Pennsylvania School Wins State Team XC Title With 5 Individual Qualifiers

The rule is fine. As has been said, it’s a rare occurrence.

I’ve actually been aware of this rule in PA for years. Fours runners from a rival school qualified out of my district when I was in HS in the late 90s. I was told at the time if they had a 5th qualified they would have been eligible for a team score. I thought (and still think) that would have been neat, but I guess I was expecting that situation to lead to a middling finish instead of winning.

It’s sort of like when one person wins the state track team title. Happens rarely, but it’s happened in PA at least a couple of times. You win 3-4 events on your own and in the right year you might be the state team champ as well! I think a girl did this maybe a decade ago. That seems unfair, but those are the rules.

The rule is dumb. The results would have been different had the individuals not scored. I believe that only 2 states score the individuals. NXR begins this week. Approximately 1/2 of the top 100 finishers are not scored because they are individuals. There should never be a scenario allowed anyway where 5 individuaks can qualify. That is just way too many. XC is a team sport that permits the very best individuals to also advance. Having multiple sectionals that qualify 15 individuals is insanity. Some of those individuals will place 100th at the state meet.

The rule is fine. It is both a team and individual sport. They hand out medals for both. If 5 qualify as individuals and they are on the same team, let them team score.

Its a rare occurrence. No need to make changes.

I once had 4 individual boys qualify for the State Meet. If my 5th runner ran and finished with his average Tully Runners Speed Rating we would have finished 2nd.

The team that beat us in our Sectional Championship was 3rd (would have been 4th with us).

Another year I had 4 individual girls qualify, with our 5,6,7 runners (they were very close in ability and usually displaced most of the other runners. We would have been 2nd- another year.

THAT was heartbreaking.

For other state meet oddities, check out this from the 2010 PA AAA Boy's Race.

http://runhigh.com/2010RESULTS/R110610AE3.HTML

North Hills had the #3, 10, and 11 overall finishers in a field of 283. You would think this would be a dynamite squad coasting to an easy victory. WRONG. Could not even qualify out of their district meet.

In fact, they only finished 12th (out of 52 teams) at their district meet (District 7/WPIAL). Their places? 1, 2, 3, 168, 273. Never seen anything like this before or since.

http://runhigh.com/2010RESULTS/R102810CE3.HTML

Generally there is a provision for a few at large teams based on season rankings for reasons like this.

This is just an awesome day for those 5 girls. Let them be and let them enjoy what happened. This is what the “great moments “ in sports is made of!

This is quite interesting and I'll start with kudos to Pa. this team is the state champion.

However, having lived in Pa. and having a daughter that was on the 3 time winners of the Pa. State Championships team from Emmaus. As the rules are stated, allowing this group of 5 athletes to win is impossible.

The clear fact is, all individual qualifiers are taken out of the scoring for team results. This done so that individual qualifiers don't disrupt the team results. That said, this group of 5 runners did not have an official score.

Now, if prior to the contest, the coach petitioned them in as a team, then it's all correct.

No petition by the coach is required. The PIAA Championships Memorandum for XC specifically addresses this situation:

NOTE: Five (5) or more non‐Team individual entries (qualifiers) from the same member school shall be eligible to receive a

Team score.

More interesting, the memorandum also includes this:

It is permissible for a District to replace a maximum of one (1) Team entry with a maximum of seven (7) additional non‐Team

individual entries, thereby, increasing the maximum number of non‐Team individual entries from that District by seven (7)

entries, per enrollment classification, as qualifiers to the PIAA Cross Country Championships.

Not sure if that has ever happened. It would cause a ruckus for sure.

It's great that it's listed in the rules, I didn't realize that.

And this just verifies that XC is the ultimate team sport. The tighter you are from 1-5. the better you place as the meets get more competitive.

PA = Best State wrote:

For other state meet oddities, check out this from the 2010 PA AAA Boy's Race.

http://runhigh.com/2010RESULTS/R110610AE3.HTML

North Hills had the #3, 10, and 11 overall finishers in a field of 283. You would think this would be a dynamite squad coasting to an easy victory. WRONG. Could not even qualify out of their district meet.

In fact, they only finished 12th (out of 52 teams) at their district meet (District 7/WPIAL). Their places? 1, 2, 3, 168, 273. Never seen anything like this before or since.

http://runhigh.com/2010RESULTS/R102810CE3.HTML

Only in high school!