Monroe Runner Justin Heck was selected the Evening News Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. On the girls side the selection was Lindsey Gakenheimer.

West Catholic and Grand Rapids Catholic Central will jointly host the 5th annual Cougar Falcon Cross Country Invite on Saturday, September 25, 2010.

Again in 2010 the Cougar Falcon Invite will be contested at the Gainey Athletic Complex.

Limit: 20 Varsity Teams each gender.
Cougar Falcon Invitational Info Sheet - 2010

Cougar Falcon Invitational Contract - 2010

Those returning teams with a contract turned in by January 1, 2010 are guaranteed a spot. After that registration will be first come, first served.

• 7:00 Gates Open.
• 8:45 Middle School — we start the 6th graders and the 7/8th graders at two different points on the course.
• 9:00 Welcome/National Anthem
• 9:10 Varsity Boys(both divisions)
• 9:30 Middle School Awards
• 9:40 Varsity Girls (both divisions)
• 10:15 JV Boys
• 10:45 JV Girls
• 11:30 Awards in the bleachers
• 12:00 clean up and go ….

Athlete Registration — how to register

Roster entry will be handled using Athletic.net. Middle school and high school divisions use different links to register and you must do each of them. All high school athletes may be entered in the varsity race! You need not enter kids in varsity/jv. All athletes are eligible for either race without designation.

Middle School Registration Instructions
High School Registration Instructions

Once registered, and after adding the meet to your calendar, then you can manage your entries here:
Middle School
High School

We will have concessions and $10 t-shirts available.

Parking is $5 per car so that your fans are aware.

Specific parking information will be posted before the meet, as it is very important that you understand where you can and cannot park.

Let us know of any concerns you may have. We look forward to seeing you on what we expect will be a pleasant sunny Saturday morning in Kent County.

2009 High Schools

Falcon Division

• Grand River Preparatory 230
• Hackett Catholic Central 365
• Carson City Crystal 392
• Schoolcraft 407
• Kent City 442
• Lansing Catholic 514
• Portland 612
• GR West Catholic 635
• Chippewa Hills 675

Cougar Division

• GR Catholic Central 769
• Comstock Park 783
• Gull Lake 955
• Grand Rapids Christian 994
• Caledonia 1313
• Portage Central 1380
• Rockford 2630

New Schools Joining Us in 2010

• Ionia

Directions:

The address for Gainey is 1661 East Paris Avenue, SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

Course Maps:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/womens/cross-country/images/CalvinXCcourse5k_small.jpg

At the MITCA Business Meeting held in Bay City on November 9, 2007, the coaches considered two questions (link to official results):

1. should a regional be granted one additional qualifier in the following year if three qualifiers from that regional the prior year placed in the top fifteen and two additional qualifiers if three teams from that regional placed in the top ten.
2. should the fourth team at regionals with four in the top twenty be restricted to regions with eight or more complete teams.

The first question received a yes vote from 69% of the coaches who took the time to attend the business meeting and vote. To be forwared to the MHSAA Representative Counsel, a vote of 70% in favor much be achieved. It is reported that the question needed just two more yes votes for the 70% to be acheived. So this proposal will not be forwarded by the representative counsel by MITCA. Even though a significant majority is in favor of this proposal it is rejected for advancement because of the MITCA policy requiring 70%

Some reasons stated by coaches who opposed this proposal voiced one or more of these reasons:

• because it awards bids this year based on last years performances, it would not necessarily reflect the current state of cross country
• there are already too many teams/individuals in the races at MIS and this would further crowd the field
• just because you have three good teams in a regional doesn’t mean that there is a fourth deserving team
• they favored some other solution (one that some like is “self seeding” where each team would pick a regional based on perceived difficulty of that regional)
• they think we get the top two teams to MIS and that is what this is all about and teams that don’t make it this year should work harder for next year.

The second question was favored by 89% of the coaches and so will be forwarded to the representative counsel.  Let’s have a discussion of the pro’s and con’s over on the forum …