The sixth runner on a team in cross country is involved in scoring only as a rare tiebreaker or to raise other teams’ scores.

Ithaca’s sixth runner was a key reason the Division 3 sixth-ranked Yellowjackets claimed the TVC West title on Tuesday.

Breckenridge edged Ithaca 38-40 in the first jamboree on Sept. 9 at Wickes Park in Saginaw before the Yellowjackets topped Breckenridge 32-39 at Ithaca on Sept. 25 to set up the winner-take-all third jamboree on Tuesday at St. Charles.

But the teams’ first five runners both compiled a score of 32 points, thus bringing the sixth runner into question as the tiebreaker. Ithaca’s sixth runner, freshman James O’Boyle, finished 16th – five places ahead of Breckenridge’s sixth man – to give the Yellowjackets their fourth league title in five years.