New High School Club Division

This division is a new addition to USATF's Junior Olympic Cross Country program. It is in response to requests from many high school athletes participating in interscholastic cross country who wish to continue running after the interscholastic season has ended. Prior to this year, they could only do that in our age-group categories. Quite often, this meant that club teams made up from athletes from the same school had to split their teams into two age groups. This is an attempt to allow athletes who have run together all season to continue to do so at the Junior Olympics. This is not being promoted as an interscholastic high school national championship, but rather as an opportunity for additional competitive chances for these teams after the high school season has concluded.

Here are the basics of the new division:

• High School Race Distance - 5,000 meters (boys and girls races)
• Maximum of 8 athletes per team - all from same high school (see below)*
• Top 5 score
• Medals to all 8 runners
• Top 3 teams receive awards
• All athletes must be USATF members and the team must be a USATF member club
• High School athletes may also run in Saturday's meet - for the same club and in their correct age division (Bantam through Young); however they must have advanced through the Association and Regional process and be properly entered through their Regional Coordinator
• All USATF rules apply

Entries MUST BE SUBMITTED through USATF Regional Coordinators. A separate High School Club division entry form will be available on the USATF web site.

* High School Club division entry forms must also be accompanied by a letter from the High School Principal and/or Athletic Director, which contains name of the school, current year, and names of all runners being entered certifying that they are eligible to represent that high school.

In keeping with USATF rules, all high school athletes must also present date of birth verification.