Well, here's another weekend that's coming full circle for me. Because I believe that I also ran in the very first sectional meet back in high school. Of course we still had regions back then and only the 3rd and 4th place finishers from region had to run sectionals while the top 2 from region got to skip them. I think I like this new way of doing sectionals better. In track it makes sense to have multiple rounds of qualifying, but I'm not sure I like having more than one qualifying meet in cross country, especially when regions can vary greatly in terms of talent and depth. This feels like the best way to do this.

But, how are teams going to run these meets? That's the real question. I am guessing that not EVERY team will be going all out. I suspect some top teams will be holding any kids out who might be dealing with minor injuries to keep them fully fresh for state. Or you could see some pack running. But since most of the sectional meets are on faster courses, my guess is that most kids will be going hard in an attempt to get one last PR before state. So, for the most part, sectionals will probably give us a good idea of what we will see next weekend in Carrollton. But we've seen plenty of place swapping between region meets and the state meet in previous years, so I would expect to see a good bit of that next weekend as well. Just because you win sectionals, doesn't mean you can do it again a week later. This is a tense time because we're all anxiously awaiting the state meet but also trying to figure out how we're going to gauge things one last time before the state meet. Who is going to measure themselves exactly right? We will find out in a week. But for now, let's enjoy one last weekend of racing where it doesn't officially count. Except it does count because you still have to qualify to get there.

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