The Ultimate Girls Foot Locker Preview

West Region Top Girls To Watch

1. Claudia Lane, Malibu (CA), junior

The defending Foot Locker Nationals champion is the undisputed favorite heading into the race on December 9 in San Diego. Lane will likely win her second straight national title. The question, however, is just how impressive will it be? Will Lane set a course record at Balboa Park? That came in 1990 by the effort of Melody Fairchild, who ran 16:39.20 at Balboa Park; the overall meet record, held by Amber Trotter and last accomplished in 2001 in Kissimmee, Florida, stands at 16:24.10. Whatever Lane does, though, she probably won't disappoint -- and surely, there are a lot of prognosticators out there she doesn't need to worry about. Will she run a course record? Will she not? In Lane's mind, that's not really the question. She's done enough over the season to prove it's been a wildly successful one, setting course records at the Lake Casitas Twilight (16:32.00) and the Mt. SAC Invitational (15:49.00). While it would be easy to compare her season to Katelyn Tuohy -- a recent NXN champion -- maybe let's just pump the brakes and allow Lane to have her day, too. The defending champion, only a junior, still has one more season left, too.