First to the Finish Kick Off Meet 2019

Edwardsville, IL

Meet Information

FIRST TO THE FINISH KICKOFF MEET location: SIU-Edwardsville Cross Country facility
Event Date: Saturday, August 31, 2019

We wish to welcome you back and invite you to our 11th annual invitational meet at SIUE on August 31. This years meet will be again will be co-hosted by Trinity Lutheran grade school in Edwardsville and First Baptist Academy of OFallon, IL. The SIUE course is a beautiful NCAA D1 venue and is a difficult full 5k. It will certainly be a benchmark race for the rest of your season. We are anticipating a field of approximately 50 high school and 40 grade school teams in the field for 2019. We consider this meet one of the premier races of the cross-country season statewide.

IMPORTANT- SIUE has made the roadway adjacent to the course a no parking area. We ask busses to drop the runners and equipment off in front of the course and then proceed to park in Lot # 9. We will furnish shuttle buses for the drivers. We anticipate an overflow crowd and the 500 parking places available across the street will be maximized. Cars will then be diverted to Lot #10 (Lake area) and shuttled back to the course. This new provision was necessary for safety concerns by SIUE.
We will be utilizing DIRECTATHLETICS as meet manager this year. Please register your team on the website and follow the prompts for entering individual runners. All possible runners must be entered. Please enter teams as soon as possible as initial entry is always tedious.

We have established the following starting times for the races:
8:30 am Junior high race (1.8 miles, all grade school runners run together, awards separate)
9:30 am High school girls race (all girl runners)
10:15 am High school boys race (all boy runners)

We will award plaques to the top two teams in both the high school girls and boys divisions. We will award medals to the top 100 runners in each division. We will award plaques to the top two teams in each grade school division and medals to the top 50 runners in each gender division as well.
We will service the field with ample rest rooms, camping facilities, bus and car parking, as well as provide limited medical care and a full concession stand. First to the Finish will a facility to purchase running merchandise as well as meet t-shirts.
High school entry fee:
$150 per co-ed team with up to 29 runners. Boys or girl only teams with less than 15 runners will be $80/team. $200 for teams with 30 or more total runners.
Middle school entry fee: $50 per co-ed team or $10 per individual
Entry fees may be sent to: Trinity Lutheran-First to the Finish Kickoff Meet, 600 water st, Edwardsville, IL 62025
Dave Redden, Head Coach- Trinity Lutheran-Edwardsville Bob Hull, Head Coach- First Baptist Academy-OFallon