For years, the only team national championship of high school cross country has been held in Portland, Oregon. That's about to change. This fall, the small schools will have an opportunity to compete in their own national championship of cross country.
Lubbock Sports (Lubbock, Texas) will be hosting the inaugural national championship for small-school high school cross country on November 20 of this year.
Small schools are defined as schools with less than 1000 students in enrollment. 8th graders may compete if their state association allows them to complete but will result in a 1.25 multiplier being applied to the school enrollment. Enrollments used will be the same as used to assign school to classifications in their respective states. Only athletes fully eligible to compete in their home states through the entire season will be allowed to represent their teams.
Teams will be required to organize and compete under club, not school, names.
There will be at least one division, but the meet will likely divide into two divisions-one for larger small schools and one for smaller. The meet will also include open races for athletes beyond the usual scoring seven from each school.
The meet will be held on the cross country course at Lubbock Christian University. The course is a championship-quality course, having already hosted multiple high school and collegiate championship meets. The start line and first several hundred meters easily accommodate 300 competitors. The overwhelming majority of the course is Bermuda grass, with no hard surface.
During the COVID year of 2020, the Lubbock Christian course hosted a smaller postseason high school cross country meet (LINK) that became the springboard for the planning for a national championship meet.
Teams will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Lubbock is a city of approximately 250,000 with a large number of available hotel rooms, both in the host city and in surrounding communities. Lubbock has an airport with commercial flights from a variety of locations. More expansive air transportation opportunities may be accessed through the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.
Registration has not yet opened for the event, but watch the meet page on MileSplit (LINK) for further information.