Lisandro

Hernandez

New West
Cross
Country Fall
2016 Season
Statistics
Nicholas
Guymon
 Focus of the Study:
In this study, we attempted to test the claim did the average 5K run time for the
New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout the Fall 2016 season by
sampling each runners times collected by coach Estanislao and coach Shlee during the
cross country meets that New West Charter participated in. Additionally, we sought to
compare whether male or female runners progressed throughout the cross country season
by decreasing their 5K run times by sampling each runners times from the first and last
meets of the Fall 2016 season. Lastly, we also sought to compare the New West Charter
Cross Country Team male and female 5K run times to the 5K run times of runners from
schools such as LACES, Animo Venice, Dymally, Port of Los Angeles, Foshay
Learning, and Los Angeles Academy with whom the members of the New West Charter
Cross Country Team competed against in the CIF Crosstown League during our first
meet of the season and League Finals. This study will provide insight as to how New
West Charter can improve its cross country athletics program in order to be more
competitive for the subsequent Cross Country seasons.
Research Questions:
1. Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team
decrease throughout the Fall 2016 season?
2. Does the New Charter Cross Country Team run at the same level as the other
competing schools and runners of the Crosstown League?
 Project Design:
Throughout our study, we analyzed the run times which Mr. Estanislao and Mrs. Schlee
collected during our first and last cross country meets of the regular Los Angeles CIF season from the
Fall of 2016. The times were meticulously collected in order to gauge our progress throughout the
season and to establish personal records on the cross country team. These times were recorded by the
team manager Sachi Sakamoto and by the two coaches who used stopwatches to gauge our times and
then they were recorded on paper. As the season progressed, these times were compiled into a
Google Document and shared with all the families of the student athletes who participated in the
season and the members of the team themselves. Having obtained this data, we attempted to discern
whether or not the cross country team verily improved. The two teams that we sampled were the
male and the female New West Charter cross country teams who consisted of 17 members and 9
members, respectively. Additionally, Lisandro and I collected data from the schools which New West
Charter competed against during the Los Angeles CIF league finals in order to compare our own
teammates and ourselves to the times of those other schools from Athletic.net which is a website that
compiles athletic information such as times, scores, schools, etc. from competitions throughout the
nation. In doing so, we could discover whether the New West Charter cross country team was equally
suited to run and compete in the Crosstown League.
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout the Fall 2016 season?
Chi Square Test of Homogeneity for the Boys New West Charter Cross Country Team (2 Outliers Samples Excluded,
one from each of the two meets):
= 0.05
Ho: The population proportion of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are
proportional to the proportion of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet.
Ha: The population proportion of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are not
proportional to the proportion of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet.
2= 1.1294; P-value= 0.2879; d.f.= 1; Test: 0.2879 > 0.05
Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: At the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient evidence to reject the claim that the population
proportion of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are proportional to the proportion of
the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet. Given this information, we can not
statistically determine whether the male runners of the cross country team improved their 5K run times throughout the season even though
the data illustrates that their times did decrease from the initial meet to the final meet. For instance, the population mean of describing the
time it took a male runner to complete the 5K run initially was 1516.4375 seconds (approximately 25.27 minutes), whereas the population
mean describing the time it took a male runner to complete the 5K run at the end of the season was 1422.625 seconds (approximately
23.71 minutes). The absolute difference between these two means is 93.8125 (approximately 1.56 minutes). This difference suggests that
overall, the male cross country runners did improve their time over their season, but not enough as to make it a statistically significant
difference. More data needs to be collected and more testing needs to be performed in order to corroborate these findings.
 Contingency Table for the Boys New West Charter Cross
Country Team
5 Kilometer Run Times (In Seconds)
New Charter Male Cross

1080 - 1500 1501 - 1861

Country Team Meets

(18 Minutes - 25 Minutes) (25 Minutes- 32 Minutes)

First Meet 7 9
League Finals 10 6
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout
the Fall 2016 season?
2-Sample Independent T-Test for the Boys New West Charter Cross Country Team (2 Outliers
Samples Excluded, one from each of the two meets):

