Now that Footlocker is dead, Let's Talk About Ways to make NXN even better

Rea Sea · 2025-08-21T16:57:32-04:00

Please suggest ways to make NXN better. It's an incredible event for the kids, but there are some things that need to be improved, especially considering the horrible course conditions every year due to the weather. - Increase Individual regional qualifiers to Teams of 7 and score them against the other individual teams and have a regional individual winning team. (Why are there only 5 in the individual boxes, but 7 in the Team boxes, anyways?). This would be very exciting to track, and the individuals will have the same additional motivation that the team runners have. Letting the next 2 runners in from each area is a big motivator, and there's room for them on the starting line.- Require similar courses for all NXR Qualifiers (elevation changes, surfaces). Challenging, but worth trying. - Adjust start times to later in the day on Saturday. If it rains overnight and the course is flooded (like it is every year), a later start will give the field crews more time to pump out the water and adjust the course, as needed. - Girls should always go first. It alternates every year, but in the typical wet conditions, the boys destroy the course far worse than the girls do. Change the course slightly between the 2 races to have the runners avoid the worst areas. Now that there's a 3rd race for USATF, that course is going to be a disaster. - Improve the course to eliminate sloppy, muddy, sharp corners where athletes fall every year. If you get stuck in the pack, you have no chance to catch up because the course is torn up by the leaders. Bring in some gravel or straw at those locations, and at the start line where people slip in the mud right out of the gate. - Provide more covered standing areas and bleachers for runners and spectators.

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9 months ago 08/23/2025 12:18pm EDT

re: Dudewhat?

Dudewhat? wrote:
Create a rocky mtn region (MT, CO, WY, NM,UT, ID)
Create a west region CA, OR, HI, AK, NV, AZ)
Combine NY to Northeast.
Combine heartland and Midwest.
Increase individual qualifiers by adding wildcard qualifiers (like if you won your state meet but missed out on individual qualifier by x%)
And for heaven's sake...don't have the meet every single year in Oregon. I understand that's a Nike requirement but come on folks...does.everything have to be in Oregon???

keep antagonizing them and they'll move it to Eugene and make it infinitely harder for everyone to get to.

9 months ago 08/24/2025 2:14am EDT

re: watch out now

watch out now wrote:
Dudewhat? wrote:
Create a rocky mtn region (MT, CO, WY, NM,UT, ID)
Create a west region CA, OR, HI, AK, NV, AZ)
Combine NY to Northeast.
Combine heartland and Midwest.
Increase individual qualifiers by adding wildcard qualifiers (like if you won your state meet but missed out on individual qualifier by x%)
And for heaven's sake...don't have the meet every single year in Oregon. I understand that's a Nike requirement but come on folks...does.everything have to be in Oregon???
keep antagonizing them and they'll move it to Eugene and make it infinitely harder for everyone to get to.

NXN sucks I grew up only caring about footlocker champs. Individual highschoolers don't care about the best team in highschool. Some schools give hs scholarships I would know I had one. footlocker is king. Cutthoat race environment. Only the truly best make it.

RunningLane might be the only option going forward

9 months ago 08/24/2025 4:04am EDT

re: Kvothe

Kvothe wrote:
Rea Sea wrote:
I forgot an obvious one. All qualifying races (NXR's or State meets) need to be the same weekend. Some states qualify 2-3 weeks in advance, and have a huge advantage - while regions' winners don't know until 4 days before their flights.
They have to work around everyone's state meets. With no footlocker regionals maybe everywhere can be the weekend of the ca state meet.

No, that's continued rigging of nationals in favor of California. Best just put Nationals on the same day as CA State meet, forcing CA to adjust their own schedule or athletes choose to ditch their state meet.

Make it two races. One for individuals and the the other for teams on the same course. 40 individuals (like FL) and then if you take out individuals, you can get 2 more wild card teams into the team race.

Commie California Must Submit To America wrote:
No, that's continued rigging of nationals in favor of California. Best just put Nationals on the same day as CA State meet, forcing CA to adjust their own schedule or athletes choose to ditch their state meet.

Are you trolling?

9 months ago 08/24/2025 5:41pm EDT

re: Rea Sea

I’m all for making NXN better but Footlocker is not dead. Stay tuned.

9 months ago 08/24/2025 5:45pm EDT

re: CT Coach

CT Coach wrote:
Make it two races. One for individuals and the the other for teams on the same course. 40 individuals (like FL) and then if you take out individuals, you can get 2 more wild card teams into the team race.

That’s an awful idea. What makes the NXN great is being the best against the best. I guess adding more teams would be OK so long as they don’t get in anyone’s way.

9 months ago 08/24/2025 6:02pm EDT

re: Rea Sea

No, now that Foot Locker is dead, lets not think of ways to make NXN better.

9 months ago 08/25/2025 9:53am EDT

re: Maybe maybe not

Maybe maybe not wrote:
I’m all for making NXN better but Footlocker is not dead. Stay tuned.

Anyone willing to bet whether or not this meet is dead? IT IS NOT. Announcement this week.

