Cross Country Rules
THE COURSE
The course is a distance of approximately 1.5 miles. There are two heats: men’s and open. Each heat runs two laps of the course. The course is marked with cones or flags and painted with directional arrows. The start line is a concave arc permitting each team to place their top runner in the front row. The finish line is at least 15 ’ wide and is the beginning of the finish chute. The finish chute is at least 30’ long and narrows like a funnel at the end. All runners should move to the end of the chute as quickly as possible to avoid being passed after the finish and to have their card marked by a race official.
THE TEAM
A team consists of any number of runners with the top four placers for each college in each heat scoring points. The first six runners affect the score by being placed in their respective finish order. A college must have a minimum of two runners in each heat to score (i.e. at least 2 women to score in the open race).
SCORING
First place scores one point; second place, two points; third place, three points, and so on. The score is determined by totaling the points of the scoring runners, thus the team with the lower point total is the winner. Although the fifth and sixth runners do not score points, their places, if better than those of any of the opposing team, serve to increase the team score of the opponents. All runners must wear race registration cards on the front of their body and return the cards to the race officials immediately after the race. Runners who fail to return their cards after the race default their position and are not scored with the team’s results. Runners who start the race but are unable to finish must report to any race official and have their card marked with ‘DNF’ so they can be credited with entering in the race and in some instances may impact the team score. Individual race times and team standings are available the day following the race in the Intramural Sports Office in Payne Whitney Gymnasium and at the Armory Intramural Field Headquarters.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP
After the race results are tabulated the teams occupying the top three spots in the division and the top runner from the non-qualifying teams are invited to the championship. Once a team qualifies any eligible member from the college may compete in the championship, but, only runners who run in both the qualifier and the championship races and whose college is the overall winner receive t-shirts.
ELIGIBILITY
All undergraduate students and persons officially associated with the residential college who meet general eligibility requirements except former varsity cross country and track (running events) award winners, and, current varsity, junior varsity or freshmen team members and graduate students are eligible to participate. Current team members are those who practiced, competed or are on the active team rosters after September 25. When persons officially associated with the residential college run only one person’s result may be used for team scoring. Any instance involving special exceptions requires a review by the Athletic Secretaries Ad Hoc Eligibility Committee.