Donald Speas
Dec 10, 20238 min
Answers by Donny Speas, questions, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin
The 2023 high school cross country season has now officially come to an end with the conclusion of the Foot Locker XC National Championships on Saturday morning. In the final race of the season, the athletes made sure to out on a high note, giving us some very interesting and enjoyable races. Here are our first thoughts on the San Diego season finale...
To be honest, I thought that Drew Griffith (PA) was a better athlete all year long. I also feel like I undervalued what Ryan Pajak (PA) had done all season. But after taking down Griffith at the Foot Locker Northeast regional meet, and setting a meet record in the process, it became clear that Pajak was a serious title contender.
For the majority of this season, I’ve seen Drew Griffith as either the first or second-best runner in the country, especially after his phenomenal course record at the Marty Uher Vulcans Invitational which earned him one of the best speed ratings in the country (per Tully Runners).
He followed that up with a 14:21 (5k) mark which still stands as the fastest in the country in 2023. I thought that his loss at the Foot Locker Northeast regional meet was out of character for him and that proved to be true on Satirday.
In other words, Griffith gave us multiple instances of being a superstar name. And when Pajak was able to take him down in an honest effort in the postseason, it put into context as to how good yesterday's silver medalist really was.
I loved what Ty Sterots (WV) did on Saturday morning.
For those of you who weren’t watching live, Strerots made a big move roughly 2000 meters into this race, accelerating on a big downhill where he created a gap that looked to be about 30 meters at its largest.
Balboa Park is a very challenging course and the same hill that gave Sterots his lead took it away just as fast. The second time that the chase pack attacked the 400-meter climb, Sterots was swallowed by the pack. And yet, even when that happened, Sterots was able to hold strong and not fall too far back, finishing in 6th place.
When you look at how Sterots fared in races earlier this season, it’s easy to see why Stertos would be more comfortable in front. He held an unbeaten streak of seven races between September 2nd and October 28th, most of which he won by sizeable margins. Keep an eye on this Tennesse commit (who is currently only a junior) next year. If he chooses to return to Foot Locker in 2024, then he’ll surely be among the favorites.
If I’m a college coach who's looking for a program-defining recruit at this point in the season, I’d be doing everything to sign Berkley Nance (VA).
Nance has sought out elite competition at every turn, opening up his season at the Woodbridge XC Classic and later competing at both national meets. After a 5th place finish in San Diego, he’s finally got an All-American honor to his name and is surely on top of every coach's recruiting board. Seniors who finish in the top-five and aren't already committed are usually very, very rare finds.
One other talent who ran great relative to expectations is Brayden Marshall (WV).
The NC State commit had a great under-the-radar season. His best result was a 14:51 (5k) PR at the Great American XC Festival where he finished in 6th place. And yet, at the same time, it was great to see him end his season on a high note after some less-than-ideal results from earlier in the year.
I want to start this section off with this: I can't fault Cameron Todd (IN) for his effort.
I’m sure that he was looking for a better result than an 8th place finish (which is still excellent), but I’m confident that this has been a long 10 days for Todd. It’s only been a week since his runner-up finish at NXN and I wouldn’t have been shocked if he opted to stay on the west coast this past week.
And if he did go back home, then that's a lot of heavy travel in one week. I love that he attempted this double, he deserves some kudos for this and I think that his choice is #goodforthesport.
One runner whose performance wasn’t up to what I expected was Patrick Koon (FL) going into the national meet. The Stanford commit was talked about as an individual title contender heading into this meet, but fell to 15th place. And while I could try to offer some fancy analysis, I think the fact of the mattter is that he simply didn't have his best race.
Koon was undefeated across nine different races, including a comfortable victory at the Foot Locker South regional meet. I can’t help but think that the lack of hills on the courses that Koon competed at in his native state of Florida had an impact, especially when racing on a Balboa Park course that markets itself as having no flat sections.
Regardless, when you look at his regular season fall campaign, Koon still had one of the best cross country seasons of anyone out there.
I want to talk a little bit about how the Foot Locker West regional team isn’t a true representation of what we see from these states on the regular. In my opinion, the athletes from the West region tend to have two disadvantages.
First of all, athletes from the West region have less rest than their competitors from any of the other three regions. The Foot Locker West regional meet is one week before the national meet, a full week after the other of the regional meets, meaning that a week’s worth less of recovery for athletes from the western states.
