It was a beautiful day for runners at the State Cross Country meet at the Elks Club in Rapid City. The sun was shining and a large crowd has gathered outside the pro-shop. The first race, Girls class B, started at noon. Because this was the first time the Elks Club hosted this event, new course records were set. Follow links to AA, A, B

	Dressed to the tee for his role in today's event, Rapid City singer Charlie Wheeler belts out the National Anthem for the good sized crowd at the Elks Club Golf Course, site of the Cross Country State Championships.

There are three classes of cross country competition in South Dakota. Class "AA" is comprised of the 16 schools with the largest average daily membership in grades 9 - 12. Class "A" is comprised of schools with enrollments of 141 and above up to and including the 17th largest school. Class "B" is comprised of schools with enrollment of 140 and below.

Course Length:
Girls - 4,000 meters or 2.49 miles 
Boys - 5,000 meters or 3.11 miles

Individual and team awards are presented at the state competitions. 

All Class "AA" schools automatically qualify 7 runners to the state meet with no region competition.

Class "A" and "B" schools are divided into five regions with the top three teams and top twenty individuals to qualify from each region. A Class "A" team consists of 6 runners. A Class "B" team consists of 5 runners.

It would be possible for Class "B" and "A" to have additional teams qualify for the State Meet if a team placed enough runners in the top 20 qualifying spots. 

All competitors who finish the race are ranked and tallied according to their place of finish. Team score shall be determined by totaling the points scored by the first three runners of a team in Class "B"; the first four runners in Class "A"; and the first five runners in Class "AA". The team which scores the smallest number of points is declared the winner. 

Many thanks to Jackie Schumacher, Sarah Goodart, Matt Thompson and Brianne Bussell from Central High School (pictured above) who took many of the photographs used in these State Cross Country Championship pages on sdpb.org. The day proved to be a challenging, real-world photo-journalism opportunity for the budding photographers. Thank you to Faith HS student manager Marlayna McGinnis for a little on site leg-work. Thanks also to the staff at SDHS Activities, the event coordinators and the Elks Club for their support.

Follow the links to:  AA,  A  &  B

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