State Meet

My cross country team has qualified for state this year by placing second in the districts meet. The meet is on Saturday and is at a golf course in Fort Dodge. The state meet is held in the same place every year so if you have gone to state before you are used to the course you will run on.

I think the state meet is a very big deal. Cross country teams have been working very hard and have been having a lot of practices throughout the season and all the effort put in will end with one more challenge, the state meet. The state meet gives your cross country team a chance to run against all of the other really fast cross country teams that you may have not had a chance to run against yet this season.

The state meet is very different than most of the other cross country races you will run throughout your cross country season. The state cross country meet has all the best runners in the state competing against each other in one meet. Your team may be used to having your top five runners in the top ten in most meets but when it comes to the state meet that can completely change. Everybody seems to start out running really fast and it’s important to not get stuck behind people when you are running.  You never know how your team may place at state until you have actually run because so many little things can affect the outcome of the race.

Seven people can run for a team in the state meet but only five of the runners are scored but the sixth and seventh runner can still be a very important part to the team.  If your team ends up having a tie with another team the tie breaker is the sixth runner of your team so your sixth runner still needs to run their best in case of a tie. Sixth and seventh runners are also important because if they finish in front of other teams top five runners the other teams will score more points than if they finished behind them and the team with the least amount of points will win the meet. The state meet can put a lot of pressure on you but it’s still important to try to run your best because you have been working hard all season to prepare for this meet and you get to compete against some of the best runners in the state.
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