= 0.05
Ho: 1 = 2 Ha: 1 > 2
T= 1.47525; P-value= 0.07528; Test: 0.07528 > 0.05

Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: at the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient evidence
to reject the claim that the population mean of the male New West Charter cross country teams
5K run time during the initial meet and the population mean of the male New West Charter cross
country teams 5K run time during the final meet do not differ from each other.
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout
the Fall 2016 season?
2-Sample T-Confidence Interval for the Boys New West Charter Cross Country Team (2
Outliers Samples Excluded, one from each of the two meets):

95% Confidence level

Interval: -36.06 < 1 2 < 223.69

Conclusion: Since this confidence interval consists of both positive and negative values, we
cannot determine whether 1 (the population mean of the male New West cross country teams 5K
run times during the initial meet) is greater than or less than than 2 (the population mean of the
male New West cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet). Given this
information, we cannot determine that the male New West Charter cross country team
significantly improved over their season.
Initial Meet Final Meet

* Two values were excluded

from this table as they were
outliers
 Testing:
Does the New West Charter Cross Country Team run at the same level as the other competing schools and
runners of the Crosstown League?
2-Sample T-Test in Comparison to the Times of the Boys New West Charter Cross Country and Crosstown
League Male Runners (No Values Excluded):

= 0.05
Ho: 1 = 2 Ha: 1 2
T= 1.6800; P-value= 0.1048; Test: 0.1048 > 0.05

Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: At the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient evidence to reject the
claim that the population mean of the male New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the
league finals meet and the population mean of the male LACES, Animo Venice, Dymally, Port of Los
Angeles, Foshay Learning, and Los Angeles Academy cross country teams 5K run times do not differ from
each other. Given this information, we can conclude that the New West Charter cross country team runs at the
same level as the other schools in the Crosstown League and that the New West cross country team is equally
suited to run in the Crosstown League.
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout the Fall 2016 season?

Chi-Square Test for Homogeneity for the Girls New West Charter Cross Country Team (No Values Were Excluded):
= 0.05
Ho: The population proportion of the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are
proportional to the proportion of the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet.
Ha: The population proportion of the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are not
proportional to the proportion of the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet.
2= 0.9; P-value=0.3427; d.f.= 1; Test: 0.3427 > 0.05
Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: At the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient evidence to reject the claim that the population
proportion of the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the initial meet are proportional to the proportion of
the female New West Charter cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet. Given this information, we can not
statistically determine whether the female runners of the cross country team improved their 5K run times throughout the season even
though the data illustrates that their times did decrease from the initial meet to the final meet. For instance, the population mean of
describing the time it took a female runner to complete the 5K run initially was 1836.4444 seconds (approximately 30.61 minutes),
whereas the population mean describing the time it took a male runner to complete the 5K run at the end of the season was 1772 seconds
(approximately 29.53 minutes). The absolute difference between these two means is 64.4444 (approximately 1.07 minutes). This
difference suggests that overall, the female cross country runners did improve their time over their season, but not enough as to make it a
statistically significant difference. More data needs to be collected and more testing needs to be performed in order to corroborate these
findings.
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout
the Fall 2016 season?
2-Sample Independent T-Test for the Girls New West Charter Cross Country Team (No Values
Were Excluded):

= 0.05
Ho: 1 = 2 Ha: 1 > 2
T= 0.7636; P-value= 0.2281; Test: 0.2281 > 0.05

Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: at the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient evidence to
reject the claim that the population mean of the female New West Charter cross country teams
5K run time during the initial meet and the population mean of the female New West Charter
cross country teams 5K run time during the final meet do not differ from each other.
Initial Meet Final Meet
 Testing:
Did the average 5K run time for the New West Charter Cross Country Team decrease throughout the
Fall 2016 season?
2-Sample T-Confidence Interval for the Girls New West Charter Cross Country Team (No Values
Were Excluded):

95% Confidence level

Interval: -162.7< 1 2 < 345.55

Conclusion: Since this confidence interval consists of both positive and negative values, we
cannot determine whether 1 (the population mean of the female New West cross country teams 5K run
times during the initial meet) is greater than or less than than 2 (the population mean of the male New
West cross country teams 5K run times during the league finals meet). Given this information, we
cannot determine that the male New West Charter cross country team significantly improved over their
season.
 Contingency Table for the Girls New West Charter Cross
Country Team
5 Kilometer Run Times (In Seconds)

