Late in the NXR-SW race, Jordan Cross, Luis Martinez (partially hidden), Michael Finch, Jake Heslington, and Andy Trouard strained toward nailing down a bid to Nike Cross Nationals. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Today, the teams and individuals who have earned the trip to Nike Cross Nationals board their flights for Portland. Between travel, checking in at the hotel, getting a shake-out run in, and going through the gauntlet of activities Nike has scheduled, it's a busy and challenging day. But it's all part of building toward the big event on Saturday.
Here's a quick look at those athletes and teams who will be representing the Southwest region at Nike Cross Nationals:
Arizona
Arizona's representation this year is two individuals--Bernie Montoya and Andy Trouard.
Montoya is a veteran of the 2010 Nike Cross Nationals event. Montoya qualified for the race as an individual as a sophomore, finishing 97th in 17:45. Nobody is predicting that kind of finish for the talented Cibola senior this year. In fact, Montoya is a fixture on most people's short list for top honors at this year's race. Montoya is currently running through an undefeated season and has a 14:48 win at the Southwest regional and a 15:14 win at the Arizona state meet to his credit.
Andy Trouard surprised a few folks by becoming the second individual qualifier from Arizona, working his way in with a seventh in the regional race at 15:09. Earlier in the month, Trouard was the Arizona Division 2 state champion with a time of 16:01.
Colorado
Colorado qualified nothing for Nike Cross Nationals on the boys side of the ledger, but they will be heard from on the girls side.
No less than four girls individuals will be flying in from Colorado--Elise Cranny of Niwot, Katie Rainsberger of Air Academy, Emma Gee of Legacy, and Rachael Chacko of Smoky Hill. After a long hiatus at Nike Cross Nationals, Smoky Hill High School is once again represented.
Cranny and Rainsberger battled down to the wire at the Colorado 4A state race. Even though Cranny ran away from the field at NXR-SW with a time of 16:59, but she's fully aware of just how dangerous Rainsberger can be. Like Cranny, Rainsberger, Gee, and Chacko ran personal bests (17:11, 17:37, and 17:38, respectively) at NXR-SW to book their trips to Oregon.
Colorado's girls teams have a long and solid history at Nike Cross Nationals. For the Fort Collins girls, this will be the sixth consecutive trip to the storied event. Fort Collins has never finished worse than seventh in that span and has once finished as high as third. Team leader Erin Hooker will be making her fourth appearance at Nike Cross Nationals, but names like Audrey Oweimrin, Devynn Miller, and Kari Van Zyl are starting to become familiar names on the Portland Meadows course as well.
Pine Creek comes out of Colorado with an at-large bid and a team of six members instead of the usual complement of seven. Heather Bates, who took third at the regional race, leads this team, but they didn't advance to nationals by being a one-girl show. The remainder of the scoring five--Gabrielle Sered, Katherine Sered, Kaleigh Kroeker, and Veronica Carriedo, all ran 18:45 or better at the regional race to make their case to the at-large committee.
New Mexico
Like Arizona, New Mexico's representation at Nike Cross Nationals this fall is thin, What's lost in quantity, however, is made up for in quality. Cleveland's Luis Martinez missed defending his regional title from last fall, but still came through with a third in 14:54 to make a return trip to Portland. Martinez will be looking to improve on his 30th-place finish at NXN from 2011. Experience will be a big factor in that quest.
Utah
The lion's share of representation from the Southwest this year comes from Utah. One girls team, two boys teams, one girls individual, and two boys individuals come from Utah.
We'll start with the individuals.
Lucy Biles earned her trip by finishing fourth at NXR-SW with a time of 17:23. Biles also is the reigning Utah 4A state champion, logging the best time at state from any classification.
The boys will have dual representation from Jake Heslington of Timpanogos and Jordan Cross of Ogden, both of whom ran 14:58s to get here. Cross was the runner-up in Utah's 3A state meet, while Heslington was the 4A titleist.
For the third consecutive year, the Utah boys teams will be represented by both American Fork and Davis. Davis is coming back off a third-place podium finish from last year, but will be challenged profoundly to repeat that kind of finish this year as injuries had thinned the roster a little at the regional meet. They are deep in experience, however, in team leaders Alex Hedquist, Brayden Cromar, and Skylar Williams. Don't look for this team to be laying over and feeling sorry for themselves at nationals.
American Fork makes its fourth consecutive trip to NXN this year. The first three have been something of a mixed bag for the Cavemen. American Fork always comes in with top credentials, but has yet to put together the kind of race that might be expected of them. Not to jinx things, but this year could be the year. It's beyond question, however, that each of the top five have to be on top of their race for that to happen. Those top five to be checking against your program are Brayden McLelland, Connor McMillan, Zac Jacklin, Caleb Thomspon, and Tyson Green. Typically, there's been a substantial 5-6 gap for American Fork this season. If they're on, a podium finish is a real possibility for this team.
Utah's girls will be represented by a team making their second trip to Nike Cross Nationals. Only none of the current members were around when Davis last qualified a team in 2007. The front runners for Davis are Shea Martinez (who qualified as an individual in 2010) and Ellie Child. This will be the final high school cross country race for both. But it was the trio of Taylor Cox, Kami Dixon, and Kenzie Weir who sealed the deal on this trip.
More often than not, the Southwest region has been able to put two girls teams into the top ten at NXN. Davis will be looking to do their part to solidify that tradition on Saturday.