Cross Country information

Preliminary meet schedule has been posted.  Additional weekend and qualifier meets will be added soon.

Bay State Conference meet information

  • Competitions on Wednesdays are with other Bay State Conference schools.
  • Home meets take place at Elm Bank.
  • The bus for all meets leaves from the back of the high school at 2:40 pm.
  • JV Races start at 4:00.
    • This could be a combined boys and girls depending on the number of athletes.
  • Girls varsity races start at approximately 4:30pm
  • Boys varsity race starts at approx 5:00. 

It is strongly encouraged for the purpose of team-building and supporting other athletes, that runners stay at the entire meet and ride the bus back to the high school. However, athletes may ride home with a parent/guardian – please tell coach when leaving.

To ride home with another athlete’s parent, an email must be sent to the athletic director (tcollins@natickps.org) giving permission.

 

* League meets that are mandatory for all athletes to compete in (or attend if injured). 

* *For invitational meets, not all Natick athletes will compete. Athletes will be notified if they qualify. Runners participating in meets later in the season, based on performance and season-long effort, will continue to practice until their last competition.

what do you need for practice?

  • Water bottle
  • Running shoes
  • Weather appropriate clothing. 

All runners should hydrate properly with water prior to arriving at practice, and should have their own water bottle at practice. 

Practice schedule information

  • Practice is every day, rain or shine, from 2:45pm to 5:15pm. Meet at softball field at 2:40.
  • All runners are expected to be at every practice.
  • Excused absences include sickness, doctor appointments, and family commitments.
    • Coaches should be sent an email as soon as possible notifying them of an upcoming absence. Being absent from practice without communicating with the coach is an unexcused absence.

Please be aware that one unexcused absence will result in a one-week suspension from competition. More than one unexcused absence may result in removal from the team.

Practice policy: vacation & Early Release days

  • Labor Day Practice: There will be practice. If you are on family vacation, you are excused from practice. All other runners are expected to be at practice.
  • Jewish Holiday Schedule: We will have practice: If you are on family vacation, or observing the Jewish holiday, you are excused from practice. All other runners are expected to be at practice.
  • Columbus Day: There will be varsity practice on Columbus Day.
  • Early Release Days: Practice or meets will go as regularly scheduled on Wednesdays. Athletes will be responsible for getting back to the high school for practice or the meet bus.

General scoring information

All individual performances are important and recorded on athletic.net

  • For team purposes, only the varsity meets are scored.
  • The varsity runners all compete at the same time, but there is a separate score for each pair of schools at a meet.  For example, if three schools are present at a meet, Natick, Brookline, and Wellesley, all of the varsity runners will run the varsity race, and then scoring will be calculated for Natick vs. Wellesley, Natick vs. Brookline, and Brookline vs. Wellesley.
  • The top five runners from each school are counted in team scoring.
  • Individual places of the top five runners are used.  The lowest total team score for all five runners is the winning team.

How to score a cross country meet

The first five runners from each team to cross the finish line receive the points that correspond to their place. The first place runner receives one point, the second place runner two, and so on. The team receiving the lowest score wins.

The sixth and seventh runners on a team, although they don’t receive a score, can also be important, in that they can “displace” scoring runners from the other team. For example, consider the following race:

Team:
NatickFramingham
 3rd1st
 4th2nd
 6th5th
 7th11th
 8th12th
 (9th) 
 (10th) 
Final Score:
28
31
Natick wins!

As you can see, even though Natick’s sixth and seventh place runners’ scores were not added into the total, they were enough to displace Framingham’s fourth and fifth place runners’ scores, and give the win to Natick.

A score of 27 or less always wins a meet, as does having the first, second and third place winners, with at least five runners finishing. This final instance is called a “sweep”.