Anonymous wrote:Weekday meets are open to the whole team.

You can't ust show up, run, and leave. There's a post-run cool down, stretching, and usually a brief team meeting/coach re- cap at the end.

Invitationals are for varsity, top 5 runners, or seniors or a mix thereof (coach dependent so ymmv). There's usually a steep registration fee the coachsles pay for (hence the fundraising) and limited slots so therefore only a select number of kids go.

State champion in high school and reluctant winner of a NCAA power 4 conference.

Any invitational will have at least 7 runners, and not 5. Some big meets early on permit 10, but come championship season it is 7. On my university team our 6th and 7th guys were often high mileage guys and were consistent and valued (at the front in a 10k race the leaders go out at 9 minutes for two miles, meaning you have to have speed and an ability to run on the edge of oxygen debt for 29 minutes). The process can be rough on seniors expecting to run on the top seven but typically younger runners respond to the elevated levels of training towards the end of the season. There is a pattern of 5th man sophomores in high school who go on to become top level runners.