The McGorty (FL South winner) conundrum, what would you do?

The top girls are already at NXN.

Guys are probably harder to pry away from something perceived to have more "glory" and towards something that makes more sense, but it will clearly happen eventually.

These guys are gonna tell their kids they were among the top at Footlocker, and their kids aren't gonna know what they're talking about.

VA Runner wrote:

If Chase would have competed at NXN, then Lake Braddock would have won NXN SE and would be on their way to NXN Nationals now. McGorty and Chase had same decision to make.

Yes, but just like McGorty didn't compete for Chantilly, Chase didn't compete for Lake Braddock and while Chantilly very nearly qualified as an automatic bid (they were one point away, and at 3 of the 5 spots that difference was less than half a second), Lake Braddock finished fourth - quite a ways back - and therefore wasn't even in consideration for inclusion by the end, contrary to Chantilly's situation sans McGorty.

It would have been notable, yes, but it wouldn't have been made such a big deal because you'd only get half of the "Why weren't they invited as an at-large?!? Stupid Nike, don't they know Footlocker is awesome!" vs. "Why didn't ____ run with their team? They could have easily made nationals" discussion.

I hope you are wrong.

As a competitor I like the idea of Foot Locker. Any of the 40 athletes that toe the line in San Diego could have the race of their life and still finished DFL. Where as if the same 40 lined up at NXN they could jog the race and finish MOP.

cd16 wrote:

The top girls are already at NXN.

Guys are probably harder to pry away from something perceived to have more "glory" and towards something that makes more sense, but it will clearly happen eventually.

These guys are gonna tell their kids they were among the top at Footlocker, and their kids aren't gonna know what they're talking about.

I think a large part of that (girls shifting more quickly than boys) is due to the fact that east coast girls teams include more top individuals than east coast boys teams.

Pretty much all of the west has clearly sided with NXN for both boys and girls (and why not, the NXN regional being much more accessible for non-SoCal athletes and the NXN meets being earlier), and the states in the middle of the nation are the only ones that can choose to do both. So really IMO the only reasons Footlocker is hanging on is those few boys choosing tradition/California weather over Nike's accessibility and convenience, and because the east coast has had a few extremely good boys individuals lately (Haile in NXN's first year including individuals; Cheserek for the last three years and Ryan the last two). The Southeast is really the only region that has more or less stuck with Footlocker, but that's only part of the South region - Texas hasn't been sending as many, because they've already qualified through the meet in their own state.

Eventually, I think it's clear Nike will be the dominant meet on the girls side, and to a lesser extent the boys as well - particularly in years when it's clear that the best individuals (all the national favorites) are likely to choose Nike - next year likely being one of those years for the boys, based on the results of non-seniors so far.

Nike's Mess wrote:

I hope you are wrong.

As a competitor I like the idea of Foot Locker. Any of the 40 athletes that toe the line in San Diego could have the race of their life and still finished DFL. Where as if the same 40 lined up at NXN they could jog the race and finish MOP.

I wonder if the Rosas, or Michael Clevenger from just last year even, would agree with that (that you can jog the race and finish mid pack, seeing as they were favorites that finished midpack).

watchout wrote:

Nike's Mess wrote:

I hope you are wrong.

As a competitor I like the idea of Foot Locker. Any of the 40 athletes that toe the line in San Diego could have the race of their life and still finished DFL. Where as if the same 40 lined up at NXN they could jog the race and finish MOP.

I wonder if the Rosas, or Michael Clevenger from just last year even, would agree with that (that you can jog the race and finish mid pack, seeing as they were favorites that finished midpack).

Clevenger definitely should have been 50 spots ahead at least. Oh well.

On an entirely different note, I can't wait for the day when Nike schedule NXN on the same weekend as FLN. Boy would that just put a smile across my face!

One more thing to add here. Imagine you're on the NXN Selection Committee. You come across the McGorty/Chantilly situation. You have full knowledge of the situation. You see that Chantilly tried to prove they could qualify out of NXRSE even without their #1 runner, and almost did. This, right here, is practically a huge F*** you to NXN. No team, unless you are the favorite to win the national championship, and if you don't have a nationally dominant #1 (and don't need your #6 runner to step up a whole lot), should be able to qualify out of NXR, regardless of your region. Chantilly almost pulled this off, and by doing so, like I said, almost flipped Nike the bird. There was not a chance in hell Nike was going to grant them an at-large for doing something like this, and rightly so. Let Nike make an example of Chantilly and let it be a lesson to future coaches and individuals. No sympathy was given and no sympathy was earned. Also, Chantilly only ran 5 runners, further adding to their cockiness that they could make it with 5 runners. If they didn't even have a 6th guy, why even bother putting them in for consideration for an at-large, giving them some sympathy. They didn't even try to have a chance at any tiebreaker, because who knows, if they ran six men, let alone seven, they could have all seven on a plane to Portland in the next few days.

It seems like people around here are nuts. I think most posters need to take a step back and assess this situation. Does everyone here work for Nike?

