Click Here for the 2024 Cross Country Schedule!

The Cross Country Team welcomes all YMS students to the sport. All interested students who attend practice and follow all team and school rules are accepted on the team, and run in at least one competition a week until the postseason. The cross-country program caters to all ability levels with workouts personalized for each team member.

Cross country is a popular sport that involves running on a course that may consist of grass, mud, trees, and water. YMS runs as a part of the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA), which allows the team to participate in the state series consisting of a sectional race to qualify for state competition. The competitions are called "meets" and YMS goes to some of the largest meets in the state including the Parkside Invite in Normal on IESA’s cross country course and our home Fox Trot Invite.

Middle school athletes, both boys and girls, run a two-mile course during the meets. Races may be divided into a boys race and a girls race, or a varsity race and a junior varsity race.

Scoring in cross country is different from many sports since the lowest score wins. A team consists of seven runners with the top five scoring points for their team. Points are earned based on the place earned, so if the top five runners for a team finished in 1^st, 5^th, 10^th, 14^th, and 20^th, the team would have scored 50 points. The sixth and seventh runners are important in case of a tie and they can also hurt another team's score by beating their top five runners. Although the top seven runners are important in cross country, most cross country meets feature an open race that allows any number of participants.

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