Footlocker Cross Country are no more. They have a new name: Eastbay Cross Country Championships.

I. Rex wrote:

I see the RunningLane paid trolls and/or race organizers have jumped into this discussion to mouth the same flashy marketing lines and suggest the silly rumors about the other events that they have been doing all over social media. New name or not, Footlocker will always feel like the real individual national championship race to me. Until it doesnt. And I doubt RunningLanes second year will change that. Or that making Footlocker even more exclusive will either. Will probably only help frankly. And please note that I am pre-emptively rolling my eyes at all the crusty old cross heads here who are about to reply back with “BUT CROSS COUNTRY IS A TEAM SPORT ONLY!!” so spare me. But dont worry, this doesnt mean Im an absolutist. I look forward to watching all the “national championship” races they come up with.

Not affiliated with Nike, Eastbay, or runninglane. But you sound like the typical bitter ass person on Letsrun. And regardless of which meet it is, the meet that has the deepest field will be the best race, we will find out in December which that will be.

I’ve been to Footlocker a couple of times and never been to RunningLane. But here are a couple of thoughts.

1. Wasn’t the National HS girls record set for girls 5K last year?

2. Yes the team component.

3. Have you looked at the teams committed to RunningLane?

Cancun Cruz wrote:

I. Rex wrote:

I see the RunningLane paid trolls and/or race organizers have jumped into this discussion to mouth the same flashy marketing lines and suggest the silly rumors about the other events that they have been doing all over social media.

Lol, I had the same thought. It's clearly the same 1-2 posters trying to talk up this random meet that I've never heard of before.

Damn your old. Check into it. Stay with the times. I have never been nor do I live anywhere close to there but try reading a few things and keeping up with the sport.

Saladbar who? wrote:

And I'm sorry we are not in the middle of a pandemic anymore. When football stadiums have 100k plus in the stands you can't tell me cancelling a cross country event is following the science.

Or you live in a nation of idiots who refuse to follow the science.

Countries with much lower infection rates have only recently started allowing fully masked and vaccinated indoor events, and even then it's half capacity.

There were multiple threads discussing it last year. The fastest time ever run by a girl was run at the meet. Any casual knows that. The top q5 boys' teams are entered so it is not a random meet. I don't know how NXN will ever make a comeback.

Another level wrote:

I’ve been to Footlocker a couple of times and never been to RunningLane. But here are a couple of thoughts.

1. Wasn’t the National HS girls record set for girls 5K last year?

Yeah but thats all that race was. A super fast track for Hutchins to break the record. No Brown. No Thorlvaldson. No Sophie Atkinson or Tatum David or Anna Weaver or Vanderkoi or Wiser or any other girl in the top 10. Barely any in the top 20. But they were smart enough to approach Hutchins who was running out of her mind at that time and basically sell the race as an opportunity to make history and she delivered. And it was amazing to watch but it sure wasnt any kind of National Championship. It was basically a record attempt followed by a cross country race by some decently talented kids mostly from the gulf states on a golf course. And as impressed as I was with Hutchins effort I still left thinking imagine if she had had Thorvaldson and Brown to press her. Or anyone in the top 10.

By the way, Hutchins is (was) a Footlocker girl. She wanted to do four years there. But obviously that couldnt happen last year and that was to RunningLanes enormous benefit . They probably have her to thank more than anyone for being in the position they are now. Ironic that now it looks like she wont make either event this year. Although if she were to suddenly start running again I wonder what she would choose...

You should probably look at this year’s confirmed entries. It’s much more than one fast girl. Side note 17:33 was 10th last year and even that top 10 is enough for any team in the country to have competition and the boys field is more stacked than the girls this year.

You are out of touch and decided to completely ignore the boys race from last year! There were 30 something boys under 15 are you on Nike or Eastbay payroll? I can't tell, but you definitely aren't objective at all.

I specialize in dumb comments. wrote:

Will we see a sub-14:10 5k at Running lane?