Additionally, due to the late timing of the Foot Locker West regional meet, it’s very common for the date of the regional meet to overlap with Nike Cross Nationals (NXN). Oftentimes, the best runners in the region will favor NXN, causing an even larger talent disparity between the West region and the other regions
This isn’t to say that the West region doesn’t compete, they’ve had many athletes finish on the podium in recent years (Sam Hansen in 2022 or Kenan Pala in 2021), but as a whole, the team from the West region is often weaker than it should be.
While watching this race, I had some serious deja vu.
This race was almost identical to what we saw at Nike Cross Nationals on December 2nd. Just swap the names around and you’ll see what I mean. Basically, I wasn’t too surprised to see Rachel Forysth (MI) come back to the pack simply because we saw the same exact thing happen last weekend, albeit, to Elizabeth Leachman.
When Forysth was initially caught around the two-mile mark, it appeared that she may have had another gear and immediately threw in a surge. She was able to remain relatively close for the next half mile, but the extreme hills on the course proved to be a bit too much for Forsyth to handle.
That being said, I loved Forsyth’s decision to lead the race from early-on. She’s done very well utilizing that exact strategy many times this season. And although she didn’t bring home the title, she made the race much more interesting to watch and she was rewarded with a very solid bronze medal finish.
I’m not sure whether or not you’d say that Elizabeth Leachman (TX) ran the smartest race of anyone. In my eyes, I thought Drew Griffith ran a phenomenal and calculated race.
Don’t get me wrong, Elizabeth Leachman ran great and she seemed to have reflected and learned from her NXN performance. She very clearly came out stronger from her experience. Still, I don’t know which champion ran the smartest race, but I believe that there is certainly arguments for both.
As for the surprise factor regarding her margin of victory, I’d say I’m at a five out of 10.
We knew that Leachman had the fitness to pull this off and I even said during our preview “It's hard to look past Leachman who may have had the best cross country season of any high school girl in the nation.”
When Leachman wins, she wins big. And despite encountering some initial "resistance" from Forsyth when first entering the lead, she never faltered and locked up the title when attacking the large climb on the course's second loop.
The top uncommitted senior in this race was Ellie Shea (MA). But as much as I love watching Shea run, her performance today wasn’t what we’ve come to expect from her.
Outside of Shea, there was only one other uncommitted senior in yesterday's race: Cailey Bracken (UT). While Bracken’s race wasn’t spectacular, being able to claim two-time national qualifier status is always a nice boost to the resume. It shows a level of consistency that every college coach in the country should appreciate.
One athlete who I feel had a phenomenal race and a phenomenal season as a whole is Maine native, Ruth White. The Boise State commit has always been stronger on the grass than on the track, but this season, she quietly posted strong marks in nearly every race.
On Saturday, she moved up or held her position at every split, eventually crossing the line in 6th place. I'm calling it right now: Ruth White will have a HUGE impact for the Boise State Broncos as soon as next fall.
In defense of Ellie Shea, she had an incredibly long summer of racing, competing as late as August when she won the 3k at the U20 Pan American Championships. In the past, Shea has always been a better track runner, so I’ll wait to pass any more judgment until at least after the winter months.
If you read our preview of this meet, then you’d see that I had very high hopes for how Nicki Southerland (IN) was going to perform. Well, unfortunately, Southerland did not have the best race on Saturday, finishing in 27th place.
Southerland is known more as a track runner, but she’s made huge strides on the grass this season. My initial reaction about her performance is that it may have been due to the extremely fast pace at the beginning of the race (she came through 800 meters in 2:34).
Nonetheless, Southerland definitely improved her stock this season and I’m sure the coaching staff over at Notre Dame are feeling good about Southerland's commitment and future performances.
This is the strongest collection of talent that we’ve seen from a single region in a while.
The South region took more than half of the All-American spots with eight athletes finishing inside the top-15. Obviously, Elizabeth Leachman (TX) and Allie Zealand (VA) were amazing, but the South region was stacked from top to bottom.
Whenever I think of the traditional high school cross country powerhouse states, I tend to think of California, Utah or most recently, Colorado. While the southern states may not always produce the most elite teams (only one South or Southeast region team finished inside the top-15 at NXN), it’s important to recognize how these southern states can produce elite talent that can roll with the best in the country on any given day.