Champs Northeast is done

I went 3 years ago and I also noticed everything you mentioned here. It had less energy than a tri-meet. The main field was 90% empty - very few signs, lines, flags or anything. It still has an awards ceremony though, but it was pretty weak.

Just To many races to close together and one has to die, By looking at running lanes numbers its not that one!

Give it back to Kinney Shoes. They’d have more success.

I'd rather run in Huntsville than VCP. Those hills at VCP are terrible.

But what I think the real problem is the New York state season schedule. If they would move the NYSPHSAA state meet up a week or two, then NXR NY and NXR NE could be run a week earlier. Then all the northeast kids could run both meets if they want.

too many races! if you merge nxn ny with nxn northeast the girls meet still sucked. giving NY their own region at this point is just stupid for nxn is just stupid. It has a bunch of kids who would be top 30 at footlocker going to a regional meet because they might run decent and sneak into a "national" meet. A ton of above average kids will get to fly to oregon to race a "national" championship. Having 3 regional meets in an hour radius just waters down all the meets... but is good kids get to choose.

1. Meet was not announced until very late.

2. NE admin has always done very little to promote the event (like going to meets to hand out flyers and such)

3. Budget has been slashed and VCP is very expensive to rent for the day so that will take away any bells and whistles on meet day.

Sadly without a major shoe sponsor behind this meetbit may be on life support

well it didnt stop Ellie Shea from running the third fastest time there ever. And Baloga number 6. anyone notice if Shea lead the race the whole way or did they run together? cant find splits anywhere.

So just don't have it at VCP if it costs too much and they can't put on a quality event.

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have courses suitable for holding a northeast championship, right?

Northfield Mountain!!

IIRC the lead girl was well away from the rest of the field when they first approached the bridge to the back hills.

But TBH there were so many races that I might be thinking of a different girls' race today.

I also went 3 years ago. It was so much more competitive - in both grade level races and the championship one. Hell, it was much better even 1 year ago

At 2K Baloga and Macchia were in the lead with Shea 4 seconds behind. Shea was 2 seconds ahead of Baloga at 4K and then won by 14.

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Apparently this was Shea's first HS race of the season. A couple weeks ago she ran the 6K USATF New England championship at Franklin Park finishing 4th (21:37) behind Abbey Wheeler and the Hasz sisters. In October she ran a 10K road race in 34:11.

wow! 2:50 in the last kilometer? talk about after burners. its hard to leave a runner as good as Baloga has been this year completely in the dust like that. considering Shea ran 17:55 there last year Id say this could mean a breath taking run at Champs. assuming she doesnt DNF like she did last year.

Shea's light racing schedule is a huge advantage. The average high school racing schedule is brutal.

Keep in mind that the last kilo at VCP is significantly downhill--although some run with the hill and others lean back against it.

There's no way those timing mats were exactly at 2k and 4k. They cut every other corner putting this meet on this year so I find it hard to believe that 2k and 4k are both at the bridge.

While we all love to think there’s exact measurements in xc, the fabled back hill loop is always accepted at being 2000 meters (give or take) and the mats there are more for a time on that loop, which for old fogeys like me, actually means something. For the youngins and the new comers to all this, that have zero interest in tradition, it probably seems arbitrary.

And I had noticed that the entries seemed really sparse in all of the Champs, née Eastbay, née footlocker, née Kinney, races. I felt the same thing about the NXR races. They didn’t seem to have the same number as previous years. I know things can be cyclical but right now there’s just too many options.

And NY has to take their heads out of their a@@ and combine the state federation and the regional. They are a week apart, on the same course and it makes a team either choose and hurt the state meet or have to travel and race big two weekends in a row. But money talks too loud to make them do the right thing.

Money? There is no money in xc meets. As your user name implies, it's only tradition that keeps the fed meet.

There may not be a lot of money but for the people putting it on, it lines their pockets-they want to keep two separate events because it forces two separate entry fees. If they combine the meets, then someone loses out. So thank you very much.