XC Regionals: The importance of third

I love state cross country. Every runner leaves it on the course from first place to last place. The same cannot be said for the regional cross country meets that will be taking place this Saturday.

Cross Country regionals are much different than any head-to-head sports regional. In the head-to-head sport it is a win or go home mentality for every game. Every team has its back against the wall at all times. Cross Country is only about 75-percent that mentality.

For the other 25-percent regionals are a formality. The Adam Porters and Molly Milbourns of the state know they are going to state. They won’t phone in the race (as Porter and Hays’ Josh Munsch proved at last year’s regional meet), but many top runners will not turn in their best performances of the season. The same can be said for the teams like the Lawrence boys and Mulvane boys; teams that do not lose very often (if at all).

Coaches will not peak these runners for a week. They do not want an earth shattering performance at the regional meet. Teams like Bishop Carroll girls could run without their top runner and be no worse for the wear at regionals.

The best races on regional day mostly come from the race for fifth place to tenth place and from the teams that are fighting for that third team spot. These are the runners who are peaking. For all intents and purposes regionals are these runners’ state meet.

It is what makes cross country different from the head-to-head sports. How often is the third place game of a basketball tournament more intense and hard fought than the battle for the championship? Never.

My junior year our team was battling for one of those third place finishes at home. The top team was a foregone conclusion all week long. The winning team was happy, but it was nothing compared to the emotions felt by the third through fifth place teams. As the team places were announced the fifth place team was announced with 101 points. Then the fourth place team, my team was announced with 101 as well (we won on a tiebreaker). Then the third place team was announced with 99 points. Never had fourth place hurt so much. And never had I seen a team happier to be number three.

It was the same story my senior year, only this time we won the third place trophy. I had never been so proud to say “We’re number three! We’re number three!”

So the moral of this story is that if you are at a regional meet this Saturday, pay attention to that battle for the final state berth. Those teams on the bubble like Wichita East boys and the Derby boys at Cessna Activities Center. The best team race will likely come out of the Bishop Carroll 4A regional. Four teams are in contention for that final spot and it could easily come down to one point. Those runners is fifth through 10^th place sprinting down the homestretch like their season depends on it (because it does).

Don’t completely count out the importance of winning an individual title at a regional meet. Of the 24 individual state champions in the last two years, 22 of them were individual regional champions as well. The two exceptions came last season with eventual girls 6A Avery Clifton of Washburn Rural and Herington’s Jason Martin who won class 3A. Both runners were regional runners-up.