Foot Locker Nationals Boys Preview

Top Individual Contenders

Lukas Verzbicas pictured left by Paul Everett, Craig Lutz pictured right by Barry Jones

This year’s Foot Locker Nationals will still crown the best cross country runner in the country and continue its rich 30 year tradition on Saturday as two champions will face off in Craig Lutz from Texas and Lukas Verzbicas from Illinois. Lutz is fresh off his win last weekend at Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon, while Verzbicas earlier this fall won the World Dualthon junior title. Along with battling it out with each other for the win, both Lutz and Verzbicas will be racing against history as the South region has not had a Foot Locker champion since 1985 (Lutz), while an underclassmen has never won the boys race at Foot Locker Nationals (Verzbicas).
 

Lutz, a junior from Marcus High School, won the Foot Locker South Regional in Charlotte with the second fastest time ever recorded on the 5K course at McAlpine Greenway Park in his 14:34 victory two weeks ago. A first-time qualifier for the Foot Locker Nationals, Lutz will be attempting to become the first individual ever to win both the Nike Cross Nationals and Foot Locker Nationals in the same season after defeating a strong field last week in Portland including top harriers Joe Rosa of New Jersey and Elias Gedyon of California.
 

Coming from the South Region, history is against Lutz as since the Foot Locker/Kinney Championships began in 1979, only two runners from the region have won the boys’ race. Charles Alexander from St. Christopher’s School in Virginia was the first champion from the South back in 1981, while Reuben Reina from San Antonio, Texas was the last champion from the region in 1985. Lutz will be attempting to break a 24 year drought for the region.
 

Verzbicas had planned to join Lutz in the NXN/Foot Locker double but a nagging injury prevented him from racing in the NXN qualifier, so Foot Locker Nationals will be the Sandburg High School sophomore’s one opportunity to compete in a national race this season. He already had an opportunity in late September to compete in a World Championships, but in a different sport in a dualthon, which he won the world junior title over a favored competitor from Spain. The Illinois state cross country champion and national high school record holder for the indoor 5K (14:18) won the Midwest region with ease as he cruised to a 15:34 win on a sloppy course.
 

If Verzbicas were to win on Saturday, he would be the first underclassmen boys champion in meet history and set himself up potentially to become the first three-time champion if he were to also win the next two Foot Locker Finals as a junior and senior.  While winning as a sophomore has never occurred in Foot Locker‘s 30 year history, a champion from the Midwest region is far from rare as 7 of the last 11 Foot Locker champions have reigned from the region.
 

Lutz and Verzbicas both will be racing at Balboa Park for the first time ever, while West Region champion Brian Shrader (pictured right by Margot Kelly of https://az.milesplit.com) of Arizona is the top returnee from last year’s Foot Locker finals as the 4A state champion from Sinagua High School in Flagstaff earned All-American honors in 2008 with an 11th place run. Shrader won by a four second margin of victory at the Foot Locker West Regional last week with a time of 15:25 at Mt. Sac against another standout from the Southwest portion of the country in Wade Meddles (2nd, 15:29) from Nevada. Meddles won the NXN Southwest Region, but opted out of competing in the NXN national race last week in order to compete at Foot Locker West and qualify for San Diego.

West Region Boys

Photo by Margot Kelly of https://az.milesplit.com
 

The West Region should be one of the top regions in the meet featuring Shrader and Meddles as well as returning Foot Locker All-American Shane Moskowitz from Washington. Moskowitz and Shrader are the only returning All-Americans from the 2008 finals as Moskowitz placed 14th last year at Balboa Park. Moskowitz only placed fifth at the Foot Locker West, but might speak volumes to the abilities of third place finisher Cody Helbling of Idaho and Matthew McElroy of California.
 

Helbling is another returning finalist (25th in 2008 finals) along with Steve Magnuson of Arizona to make for a total of four West Region runners with Foot Locker Nationals race experience. For a second year in a row, Helbling had to settle as a state runner-up in Idaho, but peaked well to make a return trip to San Diego. McElroy is one of the fastest on the track among the West qualifiers with a 8:56 3200 performance to his credit.

South Region Boys

Photo by Andy Paisley for https://va.milesplit.com

The South Region hosted one of its fastest regional races ever in Charlotte with an entire top 10 of qualifiers under 15 minutes on the fast McAlpine course. The most finishers ever under 15 minutes at South regional previously was back in 2001 when the then eight qualifiers dipped under the time. While fast times at McAlpine do no always translate into high finishes at Balboa, the South region qualifiers are hoping this year is different behind their regional champion Lutz.
 

Behind Lutz are several runners who recorded the fastest performances all-time in their state’s history at McAlpine including Kirubel Erassa of Georgia (14:43), Jake Hurysz of North Carolina (14:46), and Matt Mizereck of Florida (14:51). These runners are also attempting to be the highest finishers from their state ever at the Foot Locker Nationals with All-American finishes. There is considerable lack of experience though among the South region contingent as all ten runners are first-time qualifiers for the Foot Locker Nationals.

Northeast Region Boys

The Northeast Region is led by their race champion and Pennsylvania’s best in Brad Miles, who pulled away in a hill surge in the regional race contested for the first time at Sunken Meadows in New York. The Northeast boys raced on the most difficult course among the four regions with just two runners running under 16 minutes on the 5K course as runners also faced extremely windy conditions on the day, so times are misleading and this region can be very competitive. Especially if the current weather forecast of rain comes to reality, the course conditions could suit the strength runners of the Northeast.
 

The region may lack a front runner, but could see a strong pack of runners in the middle of the field fighting for All-American spots. Miles (pictured right by Don Rich of https://pa.milesplit.com), a senior from Hatfield High School, won by a margin of six seconds in 15:52 as he was trailed in by a strong pair of New Jersey runners in Tyler Udland (2nd, 15:59) and David Oster (3rd, 16:01). Udland is one of the few returning finalists not from the West Region as the Millburn High senior placed 34th in the field of 40 last year.

Midwest Region Boys

Photo by Paul Everett of https://mo.milesplit.com

While Verzbicas was unable to attempt his initial plans of doing the NXN/Foot Locker double, two of his Midwest region teammates will be completing that double this weekend in Tyler Byrne of Indiana and Martin Grady of Illinois. Neither Byrne nor Grady had the state meets which they had hoped for with Byrne placing 5th in Indiana and Grady placing 8th in Illinois, but both runners have been on a tear in the post-season as shown in qualifying for the two national meets. Byrne and Grady finished virtually right together at NXN last week with 19th (Byrne) and 20th (Grady) and both runners timed at 15:37. Each is hoping to finish much higher this weekend in San Diego to earn All-American honors and help the Midwest Region repeat as team champions against an experienced West Region squad.

The Midwest Region has a strong Colorado representation with a total of four qualifiers led by region race runner-up Walter Schafer, which is the most qualifiers from any state in this year’s boys race. If Schafer is able to finish with the same margin of seven seconds which he finished behind Verzbicas at the Midwest Regional, then he should expect to finish well within the top 10 finishers. Joining Schafer in San Diego from his home state include Scott Fauble, Ryan Poland, and Danny Nicolls.