I live in a large school district and there are 3 or 4 weekly XC races for 7th and 8th graders every April/May. There are about 15 large middle schools competing. The race is approximately 3000m on grass. There are separate races for boys and girls (and the 7th and 8th graders finish in separate chutes and have separate scoring). For the past few years, there have been high school boys "rabbiting" the girls race. In the final race of the season (considered the district championship), the rabbits ran well over half the race at the front. It looked strange to me to see older boys leading a pack of 250+ girls in their championship race.
I don't know the reason for it- but I'm wondering, is this something that is done in other communities? I haven't heard of it before, but maybe this is more common than I realized- maybe it is supposed to teach them pacing or some other tactical lesson. Kind of like coach pitch baseball for young kids.
Thanks for any input/thoughts.