Preliminary meet schedule has been posted. Additional weekend and qualifier meets will be added soon.
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.
All runners should hydrate properly with water prior to arriving at practice, and should have their own water bottle at practice.
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.
All individual performances are important and recorded on athletic.net
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: | Natick | Framingham |
3rd | 1st | |
4th | 2nd | |
6th | 5th | |
7th | 11th | |
8th | 12th | |
(9th) | ||
(10th) | ||
Final Score: | 28 | 31 |
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”.