It's been amazing. I mean, we've just been killing it throughout the whole season. We knew what our goal was from the start, and it was just about putting in the hard work and winning. - Keegan Geldean of the victorious Cougars.
WHAT IS NXN?
The Nike Cross Nationals is comprised of eight Regional Qualifying meets and the National Finals in Portland. The Nationals course at Glendoveer Golf Course offers athletes a premium, challenging championship venue for putting it all on the line.
The course at Glendoveer offers spectators great viewing options whether they want to follow the race around the course or sit in the grandstands near the finish line. For those not able to make the event in person, a live webcast feed of the event ran on nikecrossnationals.com.
Fields of 22 seven-person clubs and an additional 45 individuals (male and female) laid it all on the line in the quest for the sport’s biggest prize, the coveted Winged Goddess of Victory statue.
Nineteen years ago, NIKE CROSS NATIONALS (NXN) started with a single premise: to find the best high school cross-country runners in the nation, put them on the same starting line, and let them test their limits. It was never pretty and it was never comfortable.
Since then, NXN has grown to become the Super Bowl of high school cross-country serving and inspiring over 22,000 (+14% to LY) runners. It is comprised of eight regional qualifying meets (NXR) that happen over three weekends in November, and lead to one national championship in December, that takes place in Portland, Oregon.
On December 7th, Nike hosted 408 of the fastest boys and girls from across the country. This was the strongest field ever assembled for a high school cross country meet with 70 individual and 32 team state champions! 59,000 viewers tuned in LIVE to see who would be crowned the national champion.
Nike Surprises Niwot High School’s Historic National Champion Boys Cross Country Team
Nike surprised Niwot High School’s national champion boys cross country team with a schoolwide celebration on the morning of January 6, 2025.
By: Maggy Wolanske
NIWOT, Colo. — Nike surprised Niwot High School’s historic national champion boys cross country team with a schoolwide celebration on Wednesday morning.
The Cougars won first place at the Nike Cross Nationals in December and etched their names in both school and state history.
“It’s really historic. Our school has never had a team of national champions, and Colorado has never had a team of boys state championships in cross country,” Principal Eric Rauschkolb said.
The Nike Cross Nationals took place in Portland, Oregon, at the Glendoveer Golf Course.
“It’s hard, it is a difficult course. It can be slippery in places, but really by the end, it’s just grit and guts and it’s going to be just a belief that you matter. It’s just going to take you to the finish line because these are the best runners in the country,” said Chris Bennett, global head coach for Nike Running.
Nike wanted to recognize the Cougars’ major accomplishment in the place they call home.
“They won at the beginning of December, and what we wanted to do was celebrate here with the community because sometimes it can get lost, just what happened out in Portland. And we thought this was a great opportunity to celebrate the team, the program, the community, the school all at the same time,” said Bennett.
This is Kelly Christensen’s ninth season coaching cross country at Niwot High School. He said this team and this year were special from the beginning.
Nike dripped out the runners and gymnasium in posters, t-shirts and a digital screen, all with the slogan “The Boulder The Better” since the school is in Boulder County.
“It was a special year. We chose to go up to 5A for the first year in our school history. That’s something the team was on board with, like having this new challenge of being 5A,” Christensen said.
“The fact that Nike came up with their own description of their championship here and specified it to where we are geographically, yeah, that was really cool of Nike to do that for us. And I think the boys will remember that for the rest of their lives,” Rauschkolb said.
“It’s been amazing. I mean, we’ve just been killing it throughout the whole season. We knew what our goal was from the start, and it was just about putting in the hard work and winning,” said senior Keegan Geldean.
Wednesday’s rally marked a special moment not only for the champion runners but for the entire school.
“To have Nike come out here and celebrate it, it’s just like you couldn’t write a better script. It really does feel like we were in a movie, and it’s just been great. And I think there’s still a lot of unwritten stories for these athletes, and they’re excited for more,” Christensen said.
Bennett said this was the first time Nike had ever done a school visit and believes many more will come in the future.
“I think what was a lot of fun was seeing the look on not just the team’s faces but also the students. And I think that was one of the reasons why we came here is we wanted to let them know that even though this race happened a month ago, the success is going to last from that moment to forever,” Bennett said.
Utah Standout Breaks Course Record And Wins By 41 Seconds; Stellar Denver Lineup Makes It Two In A Row For Colorado
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
PORTLAND – Jane Hedengren and the team from Denver, who performed spectacularly at the Southwest regional, crushed the competition on a national stage Saturday at Nike Cross Nationals.
