We are excited for next weekend's meet and it should be a record year as far as entries with athletes and teams competing. It means a lot that many of you keep coming back year after year to our event!
To adjust to those numbers, I've decide to change the meet schedule and add some race divisions to the event rather than try to force this year's record field into a box with prior year's race schedule format that doesn't work. Rather be pro-active before hand than after the fact.
We are going from 2 to 4 varsity divisions and going to reduce the number of teams that we put in each varsity race from 35-40 in recent years to about 25-30 schools.
This new format/schedule I believe will keep the race numbers in the sweet spot in the 200's and not see huge fields in the 300's or 400's. Also will give opportunity and incentive for more teams earn trophies and individuals to medal and be competitive rather than stuck in back of the elite fields.
Both morning (8:30 AM Start - 11:20 AM Finish) and afternoon sessions (1 PM Start - 3:50 PM Finish ETA) will be just under 3 hours in duration for high school teams from their first potential varsity race starting and last JV race finishing, so not drastically adding too much to time spent at the meet either.
We will be post the team race assignments on Monday, October 10th. We will get this weekend's meet results in our database first to more accurately process and rank the teams.
Below are the varsity divisions and descriptions for who should be in each varsity division. There will be a JV race for boys and girls in each session. Full race schedule posted below as well. All of this updated information is reflected on the meet page as well.
Any questions, feel free to email me at milestat@gmail.com.
Morning Session Varsity Divisions
Elite - Top 25 Ranked Teams
Emerging Elite - A group of 25 teams including next 10-15 best ranked teams and/or teams with other gender squad qualifying for elite.
Afternoon Session Varsity Divisions
Large Schools Varsity - Remaining varsity squads in the afternoon session for 4A-6A schools or private schools/out of state teams over 1000 in enrollment
Small Schools Varsity - Remaining varsity squads in afternoon session for 1A-3A schools or private schools/out of state teams under 1000 in enrollment
New Time Schedule
Morning Session
7:15 AM Course Opens
7:30 AM Packet Pickup
7:50 AM Open Race -Unattached HS runners, coaches, parents, alumni, etc. welcome in sub 30 minute 5K shape.
8:00 AM Coaches Meeting for Morning Session
8:30 AM Elite Boys Race (8 runners max/team)
8:55 AM Elite Girls Race (8 runners max/team)
9:25 AM Emerging Elite Boys Race (8 runners max/team)
9:50 AM Emerging Elite Girls Race (8 runners max/team)
10:20 AM JV Boys Morning Race (Unlimited Runners/team)
10:50 AM JV Girls Morning Race (Unlimited Runners/Team)
Transition Session
11:30-12:30 PM Break for Morning High School Teams To Leave & Afternoon High School Teams to Arrive
11:30 AM Middle School Girls 4K
11:50 AM Middle School Boys 4K
Afternoon Session
12:30 PM Coaches Meeting for Afternoon Session
1:00 PM Large Schools Varsity Boys Race (8 runners max/team)
1:25 PM Large Schools Varsity Girls Race (8 runners max/team)
1:55 PM Small Schools Varsity Boy Race (8 runners/team)
2:20 PM Small Schools Varsity Girls Race (8 runners/team)
2:50 PM JV Boys Afternoon Race (Unlimited Runners)
3:20 PM JV Girls Afternoon Race (Unlimited Runners)
4 PM Meet Finish
Sincerely,
Brandon Miles
Meet Director, MileStat.com XC Invitational
