The 10th release of the MileSplit XC Super 50 rankings comes amidst the thick of the post-season.  The NXN Nationals are held this weekend in Portland, Oregon and the Foot Locker West Championships are held in Walnut, California.  The following weekend in San Diego the best individual harriers take to the historic stage of the Foot Locker National Championships to crown a new girls and boys champion.  We are getting ever closer to seeing who the best harriers truly are, the only way possible, through head-to-head racing!

 Hello everyone!  This will probably be my shortest journal to date, because I only have to cover a few days.  Due to my long winded nature however, I will probably find a way to make many words about 3 days.  They have been very eventful, and a lot of fun.  So here I go!

A list of all team and individual qualifiers for the 2010 Nike Cross Nationals to be held Saturday, December 4th at Portland Meadows in Portland, Oregon. Includes links to team pages and athlete profile pages on MileSplit. At-large team berths were announced on Monday by meet management. Davis (UT), Loyola (CA), The Woodlands (TX), and Neuqua Valley (IL) were selected as the at-large teams for boys. North Shore (NY), Great Oak (CA), La Costa Canyon (CA), and Wheaton Warrenville South (IL) were selected as the at-large teams for girls.

The meet management wasn't distributing results, but nobody needed them to determine who the winner was. Even if they'd gone by too fast to read the name on front, we all knew it was the team in the bright orange uniforms that had won the meet. It's difficult to pick the two best runners on American Fork's roster, but these two are plenty to handle. Photos by Alan Versaw.

Hello everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone is enjoying their day off from school.  I am just relaxing all day.  I went for a run earlier, and it was very cold out for November (mid 30s).  I hadn’t thought it would be that cold, so I only went out in 2 layers.  I was rudely surprised.  What made up for the temperature was the snow!  I guess it wasn’t really snowing, as the snow was not sticking to the ground, and it was falling very lightly.  But just seeing the white flakes falling from the sky made the day feel like Christmas, even if it’s only Thanksgiving.  I am officially deeming today the first snowfall of the winter season in Cornwall.  I hope this early snow is not an indicator of worse things to come in the following months…

No matter what happens Saturday, Eddie Owens will own the rare distinction of having bookended his cross country career at a Footlocker meet.

New release of Marc Bloom's Super 25 high school team cross country rankings.

Claire Green of Louisville leads a pack of Colorado runners early in the NXN-SW girls championship race. Photo by Alan Versaw.

Michelle Thomas of Glen Este has decided to continue her education and running career at the Ohio State University.  Thomas is this year's OHSAA Diviion1 Champion.

 Julia Foster (Albuquerque, NM) and Billy Orman (Tuba City, AZ) won the Nike SW Regionals held Saturday in Gilbert Arizona.

Michael Brajdic of Bay High School has committed to continue his education and running career at Ohio State University.  Brajdic is one of Ohio's top recruits in cross country and distance.

Need to quickly check what box your team is in? Championship race box assignments are listed here.

The girls’ course record at the challenging five-kilometer layout at New Jersey’s Holmdel Park has stood for 27 years. While she knew it was within her reach, that wasn’t the top concern for Megan Venables going into the NJSIAA Group Championships this past Saturday.

    Click here to view the start lists for Saturday's NXN-SW regional.

The story of the week was New Jersey's Megan Venables (#2), who won her NJ Group 3 state title with an earth-shattering time of 17:27.9 to erase a 27 year old course record.  The previous record, set by Janet Smith in 1983, is 17:35.5.  Megan races the course again this weekend at the NJ MOC, this time with some heat behind her!

If you were watching the girls Class B race at The NYSPHSAA Championships, you may have seen one of the most inspiring scenes you could imagine.  Molly Shine of Pearl River was trudging down the home stretch looking like she was going to collapse at any moment.  Five yards from the finish line she did just that.  As she struggled to get up and find a way to finish, Kaylea Rustay of John F. Kennedy High School in Buffalo slowed down, stopped, and tried to help her up and accross the line.

Aisling Cuffe, Cornwall, became a 2-time state champion, and will now look to win a NY Federation championship before setting her sights on a 2nd Foot Locker Northeast win.

Now a senior, Austin West returns to help American Fork chase a regional title. Colorado Track XC File Photo.

 Nationally ranked Billy Orman (US#13) writes about a typical training week  in Tuba City.

  San Diego's Alli Billmeyer (Torrey Pines) has emerged as one of California's top runners.  (All photos by Margot Kelly, CalRunners.com)

Albuquerque Academy's Julia Foster is the top returning finisher from last year's NXN-SW race. Colorado Track XC File Photo.  

What a week for prep cross country!  The top-10 boys are super-tight and should make the end of the season very interesting.  A shake-up at the top occurred with Lukas Verzbicas taking the #1 spot with an impressive run at the IL state meet.  Lukas blasted a solo-13:54 3 mile run to come a mere 4 seconds from breaking Craig Virgin's state record mark of 13:50.  Lukas is clearly in the best shape of his life heading into the most important part of the season.

A year ago, the Columbus North boys cross country team essentially viewed Nike Cross Midwest as a reward for a terrific season. This fall, with their sights set on earning one of the region’s two spots at Nike Cross Nationals, the US #3 Bulldogs are approaching Sunday ’s meet in Terre Haute, Indiana, as more of a steppingstone.

Long before Jimmy Clark was tearing up cross country courses he was terrorizing soccer fields.  At age 13, he switched sports and little did he know how well that decision would paid off for him!  The Creekside senior, who set the state's fastest 5k time of 14:53.29 at the FLRunners.com Invitational, announced this weekend that he's made a verbal pledge to join the Florida Gators next fall.  

 Check out the first installment of MaineTrackXC journals. Cheverus junior Emily Durgin will be writing a weekly journal as she continues her season with the goal of making it to the Footlocker National championship meet.  Durgin finished 2nd in the Class A state meet for the 3rd year in a row. She is the defending New England champion, and will be running next week to defend that title. Emily finished 8th in the Footlocker NE regional last fall to claim one of the coveted 40 spots in the Footlocker National Championship meet.  Click headline to check out the week #1 journal.

Palo Verde (Nevada) freshman Katie Gorczyca dominated the Nevada state meet in a way we haven't seen since the sisters Lawrence. Photo contributed by Phil Lawton.

   20 major state meets take place this weekend as well as regional action across the nation.

 Elias Gedyon (Loyola, CA), the Nike Cross National runner up in 2009 will be going for his 3rd straight California State XC title.

When Aisling Cuffe was seven years old she went to her first soccer practice. She wouldn’t leave her mother’s side. So when the time came to run laps her mom had to come along. Cornwall’s Cuffe has always liked to stay close to home and the things she finds most familiar.

 In her 2nd installment Maddie Meyers (The Northwest School) writes about her final Cross Country meets as a prep runner.

Cheyenne Mountain's boys executed a near-perfect patient pack strategy to dominate the Colorado 4A boys state championship. Photo by Alan Versaw.  

Hey guys, it’s Aisling again.  Time for another journal.  The last time I wrote, I hadn’t raced in the Ridgewood Invite that my team went to.  Two weeks later, a lot has happened.  It’s funny to think that 2 weeks can change so much, but they did.  Here it is!

 Arcadia boys and Fayetteville-Manilus remain at the top in the latest release of the Harrier XC Rankings.