Cross Country Roads: Catching up with runners in The Blast Zone

Races to Run: First fall storms arrive in time for postseason

Photo by leah hetteberg on Unsplash

Don Schaplow for Blast Zone Media

Right on cue with the blowing orange and gold leaves, postseason cross-country meets are upon us like the fall rains in from the Pacific.

All classification levels of our local high schools will compete this week, with only Kelso of the 3A GSHL running in a true district qualifying meet. Our other smaller schools will be competing for league titles and bragging rights, preparing for next week’s district championship qualifying meets.

As we move ahead along the road to Pasco and the state meet at Sun Willows Golf Course on Nov. 9 , it’s helpful to understand how this whole thing works.

Each team is composed of only a school’s top seven runners. Of those seven, only the top five finishers on race day are actually scored in each meet. While cross country is a team sport, some schools don’t have enough kids turning out to field a true “team.”

So what if a school has only, say, four kids turning out? Of course, those kids can still run and have a chance to make it to state as an individual.

So while a school’s “team” might not qualify, members of that squad could still advance to State based on their own merits. Each district has set allocations for how many runners advance to state (Example: top-4 teams and the top-28 individuals move on). So yes, even if a runner fails to finish in the top-28 (as per our example), that athlete could still run at State if his or her team qualifies.

Hopefully this will make sense as we glance ahead through those blowing leaves to our postseason preview.

3A Greater St. Helens League Championships

Where: Lewisville Park, Battle Ground

When: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 11:30 A.M.