First qualifiers to Nike Cross Nationals 2024 are in! Heartland Region: Wayzata of Minnesota's girls make their 8th NXN appearance & Johnston of Iowa makes its first appearance! Region champion Spring Hill of Kansas boys (1st time) & runner-up Sioux Falls, SD (2x) also are in! pic.twitter.com/EsDjSFvgmf
The first boys individual qualifiers to NXN 2024 are in! From the Heartland Region, Nebraska's Juan Gonzalez wins the regional title! Also advancing to NXN (on December 7th in Portland) are Manny Putz (WI), Robert Mechura (MN), Grady Lenn (WI) and Ethan Olds (WI)! 💪#RoadToNXNpic.twitter.com/VDtdChNuyg
A strong field of Heartland Region girls individuals are headed to NXN! Marissa Ferebee of Iowa surprised to break the Heartland course record! Ruby Ihmels (ND), Ryin Miller (KS), Katelyn Rupe (KS) & Libby Castelli (SD) also advance to Portland for NXN 2024 on December 7th! pic.twitter.com/0njF44qS8b
I can see Wayzata doing better than last year though. They returned all of their top 6, and added Gullickson / Golomb who finished in the top 10 here. Jazleen M O was their #1 last year but not doing as well now because she was injured early in the season. All 3 are juniors so next year we can see them be back and better
Not sure how either one of you are coming up with this on Grady lenn and Sean fries. Lenn has yet to go sub 15 anywhere and was controlled from the front by putz, Fries has went one sub 15. Zuber and naumen are on paper ahead of them.
Being “controlled from the front” and beaten by 1.7 seconds is O.K. when it’s Manny Putz doing the controlling. Lenn has now gone sub-15.
Clear gap from the 5 qualifiers to the rest, but hell of a race from Canaan Dunham as the top Iowan in 6th. Also, don’t think anyone would have picked Ethan Olds to qualify individually.
In all preseason national rankings, Ethan Olds’ team was the only Heartland team on there, and everyone thought they would win this region (which they did last year), until Griak took place. He also raced at NXN more times than any other current Heartland runner ever has. Dowling and Cedar Falls were ranked nationally sometimes this season too.
I don’t think I recall Spring Hill or Sioux Falls Lincoln ever being nationally ranked this season.
I do remember that Isabelle Schmitz got an at large last year from Heartland. So I don’t think an individual at large from this region is out of the question.
The latest FOX4 HyVee Team of the Week has a state championship, but now, it wants even more; the Spring Hill Cross-Country team has its sights set on the national meet.