9 months ago 08/25/2025 10:05am EDT

re: westsouthrunner

westsouthrunner wrote:
watch out now wrote:
keep antagonizing them and they'll move it to Eugene and make it infinitely harder for everyone to get to.
NXN sucks I grew up only caring about footlocker champs. Individual highschoolers don't care about the best team in highschool. Some schools give hs scholarships I would know I had one. footlocker is king. Cutthoat race environment. Only the truly best make it.
RunningLane might be the only option going forward

I wouldn't say nxn sucks but I liked the footlocker south course over the nxn course for my region. McAlpine Park was blazing fast, but at least felt like a xc course. The nxn course was at a soccer park.

9 months ago 08/25/2025 10:08am EDT

re: mc-pr-pine

mc-pr-pine wrote:
westsouthrunner wrote:
NXN sucks I grew up only caring about footlocker champs. Individual highschoolers don't care about the best team in highschool. Some schools give hs scholarships I would know I had one. footlocker is king. Cutthoat race environment. Only the truly best make it.
RunningLane might be the only option going forward
I wouldn't say nxn sucks but I liked the footlocker south course over the nxn course for my region. McAlpine Park was blazing fast, but at least felt like a xc course. The nxn course was at a soccer park.

WakeMed Soccer Park is widely regarded as a good cross country course. What are you on about?

9 months ago 08/25/2025 10:34am EDT

re: Rea Sea

More individual qualifiers Imagine if ncaas only did 5 and people like yaseen who end up finishing high never make it. So we want a hundred 15:50 guys from top schools, but 14:40 and 14:30 people who had a bad day are not making the cut when they could finish super high?

9 months ago 08/26/2025 11:45pm EDT

re: mc-pr-pine

I'm a troll but I really was hating 🤣😂. I really grew up loving footlocker. Watching matt withrow's legendary kick to win footlocker as a freshman in high school was one of the coolest things ever. And Lukas V?? Footlocker is special. Nike can't recreate that for me

9 months ago 08/26/2025 11:50pm EDT

re: mc-pr-pine

mc-pr-pine wrote:
westsouthrunner wrote:
NXN sucks I grew up only caring about footlocker champs. Individual highschoolers don't care about the best team in highschool. Some schools give hs scholarships I would know I had one. footlocker is king. Cutthoat race environment. Only the truly best make it.
RunningLane might be the only option going forward
I wouldn't say nxn sucks but I liked the footlocker south course over the nxn course for my region. McAlpine Park was blazing fast, but at least felt like a xc course. The nxn course was at a soccer park.

I was hating. My wife never did footlocker but she did NXN South and I did footlocker South so we have differing opinions lol.

I remember the NXN course on the race track, it looked miserable every time. I heard they would purposely make it all muddy.

My favorite NXN was actually 2009 watching Craig Lutz smoke the rosas, Gedyon, and Moussa

2019 NXN, and the 2010 nxn a very close 2nd/3rd place for me

9 months ago 08/27/2025 1:07am EDT

re: Maybe maybe not

Maybe maybe not wrote:
Maybe maybe not wrote:
I’m all for making NXN better but Footlocker is not dead. Stay tuned.
Anyone willing to bet whether or not this meet is dead? IT IS NOT. Announcement this week.

It seems like Sound Running/Brooks are going to sponsor a meet at Balboa Park the same day that Foot Locker was going to be.

The Foot Locker replacement meet is coming wrote:
Maybe maybe not wrote:
Anyone willing to bet whether or not this meet is dead? IT IS NOT. Announcement this week.
It seems like Sound Running/Brooks are going to sponsor a meet at Balboa Park the same day that Foot Locker was going to be.

If they take over, they need to figure out how to get the best kids into the race. There are a lot of top individuals who are forced to choose one and many of them choose NXN. Some have no choice if they are part of a team and for others it has been impractical or impossible to try and qualify for both.

The model is dead, let it die Brooks.....and balboa sucks....i get it history, but the course has changed over the years.....40 kids in a race is NOT XC.

9 months ago 08/27/2025 3:06pm EDT

re: My2Centss

My2Centss wrote:
The Foot Locker replacement meet is coming wrote:
It seems like Sound Running/Brooks are going to sponsor a meet at Balboa Park the same day that Foot Locker was going to be.
If they take over, they need to figure out how to get the best kids into the race. There are a lot of top individuals who are forced to choose one and many of them choose NXN. Some have no choice if they are part of a team and for others it has been impractical or impossible to try and qualify for both.

Brooks PR doesn't have qualification meets, they just invite the best runners. I would not be surprised if they take the same approach to a cross country national championship meet. Something like inviting the top 35 runners based on their speed ratings and then invite 5 wild cards.

9 months ago 08/27/2025 3:10pm EDT

re: Balboa Sucks

Balboa Sucks wrote:
The model is dead, let it die Brooks.....and balboa sucks....i get it history, but the course has changed over the years.....40 kids in a race is NOT XC.

The Balboa Park xc course has gotten a little longer but other than that it hasn't really changed.

There is no minimum or maximum number of runners required for a xc race.

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