The length in courses varies in each school and/or University. For men, the courses could be anywhere from 4 miles to 7.5 miles (about 9,300 meters to 12,000 meters), and for the women, the races are 1.25 miles to 3 miles (about 2,000 meters to 5,000 meters).

Scoring is different than any other sport, wherein the less points each team has the better. No matter how many athletes there are on a team, only 5 teammates score and the points equal the place the runner would finish within the race. For example, if a runner were to finish in 3^rd place, that runner would get 3 points. All five runners’ points would be added up at the end of the race and the team with the least amount of points is the winner.

The sport can be dated back to the 1800s in England where it was a team sport in public schools. At that time, the sport was named “Hare and Hounds” or “The Paper Chase”. The sport would consist of a group of runners that would lay a trail of paper or other devices to mark a trail and another group of runners would follow the trail. In 1837, the first competition was held at Rugby School, which later turned into the sport having a course pre set over open country land. The sport became so popular in England in the later 1800s and finally, in 1876 the English National Cross-Country Championship took place.