USATF Will Host 2026 World XC Trials at Nike Cross Nationals in Portland in December 2025

USATF announced on Monday that Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) will host the 2025-26 USATF Cross Country Championships, which will serve as the trials race for the 2026 World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. NXN will be staged on December 6, 2025, at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Ore.

Traditionally, World XC is held in March with USATF picking its team at the USATF XC champs held in January. But next year’s World XC — the first in the United States since 1992 — is on January 10, which caused USATF to move its trials race forward by a month. As a result, the event’s name is the “2025-26” USATF Cross Country Championships.

NXN, which has served as one of two national cross country championships for US high school runners (the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in San Diego is the other), will stage its boys’ and girls’ championship races as usual on December 6. Later that day, USATF will stage senior and U20 races to pick its teams for World XC. Here is how the selection process will work:

Kevin Morris photo

Senior 10k teams (6 athletes per sex)
-Top 6 men and top 6 women from the 10k races at USA XC

Senior 4 x 2k mixed relay team (4 athletes)
-Top 2 men and top 2 women from the 2k race at USA XC (this is new for 2025; previously the relay athletes were selected based on track performances)

U20 teams (6 athletes per sex)
-Top 4 boys and top 4 girls from USA U-20 XC
-Foot Locker individual champion
-NXN individual champion

(The full selection policy can be found here)

Historically, all six U20 athletes have been picked from the trials race at USATF XC, which included both high school and college athletes. By reserving a spot for the top finishers at NXN and Foot Locker, USATF will allow top high schoolers an opportunity to run at World XC without being forced to choose between NXN/Foot Locker at the USATF championships. Should the NXN/Foot Locker winner turn their spot down (or should an athlete win both races), the spot would pass to the 2nd placer or 3rd placer, if necessary. Should the top 3 all turn it down, the spot would go to the 5th placer in the USATF U20 race.

LRC analysis

This has the opportunity to be a fantastic event

Morgan Pearson and Hillary Bor leading the way at 2024 USA XC in Richmond (Kevin Morris photo)

The 2026 World Cross Country Championships is obviously a humongous event for American distance running. USATF needed to stage a trials race, and December 6 — five weeks before World XC — is a good weekend to do it. And hosting the event at NXN offers a number of benefits:

-Built-in fans/exposure to the next generation. Not all fans of high school running are fans of professional running, and USA XC doesn’t always feel like a big-time event. By combining NXN and USA XC, you can get more high school fans excited about it. Plus, you will have hundreds of built-in fans for the pro races since the high school runners and their families will be able to stick around and watch.

-USATF saves money by partnering with an existing event. NXN is a well-run event with its own history, so that should help with promotion of the meet as well.

-Nike has a vested interest in having its top pros show up and compete. In recent years, it has become common for top US pros to skip World XC. With World XC in the US next year, that seemed far less likely to be the case in 2026 — Graham Blanks and Conner Mantz already confirmed on the LetsRun.com Track Talk Podcast that they plan to try out for the team. Since Nike usually brings in its top pros for NXN anyway, it stands to reason that it will want its best athletes like Mantz, Grant Fisher, and Abdihamid Nur to run this race.

Of course, the flip side is that other brands might not be thrilled to have their athletes competing at a three-hour Nike advertisement. But Nike already sponsors big events like the Pre Classic and USATF Outdoor Championships, so this shouldn’t be much different.

Overall, this event has the potential to be a terrific celebration of the sport, just like the 2007 USA XC championships in Boulder. With a home World XC team on the line, there are genuine stakes to the races and an incentive for the big American stars to turn out. And with a bunch of high schoolers already on the course, there should be a great atmosphere — and a great opportunity to create some lifelong running fans.

Things could get muddy

Glendoveer Golf Course has been known to get wet

It rains a lot in Portland during the first week of December, which means the NXN course is usually quite muddy and occasionally waterlogged by the end of the races. So there is a little worry about what that course will look like when you add five more USATF races to the mix.

But we’re not too concerned. The top US high school athletes figure out a way to run on this course every year, and part of the beauty of cross country is that it’s not supposed to have manicured conditions like the track. Some mud is okay. You don’t want the course to deteriorate to the point where it becomes a total crapshoot as to who makes the team, but usually at these races, the cream rises to the top, even in bad conditions.

Reserving a spot for NXN/Foot Locker champions is a good solution to an unfortunate problem

The timing of World XC was always going to present a challenge for top high school athletes since any trials race was likely to be held around the end of the high school XC season. Nobody wanted a situation where the best high schoolers are bailing on NXN and Foot Lockers because that was their only option to try to qualify for World XC.

It’s not completely fair that college freshmen only have four spots to race for instead of six, but the solution USATF came up with is about as good as you can get. And some high schoolers might actually be able to run Foot Lockers and the trials race since USA XC is held on the weekend between Foot Locker Northeast/South/Midwest and Foot Locker nationals (Foot Locker West is on the same day as the trials).

Talk about the xc news on our messageboard: USATF announces USA XC champs/World XC selection event will be held in conjunction with NXN in December 2025