Nike Cross Nationals is fast approaching. We're less than two weeks away from the big season-ending cross country event at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon.
So what's next?
With five regional races already completed, the ensuing weekend will culminate with the last three Nike qualifying races on the schedule (New York, Northeast and Southeast) and the California Interscholastic Federation Championships in Fresno.
In October, NXN announced the inclusion of five more at-large individual berths to both the boys and girls fields following every regional.
No particular guidelines were broken out as to how at-large athletes would be selected (Our only prediction is that invitations could be a mixture of a runners who did not qualify at regionals and a select number of athletes who did not race there) by the NXN committee, though we'll go one step further.
In the meantime, here's a running list of the most deserving athletes who did not qualify, in ascending order.
Got thoughts? Let us know what you think. Tweet at us at @milesplit.
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Potential Individual At-Large Boys Candidates For NXN (Only those who raced at Nike Region)
| rank | name | school | NXR region | Region place | resume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Flower Mound (TX) | South | 32nd | 2-time NXN top 15 finisher; Texas State Class 6A Championships (1st); 2 total wins; PR and US No. 2 of 14:34.92 | |
2 | PSJA Memorial (TX) | South | 13th | 1-time NXN qualifier; McNeil Invitational (1st); Texas State Class 5A Championships (4th); 6 total wins; PR and US No. 9 of 14:48.66 | |
3 | Edina (MN) | Heartland | 7th | Roy Griak Inviational (1st); Minnesota State Class AA Championships (3rd); 5 total wins; PR of 15:18.40 | |
4 | Idaho Falls (ID) | Northwest | 19th | Bob Firman Invitational (2nd); Idaho State Class 4A Championships (2nd); 3 total wins; PR of 15:09.40 | |
5 | Gig Harbor (WA) | Northwest | 12th | Nike Portland Invitational (1st); WIAA State Class 3A Championships (4th); 5 total wins; PR of 15:06.50 | |
6 | Maine South (IL) | Midwest | 16th | First to Finish Invitational (7th); Peoria Invitational (2nd); Illinois Class 3A Championships (2nd); 4 total wins; PR of 15:34.96 | |
| rank | name | team | NXR region | region place | resume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mountain View (ID) | Northwest | 25th | 2-time NXN qualifier; St. Olaf Invitational (3rd); Nike Battle for 509 (1st); Idaho State Class 5A Championships (1st); 3 total wins; PR of 17:08.73 | |
2 | Farmington (MN) | Heartland | 22nd | 2-time NXN qualifier; Roy Griak Invitational (3rd); Minnesota State Class AA Championships (2nd); 6 total wins; Season PR of 17:27.30 | |
3 | Portland Lincoln (OR) | Northwest | 20th | Stanford Invitational (2nd); Warner Pacific Invitational (1st); Oregon State Class 6A Championships (3rd); 7 total wins; PR of 17:24.40 | |
4 | Hellgate (MT) | Northwest | 8th | 1-time NXN qualifier; Bob Firman (13th); 2 total wins; Montana State Class AA Championships (3rd); Season best of 17:52.10 | |
5 | Prosper (TX) | South | 6th | Marcus Invitational (8th); McNeil Invitational (7th); Texas State Class 6A Championships (3rd); 2 total wins; PR and No. 8 of 16:52.84 | |
6 | Classical Academy (CO) | Southwest | 6th | Colorado State 3A Championships (1st); 5 total wins; PR of 17:18.33 | |
7 | North Central (WA) | Northwest | 9th | Bob Firman (6th); Washington State Class 4A Championships (1st); Border Clash (4th); 2 total wins; PR of 17:36.80 | |
8 | Carmel (IN) | Midwest | 31st | Flashrock Invitational (1st); Indiana State Championships (49th); 5 total wins; PR of 17:36.86 | |