 speed rating at the Alexander Invite might be a 21:04. It is a great way to look at 2 totally different courses and compare times. Note: He only does this at invites, and more often than not at larger invites that have a history of races on that course.
https://ny.milesplit.com/ - This is the hub of running for NYS. It has race results from all over the state, as well as some cool articles. It allows you to sort by section, county, class, etc. and score "virtual" meets based on previous 5k performances. It is a neat tool that I use on occasion to see how we stack up against other teams.
http://www.sectionvtrack.com/ - This is a site hosted by section 5 cross country and track and field. It provides usual information such as where to park at sectionals, different rules and regulations and changes going on in the section.
http://tullyrunners.com/ - A website run by a section 3 coach that highlights different meet results. He has an incredibly accurate system that he uses to "rank" performances at different courses. This is denoted by the "speed rating" next to a runners name at meets they race at. While they are not the be all end all, they do provide a nice way to compare performances between courses. Ex. If a runner runs a 20:00 5k at the McQuaid Invite, that might warrant an 83 speed rating, while an 83 speed rating at the Alexander Invite might be a 21:04. It is a great way to look at 2 totally different courses and compare times. Note: He only does this at invites, and more often than not at larger invites that have a history of races on that course.
https://ny.milesplit.com/ - This is the hub of running for NYS. It has race results from all over the state, as well as some cool articles. It allows you to sort by section, county, class, etc. and score "virtual" meets based on previous 5k performances. It is a neat tool that I use on occasion to see how we stack up against other teams.
http://www.sectionvtrack.com/ - This is a site hosted by section 5 cross country and track and field. It provides usual information such as where to park at sectionals, different rules and regulations and changes going on in the section.
