Groups

Purpose

Set up award and category groups so 2Timer can calculate group placements and winner counts correctly.

When to Use This Page

Use Groups when:

your meet gives awards by age bracket
your meet uses overall plus age-group winners
your scholastic workflow needs grouped result categories
reports or awards need more than simple overall placing

Groups are most common in running and cross country, but the concept can also support other meet formats that need category-based winner lists.

Prerequisites

A meet already exists.
Athletes have age, gender, or other relevant profile data filled in consistently.
You know how many awards each group should receive.

How Groups Work in 2Timer

A group tells 2Timer:

the category name to display
whether the category is a bounded range or a broader band, and whether it matches on age or grade
which gender it applies to, if any
which division it applies to, when the meet has multiple divisions
the age range, when applicable
how many award winners to take from that group
the display sequence

2Timer then uses athlete data and the event division to match eligible athletes into those groups for results and awards output. Groups marked meet-wide apply to every division. Division-specific groups apply only to events assigned to that division and take priority over matching meet-wide groups.

The Groups Page

Open Groups from the meet navigation.

Use this page to:

add groups one at a time
quick-add simple groups
auto-create a common set of overall, masters, and age-band groups
create meet-wide groups or, when the meet has multiple divisions, groups for one division
edit group names and abbreviations inline
filter groups by name, division, gender, and type
change min and max ages
change award counts
reorder groups by sequence
delete selected groups in bulk

Group Fields

Name

The full display label, such as Women 40-44 or Men Overall.

Short name

A compact label used where space is tighter.

Type and basis

A group carries two related facts:

Type — Range for a bounded band such as Women 40-44, or Band for a broader bucket such as Overall or Masters
Basis — whether the group matches on Age or on Grade

Grade-based groups are the scholastic case: use them when awards follow school grade rather than age. The wizard’s K-8 Grade Groups range style generates them.

Gender

Use gender-specific groups when awards should be separated. Leave the group more open only when that matches the meet rules.

Division

Use Meet-wide when the same award groups apply to every race or event division.

When a meet has multiple divisions, you can assign a group to one division. Use this for concurrent races or event divisions with different award structures, such as a 5K and 1 Mile that start together but use different age ranges. If both a division-specific group and a meet-wide group match an athlete, 2Timer uses the division-specific group first.

Min age / max age

Use these when the group is age-based or otherwise needs a defined age range.

Award count

How many winners the group should produce in award-oriented reports.

Sequence

Controls display order in reports and group listings.

Common Workflows

Quick add a single group

Open Groups.
Click Quick Add.
Enter the name and optional short name.
Choose the behavior and gender.
Set the award count.
Save.

Use quick add when you only need a few simple categories and do not need to fill every field up front.

Add a detailed group

Open Groups.
Click New Group.
Enter the name, short name, behavior, gender, min age, max age, and award count.
If the meet has multiple divisions and this group should apply to only one division, choose that division. Otherwise leave it meet-wide.
Save.

Use this when you need precise age ranges or more explicit setup than the quick-add drawer provides.

Auto-create a standard range set

Open Groups.
Click Tools and choose Configure Groups…. If there are no groups yet, you can also use the empty-state Configure Groups button.
Set Division — Meet-wide, or one division when the meet has several and the generated groups should apply to only one of them.
Choose Ranges: None, 5-Year, 10-Year, or K-8 Grade Groups.
For an age-based range, set the Age span the ranges should cover (see below).
Set the Awards count and Genders for the ranges.
Choose whether to add an Overall group and a Masters group, each with its own awards count and genders. Masters offers Masters, Masters and GM, Masters, GM, and SM, or Masters, GM, SM, and VM bands.
Check the live Preview — it shows every group that will be created, with its name, abbreviation, type, basis, range, and award count.
Confirm the creation.

This is the fastest way to create a common road-race awards structure.

Run the wizard again for another division when different races in the same meet need different award ranges.

Declaring the age span

The Age span control decides which ages the generated ranges cover, so the wizard is not locked to one assumed field.

Start from a named preset:

Standard (9 & Under to 80+) — the usual road-race spread
Senior Olympics (50 to 100+) — for meets whose youngest competitor is already a master
Custom — set First age and Last age yourself

Every preset stays editable once applied: change either age and the span becomes Custom.

The span works with open-ended ends. With a first age of 10, the wizard adds a 9 & Under catch-all below the ranges; with a last age of 79, it adds an 80+ catch-all above them. Ages are clamped to the range a group may hold.

Set the span before checking the preview — it changes every generated range.

Recommended Setup Patterns

Overall plus age groups

Common pattern:

overall men
overall women
age groups below that

This works well when overall winners should not be buried only inside age brackets.

Masters plus age groups