Junior Olympics 2025

Junior Olympics are a series of youth races open to teams and individuals looking to extend their season into the post-season. There are two Junior Olympic routes, so here is the quick scoop on both:

  • USATF (USA Track & Field) JO’s:

    • Meet #1, Association Meet (western Washington teams) on Saturday, November 15, in Seattle, WA. We preview the course on Friday, stay in a team hotel Friday night, have a team dinner at a nearby restaurant, and race on Saturday. Races are divided into age brackets based on year of birth. Age brackets include 8U, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, and 17-18. To advance to Meet #2, runners must finish in the top-35, or with a team that places in the top-5.

    • Meet #2, Regional Meet (Oregon, Washington, Idaho), on Saturday, November 22, in Monmouth, OR, at Western Oregon University. We can preview this course on Friday, however, we race at WOU on Sept 14, many have raced at WOU in the past, so it’s totally understandable if you opt to stay home and arrive in the morning. To advance to Meet #3, runners must finish in the top-30, or with a team that places in the top-5.

    • Meet #3, National Meet, on Saturday, December 13, in Shelbyville, IN. We will preview the course on Friday, December 12, have a team dinner, and stay at a team hotel. It is okay to play your stay elsewhere, however, the course preview and team dinner should be prioritized.

For the Association Meet (#1), age bracket teams need five runners to be eligible to score as a team. See the Google Sheet 2025 Whisper Running Team Roster (tab: Age Brackets) to see the list of runners in each age bracket. We wish to continue adding names to the lists, so if you know of any runners who might be interested, please share our team information (website).

SCORING: XC scoring is simple, where the finisher place is the number of points, so the person who finished eighth accounts for eight team points. Runners not on a team of five have no bearing on the scoring, so if an unattached runner places ahead of the eighth place runner, then the eighth place runner accounts for seven points. The lower the score, the higher a team places in the team results. A perfect score of 15 means the top five runners from a team of eight (max on one team is eight) placed 1-5. Runners 6-8 act as bumpers, so if a team places finishes 1-6, and person seven is unattached (no bearing on scoring), then runner eight is still seven points.

  • AAU JO’s:

    • Since AAU is mostly east coast, west coast teams (typically) bypass Associations (and Regionals) and can register into the AAU National Meet with no qualifying standard in place. AAU XC Nationals is Saturday, December 6. We will preview the course on Friday, December 5, have a team dinner, and stay at a team hotel. It is okay to play your stay elsewhere, however, the course preview and team dinner should be prioritized.