Nike Team Nationals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nike Team Nationals (or NTN) is an invitational cross country meet that serves as the unofficial team national championship of United States high school cross country. It was designed to heighten competition between high school cross country teams nationwide. NTN is a part of the Nike Nationals Series, which includes Nike Outdoor Nationals and Nike Indoor Nationals for track and field. Nike sponsors the event.

Nike selects 20 teams from around the nation to compete in the NTN meet, which typically is held the first weekend in December. These selections are based on regional and national rankings updated weekly during the fall cross country season. Teams are selected on "Selection Sundays", typically following the finish of state meets. There are eight regions across the country: Northeast, Southeast, South, Midwest, Heartland, Southwest, Northwest, and California. In addition, four at-large teams are selected, which can be from any region.

The event is held in the second weekend of December in Portland, Oregon, at the Portland Meadows thoroughbred racing track. The race features a man-made 5 kilometer course that is completed with three loops, following European cross country tradition. The venue has an enclosed 3,000 seat grandstand, allowing spectators to see the whole race, unlike normal cross country meets. The infield of the track, where the course is set up, is also open to spectators who wish to get a more close-up view of the race.

NTN has a reputation for being extremely muddy. The course is located not only in the rainy Pacific Northwest but also in a low area and a drainage basin. It is a common sight to see runners soaked in mud at the end of NTN races.

Since NTN is held on the same weekend as the Foot Locker Cross Country West Regional Championship, the top two runners at NTN who would have otherwise competed in the west region earn automatic bids to the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship.

Contents

[edit] History

NTN was started in 2004 along with the other two meets in the Nike Nationals Series in order to promote the national circuit for high school competitive running. The inaugural race in 2004 consisted of 21 boys teams and 20 girls teams and was seen by an estimated 4,000 spectators. Kinetic XC Club of Saratoga High School, which had been ranked in polls as the number one girls team in the country for the past ten years, dominated the girls race with a score of 51. Kroy XC Club of York High School won the boys race with 92 points. The race featured a special award called the "Golden Anchor," given to the top four number five runners in each race.

The 2005 race saw the introduction of an eighth man race, which was held the day before the main event races.

An Open Race was new to the 2006 event, with 30 top boys and girls from around the country given the chance to compete as a team on the national level; however they did not qualify and therefore Nike did not provide their expenses or clothing. Also new to 2006 was a revision of the course. On December 2, 2006 a Kenyan boys team and a Kenyan girls team were also flown in to partake in the open events; the teams dominated the North American course and showed spectators a whole new view of racing.

[edit] Boys NTN Champions

  • 2004 - Kroy XC Club (York High School), Elmhurst, Illinois
  • 2005 - Saratoga XC Club (Saratoga High School), Saratoga, New York
  • 2006 - Bridgetown XC Club (Coatesville High School), Coatesville, Pennsylvania

[edit] Girls NTN Champions

[edit] Trivia

  • A team from New York has won every girl's race at Nike Team Nationals
  • Saratoga (New York) High School is the only team to have won both boys' and girls' Nike Team Nationals meets, with the girls winning the inaugural meet in 2004 and the boys winning in 2005.
  • Because Nike Team Nationals is not an official national championship for high school, schools must register as cross country clubs. Often the school's name is simply inserted into "____ XC Club", but sometimes other names are used (for example, Kroy, which won the inaugural boys' race, was simply the school's name, York, spelled backwards).

[edit] Links

[edit] Sources

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../n/i/k/Nike_Team_Nationals_80a0.html"