Look - they are a great team, they trained for, competed for, and won their state title AS A TEAM. McGorty has a real shot at Footlocker, which is far more prestigious than NXN. Hands down. And the team would've made it out of the region on a good day - I'm sure McGorty will be sporting some Chantilly gear proudly at Balboa Park.

Can we go back to talking about VO2Max or posting cat pictures or something?

Here in the Midwest, at least in my state, Foot Locker is the rage and no one gives a damn about NXN.

I'll throw in my 2 cents...

First, I can't believe someone would choose not to run with their team when their team has any chance of qualifying to run at Portland as a team. Let's even say Footlocker is a little more competitive in terms of individuals. Getting to bring your whole team to Nike should outweigh that especially since Nike surely is at least very close in competitiveness. Nick Ryan, Jacob Burcham, and Bernie Montoya are all running. I'm sure this kid has zero chance of placing better than 3rd at Nike to be honest. This kid is extremely selfish in my opinion, and will be shunned by his team for the rest of his high school career most likely (and has probably lost some life long friends in the process).

Second of all, who says Footlocker is actually more competitive? Aren't Sarah Baxter and Mary Cain both running Nike? Those are the best 2 girls in the nation, am I wrong? And Nick Ryan, Bernie Montoya, and Jacob Burcham are three of the top 4 guys in the nation, all going to Nike as well.

Very selfish kid in my opinion.

Nike's Mess wrote:

Nike screwed this up when they made both regionals coincide with each other. I think they were setting themselves up to either completely take over Foot Locker or squash it completely.

What weekend would you suggest they move their regional meet to? You can't extend the season past Foot Locker and not run into issues with kids needing to be in class taking end of semester exams or just being plain worn out from a 5 month season.

The ignorance attached to such judgement is mind-boggling!Selfish? How about the fact that his team is not likely state champs without his performances.A lot of times the team brings up and/or makes the individual that is not the case with this team. Sean has absolute helped Chantilly over the hump this year. Same exact team exploded last year post-season. This same school has had several national caliber individuals in the past and always had below average teams. Sean's has helped them to the schools first state championship. He owes them nothing!He made his intentions clear early in the year. Internet tough guys like yourself are a sad bunch.

See Spot Run wrote:

Aren't Sarah Baxter and Mary Cain both running Nike? Those are the best 2 girls in the nation, am I wrong? And Nick Ryan, Bernie Montoya, and Jacob Burcham are three of the top 4 guys in the nation, all going to Nike as well.

Very selfish kids in my opinion.

Letting down the other kids in their region.

Burcham is good but there is no way he is top 3 in the nation.

Trinity/Valkerie Invite

Jacob Thomson- 14:52

Jacob Burcham- 15:04

Foot Locker South

Sean McGorty- 14:28

Josh Brickell- 14:49

Aaron Templeton- 14:54

Jacob Thomson- 14:58

So from this we can guess he is maybe top 5 in the South.....

For people who think NXN is more competitive get real....If you check out any major top 25 ranking you'll see the majority of the top 10 guys will be going to FLN.

Nike's Mess wrote:

Burcham is good but there is no way he is top 3 in the nation.

Trinity/Valkerie Invite

Jacob Thomson- 14:52

Jacob Burcham- 15:04

Foot Locker South

Sean McGorty- 14:28

Josh Brickell- 14:49

Aaron Templeton- 14:54

Jacob Thomson- 14:58

So from this we can guess he is maybe top 5 in the South.....

For people who think NXN is more competitive get real....If you check out any major top 25 ranking you'll see the majority of the top 10 guys will be going to FLN.

Whose rankings are you looking at, MileSplits? They are biased towards fast times because they mostly use times for rankings.

not watchout but i have a brai wrote:

Whose rankings are you looking at, MileSplits? They are biased towards fast times because they mostly use times for rankings.

those are just results from 2 meets. no one's rankings...

here are steveu's final rankings--

I think it's not necessarily a bad thing to call him selfish in this situation. The kid has obviously worked very hard to get where he is and so he's earned the right to determine what he wants to do with the fruits of his labor. I'm about 87% sure that at least one person in that 5 who ran at the Nike regional hasn't worked half as hard as McGorty. It would've been a great gift to the team for him to run at Nike and give those guys a free trip to Portland. But if I'm one of those Chantilly guys then I'm only blaming myself.

Let's be honest the Chantilly coach aka "Dr. Gilchrist" definitely messed up from the NXN standpoint. Who sends only five guys to a meet like that?!?! The team possibly could've gone without Sean if they had a 6 and 7 race. What a terrible coaching decision on that one!

I've also heard rumors that Mcgorty coaches himself...can anyone clear this up for me?

Nike's Mess wrote:

For people who think NXN is more competitive get real....If you check out any major top 25 ranking you'll see the majority of the top 10 guys will be going to FLN.

It is obvious that you have not run in either race, or you'd know that they're equally strong at the front.