Best and worst state championship courses?

What wrong with Louisiana?

Illinois is the worst.

Minnesota's is well-liked by the fans & the runners:

It's on the St. Olaf College campus, in Northfield (just south of the Twin Cities metro). Well-groomed course, some hills, lots of trees, ponds.

The girls set course records on it a couple of months ago in both 2A (Emily Covert @ 17:03) and 1A (Grace Ping @ 17:19) classes at the State Meet.

Ohio’s course is nothing special

Iowa’s course is in a terrible location for about 80% of the competitors who would prefer a more population centered location. The course is ok except the length changes every year.

Just take the hobby-jogger's mentality:

If you PR, the course (and race) automatically is the best.

If you don't PR, the course (and race) automatically sucks.

How could anyone who hasn't run all 50 courses possibly know the answer to this?

cpctktabfh wrote:

My vote is Kansas for the best course.

Rim Rock (3a, 5a, 6a) or Wamego (1a, 2a, 4a)?

what wrong with Louisiana wrote:

What wrong with Louisiana?

The location is very inconvenient for 80-90% of the teams. If it rains within a few days of the meet, then the course is muddier than a spartan race (look at pictures and times from this year). There’s no scenery (just a couple loops around soccer fields) or trees meaning that wind is a big factor. It’s called 3 miles but probably closer to a 5k.

However, it appears that they are trying to fix some of the race’s problems by moving the race to a better course in a more convenient location and trying to reschedule the race to give runners more than 4-5 days before NXN south. They’re also considering reducing the number of classifications from 7 to 3-4 which is definitely a step in the right direction.

Marcus Siepen wrote:

cpctktabfh wrote:

My vote is Kansas for the best course.

Rim Rock (3a, 5a, 6a) or Wamego (1a, 2a, 4a)?

Rim Rock!

How many people have actually seen more than one state championship course?

My vote is for Woodberry Forest, the private schools state meet course in VA. Its a nice campus and a moderately challenging course.

Americans are p u s s I e s, a actual xc course they say it sucked. And a fake xc course they'll say that course is the best. Stop being p u s s I e s and start actually racing xc courses.

Nevada has one of the worst... even though it rotates between Reno and Las Vegas, both are really bad, but the one in Las Vegas is the worst. Half of the course is beach sand.

South Dakota rotates between three different courses, and the one from last year, Hart Ranch in rapid city, is dusty and extremely narrow. nowhere for spectators and bottlenecks extremely quickly

I haven't seen a ton of state races but the best I've seen is Rim Rock at Kansas. Worst I've seen is Colorado. For all of the great runners that Colorado has they for some reason don't seem to understand what makes a good cross country course.

Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake is a good course. Great view of the mountains, as well.

Lavern Gibson in Indiana I a really good state course. The course also hold the Nike Midwest regional race and has another good Nike cross country race where teams from Missouri will come.

Marcus Siepen wrote:

cpctktabfh wrote:

My vote is Kansas for the best course.

Rim Rock (3a, 5a, 6a) or Wamego (1a, 2a, 4a)?

Rim Rock is wonderful, but Wamego is one of the worst courses I've ever stepped foot on. It's basically a test of who can run 180s around a tree then back up a hill, then back down a hill and a 180 again. They need to move them all to Rim Rock and just make it a 2 day thing

Pennsylvania's state course is the bomb.

It's right out back of the Hershey factory and Hershey park in...well, Hershey, PA.

It's also one of the two toughest courses in the state. Absolutely kicks your butt, but really separates the best of the XC crop from the raw speed track guys. It ain't called the Poop-Out-Hill course for nothin'. By far my favorite course in the state.