Hedengren, a senior from Timpview, Utah, broke Katelyn Tuohy’s course record on a wet, slick tour of Glendoveer Golf Course and won by 41 seconds in 16:32.7.
The BYU recruit was making her first appearance at NXN after not qualifying in 2022 and cutting her season short due to injury last year.
“Racing is a celebration. It should be joyful. It should be a fun time. So I had good time out there today,” Hedengren said. “I was running out there inspired, and happy to be out there, healthy.”
Hedengren’s time would have put her in the top half of the boys championship race.
And Denver, with athletes from Mountain Vista of Highland Ranch, completed its journey to the pinnacle of high school cross country by scoring 75 points.
For the second year in a row, teams from the high-altitude training environment of Colorado won the national title. Denver, third last year, followed Academy’s 2023 victory.
A sensational lineup of runners spent the season enjoying the daily grind, and one another, and paid no attention to the rankings.
“I don’t think they take it too seriously is what stands out about them the most,” coach Jonathan Dalby said. “They have fun every day. They kept running in its place and they’ve made a game out of it more than anything.”
Keeghan Edwards, who was unable to compete with her teammates last fall due to Colorado transfer rules, led the team with a fourth place overall finish and secured one team point. Juliet Frum, who had an off day and was 52nd at the Colorado state meet, was 27th at NXN and scored four team points. Claire Guiberson was less than four second behind Frum, 32nd overall. Peyton Adams (48th overall, 16 team points) and Brenna Jorde (89th, 46 points) were the team’s fourth and fifth.
Utah’s Lone Peak put a huge performance together to take second with 107. Maya Bybee was 34th to lead the team and Brielle Nilsson was 46th.
Lone Peak had finished fourth and needed an at-large selection to join the field, much like the boys runners-up from American Fork.
Clovis (Buchanan), the second-place team in California’s Division 1 state meet last week, put together a strong performance to take third with 123 points, six points better than fourth-place Academy.
Clovis clumped four athletes together between 52nd and 56th place (overall), separated by three and a half seconds. Freshmen Gaby Guttierez and Brooklyn Buckley finished next to one another and senior Sierra Cornett and sophomore Molly Sundren were a few steps behind them.
A third Colorado team, South Fort Collins, finished eighth and beat six regional champions.
New York powerhouse Delmar finished fifth with 149 points. Bruce Township, the second team to make it to NXN out of Michigan, made the most of its opportunity and took sixth.
Victoria Garces, the NXR Midwest champion, and Elizabeth Leachman, the reigning Foot Locker national champion, found themselves locked in a race for second place well behind Hedengren. Garces finished in 17:13.4 and Leachman, who ran out to a big lead in 2023 before fading, ran to a strong third in 17:13.7.
Addy Ritzenhein, the defending champion from Niwot, ran within five seconds of her winning time in 2023 and finished fifth in 17:15.3.
Mountain Vista High School Wins Girls NXN Title
A historic first national cross country team title for the Denver girls represented by Mountain Vista High School athletes. They finished with a 75-point scoring run, 1+4+8+16+46 (52+97), a top-five split of 1:43, and an average of 18:05.
The Mountain Vista High School girls – competing under team name “DENVER” – won the 2024 NXN Nike Cross National Championship. The school chose to celebrate their winning team on their own, during one of their regular scheduled assemblies. Nike did send Mountain Vista all the collateral elements to elevate their assembly, including two thousand t-shirts for the entire student body, NXN trophy, and a “sizzle reel” showcasing the girls’ winning race.
Congratulations to all the athletes, their coaches, the parents, the schools, the organizers, the volunteers. Thank you.
Think we can all agree, cross-country is the best sport.
Couple Of Book Recommendations From Chris Lear
Two new running-related books of note… I’m reading Run with the Wind by Shiona Miura. Like it so far- the novel is like a Japanese running version of the movie “Breaking Away.” Recently translated to English…
And Blood, Sweat and Spikes – Running the Wetmore Way, by Lyle Smith. It’s a memoir by one of Wetmore’s stars when he was a high school coach. As much about coming to terms with a college running career that failed to take off as a fond recollection of growing up in a running culture. In that way, it was reminiscent of A False Spring by Pat Jordan, which I recommend highly.
Cheers- Chris
Chris Lear is the author of Running With The Buffaloes.