1380 - 1860 1861 - 2340

Cross Country Team
New Charter Female

(23 Minutes - 31 Minutes) (31 Minutes - 39 Minutes)

Meets

First Meet 4 5
League Finals 6 3
 Testing:
Does the New West Charter Cross Country Team run at the same level as the other schools and
runners of the Crosstown League?
2-Sample T-Test in Comparison to the Times of the Girls New West Charter Cross Country
and Crosstown League Female Runners (No Values Excluded):

= 0.05
Ho: 1 = 2 Ha: 1 2
T= -0.1855; P-value= 0.8554; Test: 0.8554 > 0.05

Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho: At the significance level of 0.05, there is insufficient
evidence to reject the claim that the Girls New West Charter cross country teams 5k time
during league finals does not differ from the times of the other cross country teams who
competed at the Crosstown league finals.
 Conclusion:
In our study, we were unable to statistically prove that the male and female New West Charter cross
country teams improved their average 5k running time over the 2016 season. Although the average 5K
run time for both the Boys and Girls New West Charter cross country teams did decrease substantially,
this evidence did not suggest a statistically significant difference upon testing. We can attribute the lack
of a statistically significant change to a few variables that may have influenced a runners time. These
variables include not practicing enough individually outside of practice, eating sweets and unhealthy
food in excess during the season, not putting forth enough effort in practice, and ditching and/or missing
practice for unjustifiable reasons. However, during our testing and analysis, we were able to prove that
both the male and female New West Charter cross country teams were equally suited to run in the
Crosstown League CIF division.
This data is incredibly useful for the coaches of the cross country team because it identifies that
there are some aspects that can be altered in the cross country department so as to improve the 5K run
times of the New West Charter cross country runners in their next season. With this information, the
New West Charter cross country coaches can improve their program by increasing its rigor and
selectivity.
 Appendix:
First Meet Results of the 2016-2017 Cross Country Season on October 6, 2016 at Peck
Park. (Times are given in seconds)
New West Charter Males Runners:
1165 1171 1383 1384 1394 1467

1482 1556 1565 1582 1629 1647

1655 1682 1691 1810 (2050)

New West Charter Female Runners:

1516 1566 1808 1809 1867

1886 1919 2120 2280

 Appendix:
League Final Meet Results of the 2016-2017 Cross Country Season on November 3,
2016 at Peck Park. (Times are given in seconds)
New West Charter Males Runners
1138 1163 1272 1274 1279 1364

1365 1385 1450 1469 1518 1534

1538 1549 1680 1784 (1983)

New West Charter Female Runners

1436 1460 1602 1674 1788

1813 1911 1982 2282

 Appendix:
League Final Meet Results of the 2016-2017 Cross Country Season on November 3,
2016 at Peck Park (Crosstown League Finals, 2016). (Times are given in seconds)

LACES, Animo Venice, Dymally, Port of Los Angeles, Foshay Learning, and Los
Angeles Academy Males Runners

1095 1101 1116 1146 1232 1247 1277

1201 1211 1262 1325 1361 1478 1547
1169 1311 1321 1582 1612 1720 1766
1302 1339 1392 1395 1458 1535 1540
1150 1291 1325 1424 1167 1392 1576
 Appendix:
League Final Meet Results of the 2016-2017 Cross Country Season on November 3,
2016 at Peck Park (Crosstown League Finals, 2016). (Times are given in seconds)

LACES, Animo Venice, Dymally, Port of Los Angeles, Foshay Learning, and Los
Angeles Academy Female Runners

1415 1503 1546 1577 1650 1653 1393 1370

1566 1602 1788 1832 1984 2093 2372 1722

1637 1721 1721 1727 1351 1534 1634 1942

1983 1983 2129 2261 2401 2469 1813 1951

 Work Cited:
Crosstown League Finals Cross Country Meet. (2016, November 3). Retrieved March 16,
2017, from http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=125504.