I am one of the few that doesn't hate the current system. All I would change is giving the NXN individual winner an auto entry to Footlocker to let him/her try to race for the national title.
Tomorrowland wrote:
I'm sure you agree
I totally disagree.
If you have a good team, I can clearly see the interest being more in line with NXN; however for the larger running community, the greatest intrigue is always in seeing the best individuals go head-to-head, which is Footlocker. The best boy and the top 3 girls were at Footlocker and overall, Footlocker had far more depth among the top individuals. The average Footlocker athlete is a state champion and close to 90% of the kids at NXN could not have even qualified for Footlocker. There were 2-3 years when on the girls side you had Cain, Baxter, Efraimson and on the boys side you had Cheserek, Verzbicas, Lutz, Gedyon and the Rosa's, there was a lot more intrigue then, but not before or after that. Btw, I don't know anyone who hates NXN, I think most people love Footlocker a little more. Obviously it would be great if there was just one race, which looked similar to the NCAA Championship.
Ex runner who still follows running on the HS, College and Pro levels.
I knew of one person running NXN (Tanner Anderson), Didn't know or care about any of the top teams.
I could name at least 7-8 of the top runners heading to FL and was familiar with another 8 or so others.
I checked NXN results the next day to verify that Tanner won. I followed FL during the race (and was frustrated with the feed). I also spent some time with interviews and stories to learn about what the top performers thought as well as those who under performed.
Clearly I was more interested in FL.
California Steve wrote:
the best national meet of 2014 was US Club XC Nats. NXN is silly and has been since its conception. Anyone but the top few hundred athletes in the nation should be focusing on state and the top few hundred should be focusing on footlocker regionals with a few very elite hs'ers who are shoo in's for fl focusing on that.
There is only one clear solution. Club Nats needs a HS race? Let every team that enters race (like the open race) and have a true national champion.
FL will never go down with all the history behind it but the team championship should be decided at this meet.
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