This Thursday is our first Maramonte League meet. Inevitably new athletes and parents have questions about how cross country is scored.  I hope the following helps.

Scoring Primer

In Marmonte League meets (excluding finals), we compete against each team individually. Even though there are three teams in the race, each pairing is scored seperately: TO vs. Simi (ignore Royal), TO vs. Royal (ignore Simi), etc.  That's why these are often referred to as triple-dual meets.

Each team enters seven runners into a race (except JV, which can have unlimited entrants). As each runner finishes the race, they are given a score according to the place they finish.  The first place runner gets one point, second two points, and so on.  The score of each team's first five runners  to finish (the "scoring five") is counted toward the team's total score.
 

For example, if the first five runners come in 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 9th, then the teams' score is 28 (2+3+6+8+9).  The team's 6th and 7th runners do not score, but they can displace the other team's runner and increased their score.  Low score wins.

While strong front runners are great, in reality all five scorers have equal weight in influencing the score.  That's what makes Cross Country such a great team sport!

If you like math, please read on!

A perfect score is 15 (1+2+3+4+5). 
Minimum total Points is 55 (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)
Maximum total Points is 65 (1+2+3+4+5 [6],[7] +8+9+10+11+12)     

Low score wins so....

A score of 27 or lower always wins (55 minimum total and 55-27=28)
1-2-3 always wins (29 to 30 at worst)
2-3-4-5 always wins (26 to 31 at worst)

See you Thursday!