2026 Ohio Cross Country Middle School State Championships

20th Anniversary of the Annual OHIO CROSS COUNTRY Middle School and Elementary STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS at Dublin Jerome High School October 18th! What's new and what makes us different? What makes the Middle School & Elementary State Meet different from the rest? Well it’s our 20th anniversary for starters. During that time, we have had some of the greatest runners in Ohio cross country history come run with us. We continue to follow them and highlight their accomplishments long after they have left middle school. Starting with packet pick up you will start to see what sets us apart. While most events give you a Manila envelope with your runner’s chips and numbers, we give every coach a zippered team bag with everything inside to get them prepared for their race. We give each runner a NEOPRENE WRISTBAND printed with a personal message telling runners to Be Legendary! Paper wrist bands are lot’s cheaper but we want to invest in our athletes. We give away 1200 pairs of Ohiocrosscountry.org sunglasses just because. Our course is a spectacular one of kind and spectator friendly trail that winds thru the woods and ends on a great straight away in front of a cheering crowd in the football stadium. We play music on the sound system all day long too. We treat the top 15 finishers in every race like the VIPs they are. They each get one of our iconic custom-made medals painted with our unique Red Enamel. Each one gets a large Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar. These are handmade specifically for our runners with only the finest ingredients. There are also Golden Tickets hidden inside 5 of them good for a free T-shirt from Fine Designs so make sure to check. We are the only Cross-Country race in the world that gives a GIANT 5-pound Gummy Bear to our top 3 finishers in every race. We are again giving away one large Gumball Machine every race to one of the top 15 finishers. The race winner will draw a ping pong ball out of the hat that will be numbered 1 thru 15. For example, if they draw number 9 then the 9th place finisher wins the prize! If the ONE green ball is pulled out ALL Top 15 finishers in that race get a Gumball Machine! The top 15 in the Elementary race all got lucky in 2025 when the green ball popped up. While some events only reward the coach with a team trophy and nothing to the ones who did all the work we give individual championship medals to EVERY member of the winning team in each race… yes even if you have 30 runners or more. If they ran they get rewarded at our event! We also hand out 40 team trophies. Each year we literally crown Ohio’s fastest boy and girl. We call them the Rock Stars of Ohio Cross Country and proudly display their names on a large banner at our event every year. They each receive a large trophy, Jeweled Crowns and fitted Championship rings which they will cherish forever. In 2026 Ohio’s fastest boy will also get an AMAZING 12 inch Statue of the Flash while Ohio’s fastest girl will get an exact replica of Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from the 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz! Just click your heals together 3 times and repeat “There’s no place like the State Meet”