One Week After NXN, Top Athletes Headed To San Diego For Brooks XC Championships At Balboa Park

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Ethan Buck/Bobby Goddin

One week following their victories last Saturday at Nike Cross Nationals, Jackson Spencer and Natasza Dudek have a chance to add a final cherry on top of their spectacular cross country seasons.

When the first Brooks XC Championships arrives on Saturday morning in San Diego it will operate with much of the same framework as the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, which announced its discontinuation after 45 years in August.

For the past two decades, a two-week culmination to the season to crown the best of the best in Portland and San Diego has been the norm.

That will continue with the Brooks XC Championships, which held the usual four regional qualifying meets and also extended invitations to some of the top individuals in the country via “golden tickets.”

The extra golden tickets will increase the number of runners on the starting line from 40 to 50 for each gender. The girls race is set to begin at 9:15 a.m. Pacific at Balboa Park’s Morley Field, followed by the boys at 10:05 a.m.

Those free passes are one of the most significant departures from the old way of doing things. The previous Foot Locker organizers were adamant that runners could only qualify to nationals by finishing in the top 10 at a regional meet.

The golden tickets awarded to Spencer and Dudek created opportunities for them to make some history.

The only runner to accomplish the Portland-San Diego championship victory double is Lukas Verzbicas, who won the NXN and Foot Locker titles in 2010.

Spencer, a senior from Herriman, Utah, could become the second and will face some of the finishers from last week’s race again, including Yohanes Van Meerten of Flagstaff, Ariz., the NXN runner-up, and third-place finisher Caden Leonard of Carroll, Texas.

Fourth-place finisher Marecelo Mantecon of Miami, seventh-place Sean Fries of Minnetonka, Minn. and ninth-place Paul Van Laningham of Union, Ky. are also doubling back from Saturday's race at Glendoveer Golf Course. 

The regional champion in the Northeast, Sam Laverdiere from Maine, did not run for his high school team this fall and only entered a couple of club meets. He is a returner from last year's Foot Locker race, where he was 14th. 

Evan Spreitzer of Melbourne, Fla. was the South regional champion, Calvin Seitz of French Lick, Ind. won the Midwest and Symond Martin of Page, Ariz. won the West. 

Meanwhile, Dudek, a sophomore from Ann Arbor, Mich., could become the first girl to sweep the two championship races.

Dudek outkicked Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville, N.J.) and Jaelyn Williams (Chula Vista, Calif.) at the conclusion of last week’s race and will face both again in San Diego. All three are on the entry list this weekend, as well as fifth-place Emma Hoffman (Otsego, Mich.), sixth-place Averi Lowen (Bowdon, Ga.) and seventh-place Maddie Gullickson of Plymouth, Minn.

Dudek will also try to match her older sister Zofia’s victory at the 2019 Foot Locker Championships. They could become the first sisters to both win in San Diego. 

Another undefeated runner, Abigail Hennessy of Westford, Mass., won the Brooks XC Northeast regional title on Nov. 29. 

Sophia Szolosi from The Plains, Ohio, who lost one race this fall by .01 seconds, won the Midwest regional title in the snow and cold of Kenosha, Wis. 

Maysen Fletcher of Elkview, W.Va. won the South regional. 

Carmen Dorsey-Spitz of Moriarty, N.M., who broke the state meet course record in New Mexico, won the West title last Saturday.