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

He really screwed his team here. I would probably still choose Footlocker onver Nxn.

It would be great if he had run with his team so they could make it. But let's be honest, he's going to be moving on to bigger things than the rest of his team. If he thinks that running Foot Locker puts him in a better position to be recruited then I can't fault him for that.

He's already chosen to go to Stanford.

Maybe his team will be selected at large and he can run both. It is a shame the regionals are on the same day.

So, close for Chantilly! Did Blacksburg not run well to tie Chantilly when Chantilly did not have their #1?

I think Sean made the right choice for him. Chantilly guys just needed one of their five to beat one additional runner and obviously their coaches talked to the team about all the possible scenarios.

Anyone think Chantilly should have been selected as an At-Large team?

jkyt wrote:

It would be great if he had run with his team so they could make it. But let's be honest, he's going to be moving on to bigger things than the rest of his team. If he thinks that running Foot Locker puts him in a better position to be recruited then I can't fault him for that.

He'd be wrong. If he hasn't already committed, any team recruiting him is going to see someone who, when team priorities are on the line, does best for himself.

And he's a fool if he thinks college coaches aren't looking at the winners of NXN, or that they're not paying attention. Footlocker is a dying race. Dying in prestige, dying in interest, just plain dying.

NXN would have been a better experience. Traveling with his team, unless they hate him (if they didn't, they will now) would have been a blast. Better kit, better after-party, probably better speakers, better sightseeing around the Nike campus, etc. I don't see how Footlocker can try to sell itself at this point other than the history angle, and even that is only going to weaken as more and more strong runners end up at NXN.

He has bigger things to go on to and his teammates don't? I guess top NCAA runners should skip XC nationals to get a jump on the indoor season if they think they might get picked up for a pro contract. It's not like NXN is some small podunk meet where he won't be challenged or where running with his teammates will stunt his development.

NXN is a joke.

Foot Locker is the only race that counts for the best harriers in the XC world.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Maybe his team will be selected at large and he can run both. It is a shame the regionals are on the same day.

No at large for Chantilly apparently, can't say I blame NXN. By their criteria of performance at NXN, tying an auto-qualifying team should have been a lock for an at-large. I wonder if the NXN committee snubbed Chantilly to send a message about prioritizing Footlocker over NXN?

It's not a shame the regionals are on the same day; there should be one national championship, for both teams and individuals, in the same race, just like the NCAA.

When all these names are from the my region... #thatswhenyouknow.

Can we say the Northern Region is the fastest region for milers?

themanontherun wrote:

He'd be wrong. If he hasn't already committed, any team recruiting him is going to see someone who, when team priorities are on the line, does best for himself.

You're clearly not a DI coach.

Maybe I spoke hastily when suggesting it might work against him in recruiting; you're right, I'm not a D1 coach, nor am I any kind of college coach.

But I stand by my point that from a recruiting standpoint, he gains nothing from going to FLN versus NXN. If any D1 coaches would care to identify themselves by name on this board and contradict me, I'll be happy to rescind my statement.

There is no conundrum ... he should clearly run Footlocker. The best runners in the country go to Footlocker. There is no reason that a guy who just broke the regional course record would go anywhere else.

It's quite possible that he, his coach, and his team agreed on what they' were going to do and lived with it, especially since it appears as if he has a brother on the team. We are not privy to such discussions.

Can't illy did not deserve an AL bid. Their 4-5 guys would have been buried in Portland, and they would not have cracked the top 20.

He may be wrong on that. I was just speculating because, although I might be the one of the few on this site to admit it, I don't know how D1 recruiting works because I was a shit runner myself.

Footlocker may be dying but the race's future doesn't matter for the class of 2013. He needs to only think about which race is better now and I think that for the top talent that's FL.

pretty much a dirtball for screwing his team.

maybe his team thought they were good enough to make it and it was a calculated risk, that would be his only out for non-dirtball status.

or maybe he was just dodging Ryan, Nick - FM

He's dodging Nick Ryan so he can face Cheserek at FLN.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

McGorty will almost certainly be top-3 at Footlocker, but he probably would have won NXN, and his team would have gotten to go and could potentially be top-15 or so.

Well, he wouldn't have been a lock to win NXN, as he would have had to deal with Nick Ryan of Fayetteville-Manlius, who's been pretty spectacular this season.

He's a 4:05/9:03 guy, whose only loss this year was to Cheserek at Manhattan. Ryan ran 12:05 there at VCP, and just set the Bowdoin CR at the NXN NE.

This is absurd. The kid didn't screw anyone. He merely wanted to have a chance to run a highly competitive race in San Diego. His parents know well what they are doing - both are experienced track and field people, having competed at the Division 1 level years ago. They have a very good 10th grade son on the team, who improved significantly throughout the year.

Stanford doesn't care whether he runs Footlocker or the NXN race. He is a talent, and likely can and will run 13:40 or so for the 5k his first year at Stanford. My view is that he runs a 4:02 mile or so this spring, along with an 8:40 2 mile.

I don't like Footlocker or Nike all that much. When comparing the list of NCAA Div. 1 All Americans against the Footlocker list, not many show up. This doesn't mean that the kids shouldn't run it and enjoy it, but rather should view it as merely a start in the sport, and not be fooled by the short term improvement that can obtain with intense interval training high school style.

I have watched him run for the past few years. I am impressed this year at how much stronger he is than in years past, and runs far more contained with a powerful stride that he did as a 10th grader. I wish him well.

What would I do?

Well, if my team was interested in competing at NXN, and we all thought we had a chance of any sort to stand on the podium at the regional meet, I'd go to NXN. Yes, Footlocker has nicer weather, but both meets have very good individuals that no one (except Cheserek, perhaps) would run away from the field this year, so it's not like one meet has a clear advantage in that regard (for boys/this year).

If my team wanted to go but we didn't stand a chance of finishing on the podium, or if my team didn't want to go in the first place, I would probably be torn. Given the balance on the boys side this year, it would probably come down to whether I'd want to run in warm conditions at Balboa or harsher conditions at Portland Meadows (it shouldn't be awful this year, but not as nice as 2008/2009/2011).

But that's just me... team success always felt more rewarding for me, because I preferred to be part of something bigger than myself - and because you can better share in the moment with your friends. Others will feel differently, and that's their right.