Footlocker is going to have a "Big 4" all from a different region!!!

Who cares? Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) is where it is at. The superior competitors (and teams) attend this more prestigious event. In this day and age Footlocker is nothing more than an afterthought.

You wish. This Nike wannabe meet has decades to go before it usurps Footlocker in terms of prestige.

Yea right, Aisling Cuffe, Chelsey Sveinsson, and Megan Goethals are all doing Footlocker. Molly Grabill probably will too. With this "Big 4", Footlocker is still the superior individual meet.

No doubt; Footlocker is still the much better competition!!

Footlocker had their chance to own everything, and they blew it. NXN is taking over. In five years, Footlocker Nationals will be on par with the AAU national meet that still is held yearly. In a decade, Footlocker Nationals will not exist.

A nation of Running fans cares about Footlocker......only High School teams care NXN.....and only the ones going care......at least I hope I am right

Gotta agree here, not only is it HS teams that care about nike, it really is only 20 HS teams that care.....

i told my little sister (then in 5th grade) last year when we were watching footlocker that the meet wouldn't be around anymore when she was in high school... i stand by that

i couldn't care less about footlocker on the guys' side this year, with the rosas at nxn... as they will be next year...

eventually there will be dominant runner(s) who have the same effect on the girls' side

All I know is that Kirubel Erassa is going to win Footlocker Nationals.

I have the same feeling. Nike has the marketing savvy to choke Footlocker out of the competition, and that sucks. On one hand, bringing the team championship aspect to high school XC is nice, but Footlocker is a meet steeped with so much tradition and good competition it'll be a pain to see it go. And worse, in the transition period, two competing national championship meets thin out the competition and make for two so-so meets rather than one Show.

WOW!!! wrote:

South - Chelsey Sveinsson

Midwest - Megan Goethals

Northeast - Aisling Cuffe

West - Molly Grabill

Who can win this?!

There is the possibility that none of them will be first.

At the least, the ranks of those four will very likely be compromised.

There have been enough discussions about Footlocker vs. NXN. This year the boys competition is superior at NXN, but the girls competition is far better at FL. Back to the original point of this thread, the "Big 4" will make for an intriguing showdown. Sveinsson, Goethals, Cuffe, and Grabill all are exceptional runners and the race should be incredible. but which one will win it?

I think this might be even better than last year, with the headline of 3 returning national champions...

Sveinsson ran EXTREMELY fast today at Footlocker South (sub 17). Goethals ran VERY well at her state meet (new CR) as well as Footlocker Midwest in bad conditions. Aisling Cuffe also dominated the competition completely at Footlocker Northeast, winning by I think the biggest margin ever in Footlocker history (for a regional meet). And finally, Molly Grabill wrapped things up very nicely at the CA state meet... her time was just off of what top runners like Jordan Hasay and Christine Babcock have run on the course (and she did it when it was somewhat colder).

So this will be very close... I give the edge to Molly Grabill because of the home course advantage.

Sveinsson probably wasn't even going all out with her 16:53 today and Cuffe looked like she'd just finished a nice jog around the park at the finish line. Goethals ran in abysmal conditions but still destroyed past top 10 FLCCC finishers like Emily Sisson and Katie Flood. Grabill has been on fire all season with some very impressive marks.

Molly Grabill will have the home course advantage but its hard to doubt a 10:04 two-miler, 4:18 1500 runner like Sveinsson.

:)

I was at South Regionals and Sveinsson looked like she was not even trying at the end, she probably could have been 5-10 seconds faster at least, but nobody in the race was going to touch her at the end.