USATF announces USA XC champs/World XC selection event will be held in conjunction with NXN in December 2025

I'm surprised anyone that loves and appreciates cross country would support this idea. It sounds like someone had an idea and people agreed. There are many reasons why this is wrong. First, why are Cross Champs not happening in Florida? USATF should take advantage of finding the fastest Americans for Worlds on the FL course. Second, don't the U20 boys run an 8k? So, now two high school runners that run 5Ks will get slots on a team that will compete an 8K? Girls will race a 6k instead of a 5K. So, 1/3 of both teams will be reserved for high schoolers that only race a 5K all season. Is this really what is best for putting together the best team for Worlds? We want to attract more viewers to the sport. This isn't a time to experiment...we need to do what's best for American distance running. If a high school runner wants to try their hand at cross champs instead of NXN, let them. For the high schoolers that win NXN and Foot Locker, they will be national champions! Should they really get a slot on a team they didn't have to compete for?

Great. Nike owns the sport even more. Just what we needed.

How many laps do we need to run on that thing for a professional race? Awful course.

These are outstanding points. The best runners in a mud fest are NOT going to be the best runners on the Worlds course in Florida - it's a totally different course in totally different weather conditions.

And the races are different distances, it doesn't make sense to qualify on different distances. Even the NCAA runs a 10k to qualify for the 10k XC championship.

I'm shocked that Gault, of all people, doesn't understand this.

Gault have you been to NXN? That course is awful. To have a course like that be how you select the best XC runners is a bad move. I agree that it's not fitting for a championship selection. It shouldn't even be where NXN is. It should rotate around the country. Mud is fine once and a while, but put some real hills in there!

If there is an overwhelming favorite to win NXN, like Jane Hedengren was last year, then there will probably be a few top high school runners who will skip NXN and only run U20.

The high school Nike Elite NIL athletes will have to run NXN. But others, like Addy Ritzenhein for example, can run either and may opt for U20.

Noonan learned that last year. He ran the entire race with a huge piece of wood stuck on his spikes.

XC's top athletes not signing up to run a Spartan endurance race where you crawl in the mud, so it's not ok to turn XC's biggest race of the year into one of those silly races, with those conditions. The lake in the middle of the course in 2023 was visually cool, but everyone who allowed that crap should be embarrassed.
We are high school kids who stand out in that mud and rain, shivering. My teammates and I came home sick and blistered from running in wet shoes. It's just dumb. My poor parents ran all over that course to watch me, and my 50+ year old mom fell twice in the mud and hurt her knee. My dad bought football cleats last year to run around in, and threw them in the trash after the race.
Don't question the toughness of an XC athlete (or their parents) based on their willingness to compete in this crap that doesn't even resemble cross country. It takes plenty toughness to run like we do. Shoving that stupid course and bad weather down our throats isn't worth the free shoes and ping pong parties in the hotel lobby.
If it has to be in Portland, Nike needs to spend some money to create an all-weather trail, or bring in some bark or gravel on all the turns and hills. Nike needs to put up some tents for athletes and fans to stand under near the finish line when it inevitably rains again this year in Portland, while there's usually perfect weather in Southern California.

I hear the frustration, but I strongly disagree with the idea that NXN should be turned into a dry, perfectly groomed time trial. Cross country has always been about adapting to natural conditions — mud, hills, rain, cold — that’s what makes it different from track or road racing. True cross country tests more than just leg speed. It tests grit, tactics, and the ability to suffer through whatever the course throws at you. That’s part of why it’s so special.

The 2023 course wasn’t a “Spartan race.” It was a tough, authentic XC course in tough weather — which many athletes handled brilliantly. Look at JoJo Jordan. He won that race and he's arguably the best freshman in the NCAA this year.The best cross country runners are the ones who can show up in mud, wind, and rain and still compete. That’s toughness, and it’s at the core of the sport.

