Getting Your Regional Knowledge Game Up To Speed


Here's your guide to understanding all that will be going on at regional qualifying meets on Thursday and Friday.


Before I dive into the process of writing and posting regional previews, it's a good idea to discuss a few things that are common to all, or at least nearly all, regional championship meets that are not always obvious to the observer. This article is an effort to uncover at least the most important of those items.

  • There is such a thing as home course advantage, and it will impact some regionals more than others. This is especially the case where regions cover massive chunks of real estate. In addition to the more obvious issues of course familiarity, it's easier to wake up in your own bed and drive a short distance to your regional meet than it is the wake up in a hotel and/or drive three or four hours to the regional meet. The CHSAA system for rotating schools responsible for hosting regional meets helps even out the advantages and disadvantages here, but there are plenty of reasons why this doesn't always work out perfectly. 
  • There are, basically, three kinds of teams at any given regional meet--those that figure it's going to take a major lapse for them not to advance, those on the bubble knowing it could easily go one way or the other, and those that don't see much of any hope of advancing. Approaches to the regional meet can vary dramatically between these three types of teams.
  • Among the teams that figure they'll be advancing to State, there are a few different strategies going into the regional meet. Some go full-tilt, or at least nearly so, into the regional meet figuring they want to build all the momentum they can into State. Some take a conservative approach into the regional meet, trying to leave themselves some margin but also trying not to let the regional meet turn into a major physical and emotional energy expenditure. You need to be fairly confident of where you stand before venturing down this path, though. This is one way that surprising results can emerge out of regional meets if you aren't careful. If regional courses tend toward more difficult (for example, it wasn't that many years ago a regional meet ran in Leadville at the Colorado Mountain College campus), most top teams will go into a controlled safety mode, trying to do only what they have to, plus maybe a hair, to advance. Things have the potential to get wild when this happens. 
  • Many programs, and some leagues, attempt to use the schedule leading up to regionals to get their teams rested and recovered from injury. There is, however, no fail-safe method of going about this. Some teams name their regional rosters (or at least most of those rosters) a couple weeks out from the regional meet and run any meets they attend during the week before regionals with a sub-varsity, or mostly sub-varsity, roster. Monarch is an excellent example of a high-profile team that consistently rests their regulars during the week before regionals. The strategy embodies both risks and advantages. Other teams figure their top kids don't stay sharp if they don't race every week and load up each weekend in October. There are risks and advantages of this method as well. 
  • In 2A regions, it is still possible, though unlikely, for a team to back-door their way into State. By this, I mean a team could qualify three individuals by placing three in the top 15 without being one of the top four teams (which thereby qualify as teams) in the regional meet. One easy-to-create example here would be if one team scored 1-5-9 (15), another team scored 2-6-13 (21), a third team scored 3-7-12 (22), and a fourth team scored 4-8-11 (23). A hypothetical fifth team might occupy places 10-14-15. That fifth team, then, sends those three runners to state where, if they all finish the race, they will be given a team score. It's actually possible, though much less likely, for a 2A team to qualify four individuals for State without qualifying a team.
  • Regional meets will be dense with officials this year. Each regional meet is required, by a new CHSAA rule, to have four officials. I'm not clearly understanding the roles of four different officials yet, but perhaps that will be clear to me after my first regional meet after the rule was put in place. In any case, there will be more eyes on the course than there have been in the past. Among other things, that means parents and teammates who might be inclined to run alongside competitors on the course for short stretches need to be warned against that kind of activity. 
  • It's worth reviewing some particulars of regional scoring and State advancement here. Each team is allowed nine runners (eight in 2A). The first seven of those runners (six in 2A) retain their finishing positions for the purposes of team scoring. Individuals not on a complete team and 8th and 9th runners on teams (7th and 8th in 2A) will not retain their places for the purposes of team scoring. All athletes who finish in the top 15 but are not members of qualifying teams advance to State as individuals. Also, all athletes who finish in the top 15, whether or not they are "extra" runners on their team, will be awarded ribbons. 8th and 9th runners who finish in the top 15, however, do not qualify for State as individuals. Those slots will be open to the 16th and 17th-place finishers if those competitors are not already part of a qualifying team. In no case will anyone who finishes lower than 17th place qualify for state as an individual. The top four teams qualify for State. Those four teams will be allowed only seven runners (six in 2A) at State. 

Questions? Put them in the comments below and I'll try to get back to answering those.