Nike Cross Nationals Northwest Regional Boys Teams And Individuals To Watch

Bryan Deibel

The Team Battle is Ferice

Who: Flo50 No. 20 Crater and Flo50 No. 22 Jesuit 
Why: There are two Flo50 teams in the mix at the Northwest Region: Crater High School and Jesuit, both from Oregon.

Crater is ranked Flo50 No. 20 after winning the Oregon state championships. They had a 1:02 one through five split and a 15:45 average, first in the Oregon state championship speed rating merge. The team is led by senior Andy Monroe who won the 5A state meet running 15:19.00. Close behind him was Derek Tripp in second and Jantz Tostenson in fourth. Between the three of them, they have one of the strongest one through three punch in the region with speed ratings of 189, 185, and 185. 

The guys from Jesuit will be in the mix as well with their lead runner, Stanford commit Josh Schumacher. The Jesuit boys won the Oregon 6A state championship with a crazy 20-second one through five average. The team's seventh runner, Declan O'scannlain, even has an impressive speed rating of 170. This team will be a tough competitor on Saturday with such a close pack and seven seemingly interchangeable athletes. 

Two other big teams who had state meets last weekend are Lewis and Clark High School and Central Valley, both from the state of Washington. In the speed rating state meet merge these teams finished second and third. Both are potential teams for making into one of the two coveted NXN auto qualifying spots. Lewis and Clark won the 4A boys state meet by one point over Central Valley.  

One other team we can't count out are the guys from Bozeman, Montana. Last year they shocked many with their win at NXN Northwest and then their even bigger win at NXN. They are coming in off a big win in the Montana state cross country championships AA boys race. They also finished fourth at the Bob Firman Invitational earlier this year.

Click through the slideshow to see more on the individual side of the race.