The New England Orienteering Club

The Basics

The Points Series is designed to encourage NEOC members to compete regularly in NEOC events.

NEOC members who input their year of birth and gender on their membership form are automatically entered in the Points competition. At the end of the calendar year, Club Championships are awarded to members with the most points in each age/gender category, based on their ten best results at NEOC orienteering events.

Not sure if you're a member? Check here.

Categories of the Points competition are based on OUSA age categories, which also define the “target course level” used for bonuses/penalties. (See section A39.1 of the OUSA Rules for the full table of categories.) The short version is:

Female Male Course
Age 12 and under White
13-14 Yellow
15-16 Orange
17-18
55+
65+ Brown
19-20
35-54
17-18
50-64
Green
21-34 19-20
35-49
Red
  21-34 Blue

For normal meets (i.e. those with courses White, Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green, etc.), points are awarded based on your finishing place on a course. Bonus points are added for running a harder course than your OUSA classification (and penalty points deducted for running an easier course). Points start at 100 for 1st place among NEOC members, then decrease based on the number of competitors. All NEOC participants who complete the course are guaranteed to earn some points; however, DNFs earn zero points.

Note that the Points competition includes only individual performances. Group runs are not included in the Points calculations.

Also note that members who did not give their year of birth on the NEOC membership form will be categorized as 21 years old, putting them in the most competitive categories. You can correct your year of birth any time by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Special courses

For non-standard courses like The Traverse, Roarange, Motala, Score-Os, etc., the basic awarding of points is identical; however there are no bonuses or penalties for running a harder or easier course. Instead, the finishers are split into categories based on the age/gender table above. For example, competitors in the M-Green category are ranked against others in the M-Green category, competitors in the M-Brown category are ranked against others in the M-Brown category. Similar for women in the F-Green and F-Brown categories.

Thus, for the Traverse, there is a 1st-place finisher among all men in the Green category, as well as 1st-place finishers in categories M-Brown, F-Green, F-Brown, etc.

Who earns points?

All NEOC members earn points automatically, provided that they:

  • compete alone,
  • finish their course (DNFs get zero points), and
  • have provided their birth year and gender on their membership form.

Other participants do not earn points, nor are their results counted for the points distribution. So if there are four female finishers on a course (Yellow, for example), and the top three are non-members and/or ran as a group, the 4th-place finisher will earn 100 points (before bonus or penalty points).

Why do it this way? Because if someone is not a NEOC member, there is no good way to determine their age and gender. If "Chris Rogers" is the 1st-place finisher on Yellow, is that "Christine" or "Christopher," and what is their age?

What if I join NEOC later in the year?

Members who join at any time during the year will be included in the Points Series, and all events they competed in, prior to becoming a member, will be scored.

How can I earn more points?

There are a few ways to increase your scoring:

  • Improve your orienteering and/or run harder courses.
  • Come to more NEOC meets. Make sure you are getting your full allotment of ten events in your scores.
  • Come to the special events like the Traverse, Score-Os, Motala, etc. Given the way special courses are treated, with a first place in the different age categories, this can be a good way to earn points.
  • Come to less well attended meets. With fewer competitors, it is more likely you’ll finish higher in the field. Meets held during bad weather (typically poorly attended) can be a great way to earn points!
  • Avoid DNFs! Even a slow time finishing the course will earn some points, while a DNF is always zero points.
  • Don't run more than two levels "down" from your age/gender category — that gets you zero points!

What about Tan?

Tan is treated as in-between Orange and Brown in terms of level of difficulty, and is given bonuses/penalties accordingly.

What about other "special" courses?

Other special courses like Short White, Pink (Red length but White difficulty), or other such one-offs receive zero points.

NEOC-organized National Ranking Events (e.g. the Troll Cup) are not included in the Points Series.

What if I run multiple courses at a meet?

When running multiple courses at a single event, the course on which the most points were earned is used for the Points Series.

If you run the same course more than once, only your first attempt will be scored.

Examples

As a 50+ year-old male, Mark OConnell is in the men's Green category. Here is how three of his 2019 runs were scored.

  1. At Mount Wachusett (meet results), Mark ran Red and came in 2nd place overall, but was the first-place male (out of 2). He earned:
    • 100 points for 1st place,
    • plus 0.2 points for the number of male competitors on his course,
    • plus a 10% bonus for running "up" one course, for a total 110.22 points (points results).
  2. At the Blue Hills Motala (meet results), Mark finished 5th overall on the Classico. However, among men in the Green category, he was the first-place finisher (out of 3 competitors total), so he earned:
    • 100 points for 1st,
    • plus 0.3 points for the number of M-Green competitors on his course, for a total of 100.3 (points results). The Motala is scored as a Special Course.
  3. At Wells State Park (meet results), Mark ran Red and finished 8th overall, but 7th out of 7 male finishers. He earned:
    1. 14.286 points (100 base points, minus 85.71, as 6 out of 7, or 85.714%, of the NEOC-member finishers were ahead of him),
    2. plus 0.7 points for number of male competitors (who were NEOC members in 2019),
    3. plus a 10% bonus for running up one course, for a total 16.48 points for that run (points results).

Computational Details

Every NEOC member qualifies to earn points if they have provided year-of-birth and gender on their membership form, and compete alone (no teams/groups).

Note the distinction between "finishers" (those who complete their course) and "competitors"/"participants" (all those who start their course whether or not they complete it). 

Standard courses (Blue, Red, Green, etc.)

For a given course, qualifying participants of a given gender are isolated for scoring. Each finisher among them starts from a base of 100 points. Then the percentage of competitors who finished ahead of that individual is subtracted.

Example
First-place qualifying finisher always earns the base of 100 points (0% of the finishers were ahead). If there are 20 female competitors, the 2nd-place female earns 95 points (100 points minus 5, as 1/20 or 5% of competitors finished ahead), and the 3rd place earns 90 points (100 points minus 10, as 2/20 or 10% of competitors finished ahead). If instead there are 5 female competitors, the 2nd-place female earns 80 points (100 points minus 20, as 1/5 or 20% of competitors finished ahead).
The same calculations are done for male finishers.

Additional 0.1 points are earned based on the number of qualifying participants of the same gender on the course.

Example
0.1 extra points awarded to all qualifying male competitors for each qualifying male participant (including DNFs) on the course.
The same calculations are done for female participants.

Finally, a bonus is applied to those who finish a harder course than their age/gender category: +10% for running up one level, +25% for running up two levels, +45% for running up three or more levels. A penalty is applied for running an easier course: -25% for running down one level, -45% for running down two levels. Courses that are three or more levels down from your category earn zero points.

Qualifying participants who do not finish their course (DNF, MP, DSQ, etc.) receive zero points.

Special courses

For a given "non-standard" course, qualifying participants of a given gender are isolated for scoring. Each finisher among them starts from a base of 100 points. Then the percentage of competitors of the same age/gender category who finished ahead of that individual is subtracted.

Example
First-place qualifying finisher for each age/gender category always earns the base of 100 points (no competitors finished ahead). If there are five F-Green competitors, the 2nd-place F-Green earns 80 points (100 points minus 20, as 1/5 or 20% of F-Green competitors finished ahead), 3rd-place F-Green earns 60 points, etc.
The same calculations are done for each age/gender category.

Additional 0.1 points are earned based on the number of qualifying participants of the same age/gender category on the course.

Example
0.1 extra points awarded to all M-Brown finishers for each M-Brown participant on the course.
The same calculations are done for each age/gender category.

Qualifying participants who do not finish their course (DNF, MP, DSQ, etc.) receive zero points.

Questions?

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.