Where Did The Prep Stars Decide To Run: NXN or Foot Locker?


Some high school athletes have the ability to compete at both Nike Cross Nationals on Saturday and Foot Locker Championships next weekend, but others have to make a choice due to a scheduling overlap. Earlier this year we recognized there was a strong chance the nation's best male high school cross country athlete could skip Foot Locker for the first time since the inception of NXN. We decided to take a closer look at the championship fields from the past three years to see where the best-ranked athletes have raced.

Based on MileSplit's Saucony Flo50 XC rankings heading into championship weekend, here is a breakdown of the number of top 10-ranked athletes in the 2014-16 Foot Locker and NXN fields.

Boy's Championship Fields:


Nike Cross Nationals:
2014 Field: 3 of top 10 (0 of top 2)
2015 Field: 6 of top 10 (0 of top 2)
2016 Field: 8 of top 10 (2 of top 2)

Foot Locker Championships:
2014 Field: 9 of top 10 (2 of top 2)
2015 Field: 6 of top 10 (2 of top 2)
2016 Field: 6 of top 10 (1 of top 2)


Girl's Championship Fields:


Nike Cross Nationals:
2014 Field: 5 of top 10 (0 of top 2)
2015 Field: 5 of top 10 (1 of top 2)
2016 Field: 7 of top 10 (2 of top 2)

Foot Locker Championships
2014 Field: 5 of top 10 (2 of top 2)
2015 Field: 6 of top 10 (1 of top 2)
2016 Field: 3 of top 10 (0 of top 2)

Pre-Championship Weekend Flo50 Rankings:


Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2016 1 YES NO Casey Clinger
2016 2 YES YES Seth Hirsch
2016 3 NO YES Noah Affolder
2016 4 YES NO Brodey Hasty
2016 5 NO YES Luis Grijalva
2016 6 YES NO David Principe
2016 7 YES YES Finn Gessner
2016 8 YES NO Cooper Teare
2016 9 YES YES Sam Worley
2016 10 YES YES Reed Brown
Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2015 1 NO YES Drew Hunter
2015 2 NO YES Phillip Rocha
2015 3 YES NO Austin Tamagno
2015 4 YES YES Jon Davis
2015 5 YES YES Ben Veatch
2015 6 NO NO Carter Blunt
2015 7 YES NO Casey Clinger
2015 8 YES NO Alek Parsons
2015 9 NO YES Andrew Jordan
2015 10 YES YES Paul Roberts
Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2014 1 NO YES Grant Fisher
2014 2 NO YES Matthew Maton
2014 3 YES NO Tanner Anderson
2014 4 NO YES Alex Ostberg
2014 5 NO YES Austin Tamagno
2014 6 NO YES Drew Hunter
2014 7 NO YES John Dressel
2014 8 YES YES Jesse Reiser
2014 9 YES YES Olin Hacker
2014 10 NO YES Levi Thomet
Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2016 1 YES NO Brie Oakley
2016 2 YES NO Kelsey Chmiel
2016 3 YES NO Kate Murphy
2016 4 NO YES Claudia Lane
2016 5 NO YES Nevada Mareno
2016 6 YES NO Allie Schadler
2016 7 YES NO Annie Hill
2016 8 YES NO Lauren Gregory
2016 9 YES NO Grace Ping
2016 10 NO YES Jordan Oakes
Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2015 1 NO YES Weini Kelati
2015 2 YES NO Katie Rainsberger
2015 3 YES YES Judy Pendergast
2015 4 NO YES Nevada Mareno
2015 5 NO YES Hannah Debalsi
2015 6 NO YES Annie Hill
2015 7 YES YES Stephanie Jenks
2015 8 YES NO Christina Aragon
2015 9 NO NO Allie Schadler
2015 10 YES NO Ella Donaghu
Year Flo50 Rank NXN FL Athlete
2014 1 NO YES Anna Rohrer
2014 2 NO YES Hannah Debalsi
2014 3 YES NO Fiona O'Keeffe
2014 4 YES NO Ella Donaghu
2014 5 YES NO Allie Ostrander
2014 6 NO YES Hannah Long
2014 7 NO YES Brianna Schwartz
2014 8 NO YES Libby Davidson
2014 9 YES NO Katie Rainsberger
2014 10 YES NO Devin Clark