File this under "Bored and Irritated"

It is NOT "cross-country."

It simply is "cross country."

I don't know how it got started that people started hyphenating it, but it's wrong.

 

Probably here

http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/cross-country

But AP stylebook says it's two words.

 

OK, I guess I meant there is no hyphen when simply referred to as a sport.

"I ran cross country in high school."

Also... "The team won the cross country meet."

 

"I'm going on a cross-country trip."

 

The Sports Style Guide hyphenates as a modifier.

To me, this is another one of those "just do it the same way all the time," and either/or.

 

It may help to use the same style as your state high school athletic association. I had a coach shot me an email that thanked me for using the state associations style when other papers he had read did not.

 

That depends if the state association is correct. I'm guessing that most people in the state association didn't major in English.

 

It's "cross country" but a "cross-country meet."

 

That's what I thought.

Sort of like, I scored on the power play, but I scored a power-play goal.

 

Yes, but you wouldn't call it a track-and-field meet. It would just be a track and field meet.

 

Is "nit-picking" hyphenated?

 

Among many word pairs that are hyphenated as a modifier, but simply two words as a noun.