Foot Locker Proves Boss Over NXN

Plus in speed ratings (go to tullyrunners.com) you will see that they are about equal with the strength nod going to Nike.

Great teams also have great runners, they will go to Nike.

Some of the very top individuals MAY go to FL but the depth of talent is with Nike.

FL should give in and combine with Nike- make the race bigger- more individual entries.

XC is a team sport and an individual sport and FL is missing a big part of the equation.

runn wrote:

Plus in speed ratings (go to tullyrunners.com) you will see that they are about equal with the strength nod going to Nike.

Great teams also have great runners, they will go to Nike.

Some of the very top individuals MAY go to FL but the depth of talent is with Nike.

FL should give in and combine with Nike- make the race bigger- more individual entries.

XC is a team sport and an individual sport and FL is missing a big part of the equation.

The current NXN course is new so the speed rating you reference means nothing.

As noted, FL has only 4 qualifying regions (and takes the top 10 from each) while NXN has 9 (and only takes the top 5 individuals), so if the NXN regional meets had only half as many top runners, they'd still yield a similarly tough national meet, so the OP is way off the mark. If you want to make a more meaningful comparison, compare FL 10th with NXN 5th individual.

The whole FL vs NXN debate is getting REALLY stale. They're both good meets. Why do so many people feel compelled to hate one of them? And for such flawed reasons. Anyone who thinks a top runner who goes with his/her team to NXN is 'hiding' or 'a coward', might consider Mark Wetmore's comment right after winning back to back NCAA titles: "for us, cross country is ONLY a team sport". Or take a look at the video of Efraimson, Cranny and Baxter hammering each other last year. Or recall the the NCAA men's D1 #1 and #3 this year are both former NXN champs.

Of course, you can make the same argument for former FL champs. Spare me. I already know that both fields are good. I for one will enjoy watching both.

Argue the merits of the meets if you want but leave the kids' decisions out of it. If a kid makes Footlocker and wants to race there, f'n Awesome! Go for it, race your heart out. If a kid wants to race NXN with a team, that's a wonderful choice too. WTF, comments about selfishness or "hiding" are so bush league.

Yes, your position is weird. Aside from the swamp years, FL is far more challenging course-wise. NXN is completely flat (no, the 3-step whoop dee doos don't count). Even the Dog Loop at the start has more incline than NXN, to say nothing about Upas Hill (run twice). I've raced both courses and FL is much harder than NXN. A dry NXN course is basically a track race.

This is true, the three best girls in the country were all in Portland Meadows last year. If that's hiding, I must have a real skewed perspective

No one is "hiding" or "being selfish" or whatever the standard criticisms are - people have good reasons for making the decisions they do.

That being said, from looking at FLMW, FLNE, FLS as well as NXN NY, NXN NE, NXN SE, NXN S, and NXN SW, Foot Locker had 6 runners with a speed rating (Tully) of 195 or higher compared to 2 for NXN. I'm not sure how people in the West/Northwest/Cali will decide at the moment, but I would suspect that that region will be split pretty evenly.

Co wrote:

Carter Blunt (TX) won NXN South by :08, while losing FL South by :18... 2nd placer Alex Rogers placed 2nd at NXN South, only getting 10th at FL South.

I have 17 more examples, but you get the point. Foot Locker is where the talent is... NXN is for cowards hiding behind their teams.

And how did Nationals go for them? Blunt was 20th at NXN and 13th at FL. Rogers was 82nd at NXN and 17th at FL.

AT wrote:

This is true, the three best girls in the country were all in Portland Meadows last year. If that's hiding, I must have a real skewed perspective

I'd agree. It all depends on the year really. If Anna Rohrer, uninjured and at her peak fitness, ran at NXN in 2013, she probably would have lost to Efraimson maybe even Cranny, but at Footlocker 2013 she would have most likely beaten Tessa Barrett.

runnin wrote:

but at Footlocker 2013 she would have most likely beaten Tessa Barrett.

That would have been quite amazing, but I disagree that Rohrer would not have beaten Baxter and the others in her prime, nor would Baxter have kept up with Barrett at FLN.

2 broken feet wrote:

runnin wrote:

but at Footlocker 2013 she would have most likely beaten Tessa Barrett.

That would have been quite amazing, but I disagree that Rohrer would not have beaten Baxter and the others in her prime, nor would Baxter have kept up with Barrett at FLN.

I'm curious, what's your rationale? Did they race head-to head? Do you have objective data to support or are you just making this up?

iowakidscanrun wrote:

2 broken feet wrote:

That would have been quite amazing, but I disagree that Rohrer would not have beaten Baxter and the others in her prime, nor would Baxter have kept up with Barrett at FLN.

I'm curious, what's your rationale? Did they race head-to head? Do you have objective data to support or are you just making this up?

Rohrer has a faster XC 5k PR (XC) than Barrett at that time, and she also had a faster 3200 than her. I think it would be close but I think Anna would have pulled it off in the end.. Rohrer never raced Cranny, Efraimson, Baxter, or Barrett, but I think that Rohrer is #2 out of all of them behind Efraimson. This is just an assumption so no one freak out..

runnin wrote:

iowakidscanrun wrote:

I'm curious, what's your rationale? Did they race head-to head? Do you have objective data to support or are you just making this up?

Rohrer has a faster XC 5k PR (XC) than Barrett at that time, and she also had a faster 3200 than her. I think it would be close but I think Anna would have pulled it off in the end.. Rohrer never raced Cranny, Efraimson, Baxter, or Barrett, but I think that Rohrer is #2 out of all of them behind Efraimson. This is just an assumption so no one freak out..

Seems like a reasonable take. I hope we will see all but Efraimson run head to head in ncaa cc over the next few years. Who will be the best ncaa / pro?

Iowakidscanrun wrote:

runnin wrote:

Rohrer has a faster XC 5k PR (XC) than Barrett at that time, and she also had a faster 3200 than her. I think it would be close but I think Anna would have pulled it off in the end.. Rohrer never raced Cranny, Efraimson, Baxter, or Barrett, but I think that Rohrer is #2 out of all of them behind Efraimson. This is just an assumption so no one freak out..

Seems like a reasonable take. I hope we will see all but Efraimson run head to head in ncaa cc over the next few years. Who will be the best ncaa / pro?

It'd be nice to see them all healthy and developing normally, but I think Cranny might have the edge now because she has a season of NCAA xc under her belt. I wonder if Rohrer will be healthy her freshman year and not redshirting/if Baxter will ever be able to get back to where she was?