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 |