Age Groupings for Practice and Competition

AGE GROUPINGS FOR PRACTICE
One (1) practice will be held for ALL age groups.  However, we will use our early season Team Time Trials to separate runners into 4-5 groups by fitness level and running type (distance and sprints).  By doing this, our coaching staff will be able to focus on a group of similar athletes; making for a more productive workout for all.

AGE GROUPINGS FOR COMPETITION

At track and field meets, particularly with shorter distance events, every effort within reason will be made to have participants compete with their peers.  Depending on what club or organization is hosting and organizing the meet, groupings may be done in different ways.  In some races, it will be done by age group (for example, age 6 and under boys, age 6 and under girls, age 7 and 8 boys, age 7 and 8 girls, etc.)  Some times it is done by grade level (for example, K and under boys and girls, grade 1 and 2 boys and girls, etc.)  When it is possible and makes sense, boys and girls will run sprints in separate heats or races.

“AGE” DEFINED

This is not as easy as you might think.  There are two general approaches to defining the age, and thus the age category, for competitors.  The first is “age on race day.”  Following this method, if a runner is 8 years old on the day of the meet, and she will not celebrate her ninth birthday until the following day, she would run and be scored with the 7 and 8 year old girls.  The other approach is grouping by “age at the end of the calendar year.”  In this case, the same girl would be considered “9”, because she will reach her ninth birthday on or before December 31 of that year.  Thus, she would be in the 9 and 10 year old age group.  In fairness, a 10 year-old would be similarly aged up out of the “9-10”s and into the next age group.

Often in selecting runners for heats, however, efficiency trumps strict adherence to age, grade, or gender groups.  For example, if the 7 and 8 year old girls have been placed in groups of six (most high school tracks are six lanes), and there are 2 remaining girls at the end, it would not be uncommon to merge the heat with a few 7 and 8 year old boys or bring down a few nine year old girls from the next succeeding (9 and 10 years) age category.  This is done to reduce the number of total heats and make the meet run much faster.

At longer distance track races, track field events, and cross country races, there is even less likely to be age group separation for competition.  The track, pit, or cross country course can accommodate more participants simultaneously, so groupings that span age and gender are fairly standard.

SCORING AT MEETS AND RACES

At our competitions, we do not keep composite team scores - but many races and meets distribute individual ribbons and other awards to competitors.  Again, this is up to the host.  Sometimes, they are based on place in heat (for example, if our same young lady placed fourth in the second heat of the girls age 7 and 8 200-meter dash, she might get a fourth place ribbon), and other times they are based on overall place in the age group (her fourth place heat finish might have been the 8^th overall fastest time, when all 7 and 8 year old girls from all heats are considered).  For scoring purposes, a runner typically will not be competing for place with older runners, even if they are in the same race.  Please recognize, though, that procedures and practices can vary widely, again depending on the preference of the meet host.

TEAM RECORDS

Our team records are all based on “age on race day.”  So even if the meet organizers consider a competitor to be 9 years old for their scoring and awards because they are using the method that calculates that she will be 9 years old prior to the end of the year, she will still be considered, for our club purposes, to be an 8 year old on that day and her performance would be judged against those marks or times in the 7 and 8 year old category.

EXAMPLES OF AGE GROUPS AND COMPETITION AGES

USA TRACK AND FIELD AGE GROUPS