As for the spectators — yes, it’s rough on everyone, but it’s part of the shared experience. If the course is sanitized to make it more convenient for fans, what’s left of the sport? And Nike has made improvements over time — but the weather can’t be controlled, and shouldn’t have to be.

If we want cross country to reflect real cross country, not a track race on grass, we should embrace the challenge — not run from it.

I'm fine with the argument that NXN should stay there because it is a championship that ends the season.

HOWEVER....USATF is hosting TRIALS to see who qualifies for the World Championships. The dismal conditions of the course are going to scare our best athletes away from showing up because one slip in the mud around a turn can ruin their whole career. Or at least cost them a lot of money that they would win in future races if they hadn't gotten hurt.

And then consider that the world championship course is the polar opposite of the NXN course. It's like hosting a road race in Alaska in winter to see who qualifies for an XC race in Florida in the summer. The people who qualify aren't going to be most competitive runners in the opposite conditions. We would be sending a less competitive team.

Everything about this decision is STUPID.

Horrible take, starting with "perfectly groomed". That golf course is VERY far from being groomed for a time trial. It's the equivalent of playing football on an ice rink. Yeah, football is somewhat entertaining to watch for a few minutes when it's played in different weather or field conditions, but eventually, when you see that the athletes can't even perform their normal duties without randomly falling over, it's no longer even football.

"Tough, authentic XC course". Please. Do you work for Nike? This is supposed to be the Super Bowl of High School Cross Country running, and it is basically turned into a pig farm.

Weather can't be controlled, but an event that touts itself of this 'greatness' shouldn't be run in a climate that is so likely to cause for misery, on a surface that can't even handle a light sprinkle when hundreds of kids are about to have to run their most important race on it.

This ain't "real cross country". It's the exact opposite. Let me see you stand out there in the rain for 40 minutes while they announce each team one by one, while my muscles tighten up and the shivering I'm doing sucks the energy out of me after I worked my ass off to even get there.

Even worse, more than half of the teams have their state meets 3 weeks earlier, and they're rested, and trained for this event... meanwhile, those of us who have State a week before this NXN didn't even know we were going to qualify until 3 days before we're supposed to jump on a plane. Then we get there and get destroyed by teams who knew 3 weeks earlier that they were going, and many of them trained at altitude (cheat code) with a specific focus on doing well in this race. My team and I had 2 days to train, post-State meet, then jump on a plane and head to the mud pits of Portland while our parents paid a ridiculous amount of money for last-minute plane tickets. Horrible planning all around.

Amen, brother. It was already a stupid race, and now it's just pathetic.

NXN prepared me for nothing in college, because I'll never run a race like that again, thank God.

I’m glad others have taken notice.

if you ever see social media posts from kids at NXN they are all very similar angles/shots from specific spots.

Nike loves to control everything. NDAs for the kids and coaches too. Of course they can neither confirm nor deny the NDAs.

The Charities never recovered from the #WCeug22 and #OT24eug failures. USATF is children of Nike execs working for free in India and Pakistan.

tbh I never signed an NDA (that I know of) and wasn't ever told where we could or couldn't take pictures.

I don't want to sound like an ingrate but I guess I kinda am - but if Nike is choosing to make things worse when they needed to make a lot of improvements, someone else needs to put together a better HS Championship than NXN or Footlocker.

The course length differences is huge to select a team for U20. Justyn Knight as a freshman and a good XC guy, didn't run the 10k Regional meet, just the 8k conference meet. At NCAA, he ran with the top pack (40 strong) up through 8km then fell apart to 140th the last 2km. The extra distance can make a huge difference. So 5k to 8k is a big concern. ALL should have to compete for a spot with eligible College kids (born in 2007 or later, 2006 not eligible) who have run 8km races to prepare. This is just putting HS meets on a pedestal where they do NOT belong. This is about selecting a national team for a world championship, not about silly HS invitationals (NXN is NOT a national championship, it is a Nike invitational).