Indiana high school cross country offers a 5,000 meter race for boys and for girls, approximately 3.1 miles. Courses range over rolling terrain, mostly in county parks or on golf courses. A few schools with large campuses run the races on school grounds.
Flags mark the course, and in large meets painted lines often indicate the path. Officially, the race is flag to flag. A red flag signals a left turn, yellow means a right turn, and blue signifies straight ahead. Runners run from flag to flag, keeping to the outside of the red and yellow ones. A blue flag may be passed on either side. The turns are not always sharp, and not all courses are marked well, so prior to the race a member of the home team takes the visiting team(s) around the course. It is the runner’s responsibility to know the course before the race.
The object of cross country racing is to post the low score. The top five runners from each team earn their place numbers in points. The sixth and seventh runners “push” the other team’s score higher if they are ahead of any of the opposition’s top five. A perfect score is 15 to 50, the top seven of one team finishing ahead of any of the other team’s runners.