The High School Challenge uses cross-country-style scoring to determine team results, with a few simple adjustments to fit a road mile format.

Team divisions

• Teams are gender-specific: boys teams and girls teams are scored separately.
• Teams may not be mixed gender.
• Each team must have at least 3 runners of the same gender to be eligible for team scoring. More than three is fine, but only the top three finishers on your team will count.

How team scoring works

• Each team’s score is the sum of the finishing places of its top 3 runners within their gender-specific heat.
• The team with the lowest total score wins.

No displacers

• Runners who are not part of a team (often called “unattached” in cross country) do not affect team scoring.
• Only athletes registered on a team count toward team places.
• Your team’s score is based only on how your runners finish relative to other scored teams, not the entire field.

Individual results

• All athletes will receive an individual finish place and time.
• Individual results and team scoring are calculated separately for boys and girls.

This format keeps scoring simple and fair while creating a true team competition heading into cross country season.

Team scores are calculated by adding the places of each team’s first three finishers after unattached runners are removed from the order.