What's the Worst High School Cross Country Course and Why?

Crystal springs is hilly, but not "brutally" so. Looks like a skill issue to me. I found the downhill start quite fun to race, and the course is in a great location and has surprisingly nice views as well.

Worst course has to be whatever we were running during COVID. Laps around school campuses and parking lots was just awful.

Portland Meadows OR (NXN course used before 2014) seems tough. Glendoveer seems much better

The temporary course near Seattle on which we ran while a state park was closed.

It was on the grounds of a high school and an adjacent city park. Our instructions were to alternate running around the school and the field a few times until the total dustance reached three miles. Field was grass, but the school loop was concrete outdoor paths near classrooms and included a few flights of stairs.

One course I ran was on the grounds of an elementary school. This was a college meet hosted by a small rural college and the entire course other than 100 meters at the start and finish was at a slant. It was hilly too.

This is a long time ago, but Maine North - the high school where the movie the Breakfast Club was filmed after the school closed after a short run, decided that mud around the grounds in 1974 needed an entire reseeding. I ran a varsity race there - a 9:20 miler as a 9th grader - my coach signed us up thinking it was a chance for victory (Maine West was very good with a 4:11 miler and they were not competing). The course was just seeded and it was three inches of mud. I didn't care so much for the mud - I was no John Treacy but I wasn't the type of kid who was bothered by this stuff. But it was clear that a race would ruin the grounds and the newly planted seed. It was like out of a Swamp Thing movie. Mentally as the guy in first I didn't feel comfortable leading the way to destroy the grounds. It was in the Des Plaines River flood plain and had just finished my Illinois history how early settlers dealt constantly with floods. This wasn't going to repair easily. I felt bad afterwards after a slow race - my high school had the most land of any high school in the country then and the grounds were beautiful and as a poor kid I was thankful, but so be it. When the movie came out, I scrutinized the grass but not many shots by John Hughes of the grounds. I don't know why we didn't run in flats in the parking area. The school was brand new and had lots of space - it is a state police headquarters today. By the way, Chicago area coaches were a fantastic bunch so I don't want this to reflect on them. But this was not a good decision. Our go to course was Veteran Acres in Crystal Lake, truly an outstanding course, and of course, Detweiller Park in Peoria, which has a fascinating history along the Illinois River, including then a focal point for fresh water oysters and a culture which echoed back to the creation of Middle America.

Ummm...any Southern California course comprised of asphalt, concrete, and hard packed dirt service roads calling itself "cross country" is the worst course. You might as well just run an annual state road championship on the Carlsbad 5K course in the fall.

Just because you're too weak to handle the hills at crystal springs doesn't mean it's a bad course

I hated the old Riverside CIF-SS course as an underclassman, felt boring to run and always hot / dusty out there

The Archives course in Frankfort, KY is brutal!

Griak Invitational high school course.
This course is now also run at the state meet but it’s different.

Stillwater

Hey Pal, not all of us want to go through an injury causing meat grinder just because they can.

The Fern Hill course Portland put together in 2012 when we were in the conference was quite awful. There were transients sleeping on the course, the rain was causing massive slipping hazards, people feel in tight groups and got trampled on and it zigged and zagged so much you got dizzy trying to figure out where you were. The only good thing was it was about a minute short so we didn't have to endure much further pain. I'm all for a good mud course, a challenging course, but this was not quite at the level as a championship course should be in D1.

I said HIGH SCHOOL COURSE. SMH

come to the northeast and try courses like thetford vt or derryfield in nh. that is true XC not the road races they do in california lol

You sound like a sissy liberal with this joe biden ass answer. You obviously weren’t breast fed as a child like a real man, because real men know that Crystal springs is the best xc course in all of the United States of America! Take your liberal bs over to twitter chitychity ass sniffer.

Glad I don't live there then. Crystal Springs Sucks. and if you call a 2.95 mile course with a 350 elevation gain over the course on 4 hills.... will you all have it much worse.

You can take your big G bus and wonder into the wilderness

In the same vein, Liberty Bell in CO is a bad course. About 50 meters short + huge net downhill almost all on the last mile + roads and hard packed dirt. Exciting races since it draws top talent but it would be infinitely cooler to see a real cross country course attracting so many national class runners at one meet.