Casey Clinger Takes Nike Cross Nationals Title

Nike Cross Nationals 2015
Johanna Gretschel


Casey Clinger continued his undefeated streak on Saturday by winning Nike Cross Nationals with a new course record of 15:03.2.

The win was not secured until the final straightaway, as Ben Veatch of Carmel, Ind. pushed him all the way through the line to finish in 15:04.8 as runner-up, his highest placement in four years of competition here. Alek Parsons of Ogden, Utah (3rd, 15:05.6) and Jaret Carpenter of Wayzata, Minn. (15:09.7) also ran under the meet record of 15:11 set last year by Tanner Anderson.

Paul Roberts of Lyons, Co. made the pace honest from the gun, clicking off 4:41 for the opening mile with a sizable lead pack in tow. Through two miles, Californians Spencer Dodds of Great Oak and Eduardo Herrera of Madera South ran at the front of the fray in 9:43, but the lead pack was still nearly fifteen runners deep.

Dodds fell back to place 15th overall in 15:26.1, though the senior's effort was still enough to lead Great Oak to the team title in their debut at the Portland championship. Cole Spencer (18th, 15:29), Isaac Cortes (27th, 15:37), Tony Robinson (83rd, 16:04.8) and Nelson Quintana (86th, 16:09.1) rounded out the scorers for an 114-point victory.

Clinger's individual win led his American Fork squad to a runner-up team finish with 163 points. The Cavemen nearly did not even qualify for the national championship after finishing fourth in the Southwest region and were forced to await an at-large selection.

Dana Hills of California was third with 181 points.

Full results and coverage here.