I brought this possibility up in a thread I made and commented on a few others. With the speed of RL's course, I don't think its crazy to imagine. If we see a sub 14 next year, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Going just under Ritz's 14:10 is certainly not crazy to envision Riley Hough or any of the Newbury Park Fab Four pulling that off.

Cancun Cruz wrote:

I. Rex wrote:

I see the RunningLane paid trolls and/or race organizers have jumped into this discussion to mouth the same flashy marketing lines and suggest the silly rumors about the other events that they have been doing all over social media.

Lol, I had the same thought. It's clearly the same 1-2 posters trying to talk up this random meet that I've never heard of before.

Given how incoherent and angry the recent posts have been, I'm going with a couple high schoolers with some kind of connection to the race. I guess if it was as popular as they claim I might have a clue as to who even puts it on. Is "Running Lane" some kind of apparel company?

#1 USA picks Foot Locker

https://fl.milesplit.com/videos/506602/caroline-wells-interview?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_term=thumbnail.&utm_campaign=milesplitflorida

From the perspective of someone on an excellent team, poised potentially to go to NXN, but with an outside shot to make either national meet individually:

NXN has always seemed like the place to be for a national race, especially on a team as good as we are. Footlocker never appealed, because it seemed like a strange, exclusionary, wack race in SoCal (not exactly cross country weather there). However, with NXN cancelled, we are going to Runninglane because that's where the team comp is this year. However, if nxn returns, I'm sure next year's class will choose to go there because of the prestige it has to our age group.

I can't speak to an elite hs'er without a good team, but I would rather individually qualify for NXN if the team didn't make it instead of footlocker because the race seems more interesting and the field is much larger.

You mean it was almost Dick's National Cross Country Championship? I may have qualified for an at large invite.

Good for her, I'm sure she will have a spectacular race. Riley Hough also US #1 is going to RunningLane.

Seems that the RunningLane vs. Nike angle is the most interesting going forward as they are in direct competition.

Kinney/Footlocker/East Bay are going to keep with their model and will keep attracting their fair share of individual talent.

Also, quick fun fact about the move back to 8 qualifiers per region for East Bay…in the first two years (as Kinney), it was 7 qualifiers per region, but they had 5 regions instead of the four that they’ve had since 1981.

Kalaby wrote:

Also, quick fun fact about the move back to 8 qualifiers per region for East Bay…in the first two years (as Kinney), it was 7 qualifiers per region, but they had 5 regions instead of the four that they’ve had since 1981.

Yes, you are right. I remember wondering why it was 8 runners per region instead of 7, since each region competes as a team. Someone explained to me that Kinney had 7 qualifying spots per region when the nation was divided into 5 regions. When they reduced it to 4 regions, Kinney added an extra spot to each regional qualifier.

Not sure about your post and this comment-

"strange, exclusionary, wack race in SoCal (not exactly cross country weather there)"

Just so you know, Footlocker (aka Kinney) was introduced as the first "true" prep national championship event in ANY sport. It was created to see who was the best individual girl and boy cross country runner in the country. It was never intended to be a "high school" team event, outside the regional teams who were selected (West, Northeast, South, and Midwest). The success of the event was amazing. Nike took notice and in layman's terms became "Butthurt" and decided to create its own national championship (NXN) and introduced the team competition as well as individual. The NXN event was originally scheduled on the same weekend as Footlocker, but due to a lot push back from coaches and athletes was moved to the following weekend. The Footlocker organizers did not understand why Nike would come in and try to undermine the event. The advantage Footlocker (Eastbay) has/had is their history, and by hosting the event in San Diego on the same course (outside the Florida events which never took hold) in which athletes could compare times to previous champions. Also, the course itself is challenging and fair to all runners and represents true cross country racing with hills and different terrain. With regard to the weather, there was NEVER a complaint from the Midwest or East region athlete's, the 60-70 degree temps were ideal for optimal race performances. Footlocker did offer to co-host with Nike, but they turned it down.

Finally, cross country is not intended to be a "track meet" on grass, its purpose is to see which runner can manage challenging terrain (Hill and Dale) and run fast.

Its too bad that no one can figure out how to put on ONE true individual and team national championship.