How At-Large Standards are determined
The At-Large computation is a 2-step calculation. First, you compute the standard at the State-course level. Second, you make a conversion to the course run at each of the Sections meets. A 3-year average is computed for the 10th place team at the State Meet for each division. However, if there were less than 20 teams in a race in a given year, then the median place is used as part of the average. The girls State Meet standard based upon finishes for the past three years is: Div 1 99:08 Div 2 101:37 Div 3 100:28 Div 4 103:30 Div 5 108:04 You would expect that there would be a better average for the larger schools. However, that is not the case for divisions 2 and 3. The Div 2 and 3 averages were computed as follows: Div 2 Div 3 1998 Oakridge 104:42 Palo Alto 100:00 1999 Leland 101:09 Carondelet 101:35 2000 Vacaville 98:59 Del Oro 99:49 Ave 101:37 100:28 Oakridge was the 8th place finisher in 1998 and Palo Alto was the 7th place finisher. Leland was the 8th place finisher in 1999 and Carondelet was the 7th place finisher. Vacaville was the 10th place finisher in 2000 and Del Oro was the 9th place finisher. As can be seen, the 1998 div 2, 8th place time was very slow as compared to div 3. Thus, the 3-year average for Div 2 is higher than for Div 3. 1998 will drop from the averages next year. 2000 was the first year for the At-Large standard. This meant that more and better schools qualified for the State Meet. The At-Large entries will probably drive down the average and probably result in Div 2 having a better average than Div 3. As I first explained, there are two steps to computing the At-Large standard. The second step is to compute the difference between the State Meet course and the Section course (Crystal Springs is the CCS course). Although the State By-Laws state that a Section will compute the difference between team times at the State Meet and the Section meets on an overall basis, the State office computes the difference on a division by divisions basis. As regards to Div 2, the State Meet reps for the CCS for the years 1998 thru 2000 were Gunn & Aptos for 1998, Leland and Gunn for 1999, and Los Gatos, Leland, and Soquel (At-Large) for 2000. The average difference between their team times at State and at the CCS meet was 2:14. Therefore, the Crystal Springs standard for Div 2 for 2001 is 99:23 (101:37-2:14) As regards to Div 3, the State Meet reps for the CCS for the years 1998 thru 2000 were St. Francis and Palo Alto for 1998, San Lorenzo Valley and St.Francis for 1999, and San Lorenzo Valley and Notre Dame-Belmont for 2000. The average difference between their team times at State and at the CCS meet was 1:53. Therefore the Crystal Springs standard for Div 3 for 2001 is 98:35 (100:28-1:53). It could have been even lower for division 3 but SLV ran faster at the State Meet than they did at the CCS meet. Otherwise, the difference would have been 2:26. Walt Van Zant. Wilcox XC Coach