For a long time the NCHSAA XC Regional Team Qualification process has been the top 4 teams in each regional qualify for the NCHSAA State Championships. Starting in 2017, this process will be different. Below is a response from Chiquana Dancy of the NCHSAA on the change of the regional qualification process.
"Part of the qualifying process has changed. The top twenty-five percent of teams in each classification from each regional will qualify to the state meet. The top seven individuals not on a qualifying team will still advance from each regional to the state meet."
So I believe this goes off the stance of 25% of participating teams will advance to the NCHSAA State Championships. Currently I'm unsure of what qualify's as a participating team is for the regional meet. Does one individual equal a participating team in cross country, or must it be a team of 5 athletes. I've asked the NCHSAA for clarification and will update this one information is more clear.
Below are the total number of teams that will be able to yield a team at each NCHSAA Regional XC Meet. If my understanding is correct, then we won't know how many teams will advance out of each region until the regional registration is closed 7 days prior to the meet.
|
|
East |
Mideast |
Midwest |
West |
|
1A |
23 |
23 |
23 |
22 |
|
2A |
26 |
26 |
27 |
26 |
|
3A |
28 |
28 |
29 |
28 |
|
4A |
18 |
19 |
19 |
19 |
So if each region had full participation next season the number of state meet advancing teams from each region would be as followed:
| East | Mideast | Midwest | West | |
| 1A | 5.75 | 5.75 | 5.75 | 5.5 |
| 2A | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.75 | 6.5 |
| 3A | 7 | 7 | 7.25 | 7 |
| 4A | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.75 |
This could leave 3A with 28 teams at the NCHSAA State Championships if every school competed at the regional meet, which likely wouldn't happen. The question to me would be if a region had 4.25 teams in the region would that meet 4 or 5 teams advanced to the state championships.
We've updated the new NCHSAA Regions in the MileSplit database. I'll leave the current regions and state classifications in the system until the 2017 XC season nears.
Boys XC Regional Returning Rankings
Girls XC Regional Returning Rankings
We'll post more information as it becomes available.