The Competitive Season - Cross Country 2013
What do we mean by the "competitive" season? After all, in the middle school and developmental meets we compete against other teams...what's different?
Middle School meets
8/24/2013 - Pickens Preview, Pickens, GA
9/7/2013 - Covered Bridge Invitational, Roswell, GA
9/14/2013 - War Path Invitation, Canton, GA
Developmental meets
Meet 1 – Sunday, September 22 at 1:00 pm – Alpha Crush – Milton HS
Meet 2 – Sunday, September 29 at 1:00 pm – Kennworth – Allatoona HS
Meet 3 – Saturday, October 5 at 8:00 am – Etowah – Boling Park
Meet 4 – Saturday, October 12 at 9:15 am – Heart & Sole/East Cobb Cheetahs – Boundary Waters Park
Meet 5 – Saturday, November 2 at 11:00 am – PTC Flash – Heritage Christian Church
Competitive meets
11/16/2013 - USATF GA Association Championship
11/23/2014 - USATF Region 4 Championship
12/14/2013 - USATF National Cross Country Championship
Well, the competitive season has prerequisites, qualifying standards and a commitment to participate.
So, the "pressure" increases a bit, but not too much. During the competitive season the coaches don’t get any meaner or scarier than they already are (except on Halloween!) Sure, the quality of competition and number of good runners will increase (so the competitive part is real) but we still want everyone to remember to have fun!
Finally, you are not required to compete; but, if you do, we want you to commit to participate (see below.)
Notes
Unless otherwise noted, the Alpha Crush team registration fee covers the cost of membership fees and meet entry fees (but not travel expenses, massages or snacks.)
Alpha Crush does all the administrative work regarding USATF/AAU memberships and meet entries.
Parents are responsible for:
Completing or verifying the upcoming meet entries
Providing age-verification documents when necessary
The dates, locations and information about each meet can be found on each meet's information page on this web site.
Prerequisites
USA Track & Field (USATF) Membership
USATF Association Championships, Region 4 Championships and National Championships require an age-verified USATF membership. Age verification documents are due by November 1. USATF memberships will be purchased after November 1 to receive the December, 2014, expiration date.
Commitment to participate
This applies to the USATF Association, Region and National meets.
Since cross country is a team sport and is scored as such, it is important for Alpha Crush to field as many teams in each age division as possible. Per USATF Rule 304.5, a team can be composed of from 5 to a maximum of 8 members. We can have up to 8 athletes on a team with an unlimited number of teams (Team A, Team B, etc); but, we need a minimum of 5 to form a team in an age division. Teams A/B/C/etc are defined at meet *entry* time, not by the order of finish in the event. If you are declared at meet entry time as a Team C member and you finish before all Team A and Team B members, you still score for Team C.
If you say "yes" on our meet entry form, we expect you to compete. If you're the 5th athlete on a 5-person team and you do not show up, you eliminate the entire team from team competition.
Of course, we understand if unforeseen circumstances prevent you from competing.
A note about USATF "team" advancement
This applies to the USATF Association and USATF Region 4 meets.
In each age division we can have up to 8 athletes on a team with an unlimited number of teams. Of those 8, only the top 5 runners are scored. The scoring is based on the order they finish. The finishing place for the 5 finishers are totaled and the team with the lowest score wins.
The number of teams that advance to the next round is meet-dependent (see details below.)
When it comes time in the next round to determine the makeup of the team, we can choose any 8 athletes from the same age division. It does not have to be the same 8 runners who ran previously. If we had two teams entered in a particular age division, we can advance up to 16 athletes. However, if you are advancing due to qualification as a team, and not as an individual, to compete in the next round you must be part of a 5-8 person team. Suppose we had two teams qualify, but only 10 athletes are able to attend the next meet. Sure, we could make two teams of 5 runners each, but that would be too risky, since if one runner drops out or can't compete, the team would not have the required minimum runners. What we would do, instead, is create an 8 person team with the fastest runners and the remaining 2 would not be able to compete.
Competitive Meets / Qualifying Standards
USATF GA Association Preview
Requirement: None, open to all, no qualification needed, no qualifying times needed; USATF membership not needed.
USATF GA Association Championship
Requirement: USATF age-verified membership.
No qualification needed; open to all with USATF age-verified members.
The following meets have prerequisites for entry:
USATF Region 4 Championship
Requirement: Top 30 individuals and top 5 teams advance from USATF GA Association Championship per USATF Rule 305.3(a). Note: Per Rule 305.3(a), these numbers may be adjusted by the Association chair and Regional coordinator respectively for the purpose of accommodating their local situations.
USATF National Cross Country Championship
Requirement: Top 30 individuals and top 5 teams advance from USATF Region 4 Championship per USATF Rule 305.3(d). Note: Per Rule 305.3(e), the number of qualifiers from Regional meets is fixed and no alternates may advance.