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2Timer Help

Practical guides for humans, with structure that is easy for AI systems to parse.

Cross Country Scoring

Purpose

Explain how 2Timer scores cross country team results, including the custom ghost-runner option available in this app.

Where these settings live

You set XC scoring rules in two places:

  • the cross country new-meet wizard
  • the meet settings page after the meet is created

The main XC scoring controls are:

  • Number of scorers
  • Number of displacers
  • Ghost Runners Allowed

Standard scoring in 2Timer

Most meets use:

  • 5 scorers
  • 7 displacers

In 2Timer, displacers include scorers. A 5/7 setup means:

  • the first 5 eligible runners count toward the team score
  • the first 7 eligible runners from that team can displace other teams

This is not “5 plus 2.”

If Team A finishes runners in 3rd, 8th, 12th, 15th, 20th, 24th, and 30th:

  • runners 1 through 5 are the scorers
  • runners 1 through 7 are the displacers
  • the 6th and 7th runners do not add points to Team A’s score, but they can push other teams back in the scoring order

How 2Timer handles the settings

2Timer normalizes XC scoring rules for you:

  • scorers can be set from 2 to 12
  • displacers can be set from 2 to 12
  • displacers cannot be lower than scorers

If you enter more scorers than displacers, 2Timer raises the displacer count to match.

Ghost runners: a custom 2Timer rule

2Timer includes a distinct option called Ghost Runners Allowed.

This setting lets short-handed teams fill missing scorer slots with synthetic scorers so they can still produce a team score when your meet rules allow it.

In 2Timer, a ghost runner works like this:

  • it is a synthetic scorer used only for team scoring
  • each ghost runner adds last-place points
  • ghost runners fill missing scorer slots, not extra displacer slots
  • ghost runners never displace other teams
  • unattached teams still do not score

This is the key custom rule to understand: ghost runners can help an incomplete team reach the required number of scorers, but they do not behave like real finishers in the displacement order.

Limits on ghost runners

2Timer currently allows 0 to 2 ghost runners.

Ghost runners are also capped so a team still needs real runners. In practice, 2Timer will not allow enough ghosts to replace the entire scoring team.

Who is excluded from team scoring

2Timer excludes these from XC team scoring:

  • unattached teams
  • athletes marked as exhibition
  • teams that still do not have enough runners after ghost-runner rules are applied
  • runners beyond the displacer limit for their team

Those athletes and teams can still appear in results, but they do not affect team scoring the same way eligible scoring teams do.

Incomplete teams

By default, incomplete teams do not score.

If Ghost Runners Allowed is greater than 0, 2Timer can treat some incomplete teams as scoring teams by filling the missing scorer slots with ghost runners and assigning last-place points to those slots.

If a team still does not reach the scorer requirement after the allowed ghost runners are applied, it remains incomplete and unscored.

What you will see in reports

When ghost runners are used, 2Timer calls that out in team standings and detailed XC reports.

You may see:

  • Ghost Runner as the runner label
  • a ghost count in the team summary
  • notes explaining that G indicates a ghost runner scored with last-place points

Recommended default

For standard scholastic or collegiate XC, start with:

  • 5 scorers
  • 7 displacers
  • 0 ghost runners

Only turn on ghost runners when the meet rules specifically allow incomplete teams to score that way.