NCSAA Cross County Championships - Details and Instructions

Thanks for registering your team(s) to participate in the 2024 NCSAA Cross County Championships!

(If you have not yet registered, and would like to participate, you can do so at THIS LINK.)

If you are coming to Beaver Falls, PA, to participate on-site on Saturday, September 21, 2024...

* You will receive an e-mail with more details, closer to the date of the race.  (The race will be held at Brady's Run Park in Beaver Falls, PA -- and will begin at 9:00 AM.  Please plan to arrive well in advance of the race, in order to give yourself time to complete on-site registration.)  If you have any questions at this time, please contact us at questions@ncsaa.org or call our office at 724-846-2764 so that we can help you.

* Your high school runners (grades 9-12) will run on a 3.1-mile course, and their times will be compared to all runners from other teams (locally and nationally) that are competing.  Your junior high runners (grades 5-8) will run on a 2-mile course.  In addition to national team and individual awards, we will also be presenting awards to the top male and female on-site runners (for both the high school and middle school divisions).  All awards -- both national and on-site awards -- will be announced on-site after the completion of the race.

If you are NOT coming to participate on-site (but your athletes are running at another location)...

* We are so excited that you'll be participating in this annual event, and we are looking forward to watching this event continue to grow over the coming years -- to hopefully include teams from all 50 states.  This is a unique format for an NCSAA event, which we've designed to allow participation from teams across the country.  Thanks for being one of those schools...We are thrilled to have you be a part of the Championships!

* Please send a roster of your team members to NCSAA at nhartman@ncsaa.org -- This roster should include your head coach's name and e-mail address -- as well as the name, gender, grade in school, and cell phone number of each participating athlete.  (We will use the cell phone number to send each runner an invitation via JustMove, which will register them into the correct race -- high school or junior high division.  If your athlete does not have a cell phone number, please include the cell phone number of an appropriate person who can receive the invitation and download the app for the runner.)  If an athlete will be competing the race on a certified course (see options below), you will not need to include the athlete's cell phone number.

* Your runners can complete their race anytime between August 19 and September 19.  All runners must complete their race before 12:00 AM (midnight) on September 19, in order to qualify for the final standings.  (If athletes use the JustMove app option below, their times will be automatically submitted to NCSAA.  If you choose to use the certified course option below, you'll need to submit the results to NCSAA via e-mail.  Please e-mail those results to nhartman@ncsaa.org)

* You have two options for your athletes' participation:

1) Your runners can use the JustMove app to record their time.  (This is the preferred method, and is quite easy.  It will be downloaded to the runner's phone and carried in his/her pocket, or worn via an arm band, etc.  One of the advantages of using the app is that -- as your runners compete -- they'll be given updates on how far they've gone, their current pace, AND their placement compared to other runners in the race.)  If you use this option, your runners can complete their run on any course that they choose.

2) Your runners can all complete their race on the same certified course.  (For high school runners, this must be a certified 5k course, and for middle school runners this must be a certified 2-mile course.)  In order for your course to qualify, you must prove that the course is the correct length.  (This can be done by sending us a link to course information online, or having the director of the course site contact us to confirm the exact course length, or contacting us to explain what course you will be running, to approve the course for your use.  The course must be a USATF (or other similar organization) certified course to use this option, in order to assure that all runners will run the same distance; if you plan to use a different course that does not meet these specifications, please contact us to discuss this and get approval for your course.  If you use this option, all of your runners must complete their race on the same course and date (although others could still choose to use Option 1 above -- anyone can use the app).  If you have any questions about whether your course will qualify, please contact Nate Hartman at 724-846-2764 or nhartman@ncsaa.org

* Your teams and athletes will all be eligible for the same awards as the on-site participants.  We will be awarding team awards to the top three teams in each high school and junior-high division (both male and female teams), as well as individual awards to the top three finishers in each division.  In addition, the top runner from each team, in each division (HS Boys, HS Girls, JH Boys, JH Girls) will receive a medal.  All team and individual awards will be announced following the on-site race on Saturday, September 21 -- and will be announced via e-mail and posted via social media sources and the NCSAA web site later that day (or at the beginning of the next week).


Instructions for downloading and using the JustMove app (for submitting your times, when running off-site):

1) Download and install the JustMove app onto your phone.  

2) You will receive a text message from NCSAA, inviting you join the NCSAA Cross County Championships.  Please note that high school runners and junior high runners will receive invitations into different divisions of the Cross County Championships.  (We will send the invite to the cell number provided for each athlete on your team roster.  If any runner does not receive this invite soon after submitting your roster, please contact us and provide us with the correct cell phone number to which to send the invite.)

3) Accept the invitation and join the NCSAA Cross County Championships.

4) You can now complete the race anytime you would like (between August 15 and September 15 -- all runners must be finished by 12:00 AM -- midnight on September 19) and at any location of your choice.  High school runners must complete a 3.1-mile run, and junior high runners must complete a 2-mile run.

5) To complete the race, go to the "HOME" area in the JustMove app, and press the red "Challenge" button.  Go to "My Events", and you should find the NCSAA Cross County Championships in your events.  (You will not find it there until you have accepted the invitation that we sent to you via text message.)  Press on the NCSAA Cross County Championships event, and the event page will come up.  When you are ready to run the race, press the "RUN" button -- and the app will give you a 10-second countdown and will tell you to start.  After you have run the correct distance, the app will tell you that you have completed the race -- and your time will be pulled into the standings on the app (under the Runners tab on the event page).

6) JustMove is a really easy app to use, and if you keep your phone volume up, it'll update you on your pace and your standings in the race.

7) You are welcome to try to improve your time anytime between August 19 and September 19...but...be aware that if you choose to "RETRY" the race, your previous time will be erased...and your new time will be substituted for it.  So...if you get a time that you like, you may just want to keep that time, unless you really are confident that you can beat it.

8) After the NCSAA Cross County Championships are complete on September 21, we will send out the final standings (team and individual results for all divisions) via e-mail -- and we will also post them on the NCSAA web site and via the NCSAA Facebook page.  Awards will be mailed out to all teams and individual participants who qualify for those.

9) Let us know if you have any questions...and THANK YOU, again, for participating!