From our girls' race recap:
Earlier this week, we made the case for why Foot Locker should extend invitations to the top five finishers in the boys’ and girls’ races at NXN. The basis of our argument was that HS XC crowns two individual national champions when it should only be crowning one, and runners like Tuohy, who is from New York, don’t have the option of running both as the NXR and FL regional qualifiers are on the same day.
And after today’s results, we’re even more firmly convinced that this is the right thing to do. Tuohy destroyed the field at NXN, and defending Foot Locker champion Claudia Lane did the same at FL West, running 16:59 to break the course record by 15 seconds and win the race by 72 seconds.
If Tuohy chooses not to run in San Diego, that’s understandable — she has raced nine weeks in a row and a trip to FL would either require missing a significant amount of class or making two West Coast trips in a week.
But why not give her the option? Make it happen, Foot Locker.
Update: We've put this out on twitter. Retweet if you agree: