Foot Locker Nationals 2007

Photos taken by John Herzog at Friday's course preview at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego.

Interview with Coach Doug Butler, who coaches Ashley Brasovan (national champ) and Kayla Hale.

Post-race interview at the Hotel del Coronado with Kayla Hale, 19th place finisher in 18:05

Post-race interview with Brittany Koziara of Florida at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals. Koziara finished 29th in the girls race with a time of 18:36.

Post-race interview with Ashley Brasovan of Florida at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals. Brasovan won the girls race in 17:20.

Post-race interview with Ashley Brasovan of Florida at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals. Brasovan finished first in the girls race with a time of 17:20.

Post-race interview with Emilie Amaro of Florida at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals. Amaro finished 25th in the girls race with a time of 18:31.

A short interview with the 4 Florida Footlocker Finalists after the race at the Hotel del Coronado

Friday course preview at 2007 Foot Locker Nationals.

Photos taken by John Herzog and Don Rich from Saturday's races and events at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego, California on Saturday, December 8th.

Photos taken by John Herzog and Don Rich of VA athletes at the 2007 Foot Locker Nationals.

Nothing is more prestigious for a distance runner than qualifying for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.  The best of the best have annually competed in this event, making it the showcase of post-season competition.  This year, MileSplit.us will be ranking the top individuals in each region!

The Midwest boys look strong this year, despite their last place finish at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships last fall.  Led by a quartet of seniors, who have run nine-flat or under for two miles, and a couple of juniors who have Foot Locker Nationals experience, the Midwest is ready to show their strength in cross country once again.

Last December, the Midwest girls won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships team title.  They completed the task with amazing precision, placing their top five scorers in the top twelve spots.  This year, the Midwest girls are looking just as strong, as four returnees will be duking it on for a team spot again, and a slew of young talent tires to break through.

The West boys were dominated by senior talent last fall at Foot Locker Regionals.  With 17 of the top 19 regional racers now graduated, a new era can rise up and take hold of the dominant West reign.  With a nice mix of talent, from a variety of states, this year's West squad could be the most diverse in some time.

With nearly half of the Foot Locker West National Team returning from '06, the expectations are high in '07.  Jordan Hasay is the number one ranked harrier of course, after her however, the rankings get a little more complex.  Every year the West seems to have a lot of young ladies who put up some very impressive numbers, and this year should be no different.

Youth is served as the South boys line it up again for another fall.  Last year, the South Region had six boys that were non-seniors, the most out of any region.  With those six all returning (no transfers), and a lot of other distancemen stepping it up during the spring, this year's Foot Locker South Regional should be might competitive.

Last December, the Midwest girls won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships team title.  They completed the task with amazing precision, placing their top five scorers in the top twelve spots.  This year, the Midwest girls are looking just as strong, as four returnees will be duking it on for a team spot again, and a slew of young talent tires to break through.

The Midwest boys look strong this year, despite their last place finish at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships last fall.  Led by a quartet of seniors, who have run nine-flat or under for two miles, and a couple of juniors who have Foot Locker Nationals experience, the Midwest is ready to show their strength in cross country once again.

The South will not only be strong on the boys side this year, but on the girls side, on paper, they look to be the strongest region up top.  Foot Locker defending champion Kathy Kroeger is back and running strong, while runner-up Aurora Scott has one last year to earn a national championship.  With those two leading the way, the South will be very tough to beat, especially since they return six of their top ten from 2006.

With many of the top runners in the region graduating, the Northeast boys field is wide open.  A few experienced seniors lead the charge, such as: Sintayehu Taye, Brandon Jarrett and Donn Cabral.  After those three, there are no less than a dozen others that could finish as high up as fourth at Foot Locker Regionals in November.  It's a new year in the Northeast, so let the fun begin!

 The Midwest boys look strong this year, despite their last place finish at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships last fall.  Led by a quartet of seniors, who have run nine-flat or under for two miles, and a couple of juniors who have Foot Locker Nationals experience, the Midwest is ready to show their strength in cross country once again.

Last December, the Midwest girls won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships team title.  They completed the task with amazing precision, placing their top five scorers in the top twelve spots.  This year, the Midwest girls are looking just as strong, as four returnees will be duking it on for a team spot again, and a slew of young talent tires to break through.   Two girls from Ohio are ranked in the top twelve and two more Ohio girls are mentioned to keep an eye on.

 Always tough, the Northeast girls should perform well at Foot Locker once again.  With half the team from last year returning, and a pack of much improved runners from around the region, the Northeast should rise to the challenge once again in San Diego. 

A traditional power at Foot Locker Nationals, the Midwest Region's performances this year, thus far, are as good as they have ever been.  While few emerging newcomers earn their way onto this week's MileSplit Foot Locker Power Rankings, some heralded veterans show why they are on this list in the first place. 

  The cross country courses out west are really starting to heat up!  Newly minted 1-2 ranked boys, German Fernandez and Luke Puskerda, opened their seasons with blazing course records, while on the girl's side Christine Babcock broke her own meet record this past weekend impressively.  The West looks great, but there is a long way to go.

Unlike most other regions, matchups between Foot Locker contenders in the South Region come about frequently.  In the first two weeks, nearly all the boys on the MileSplit FL Power Rankings top twelve met another contender, while half the girls seemed to as well.  With a couple of very close races, the rankings jumped around a bit, although few newcomers arrived on this weeks' rankings.

While most of the nation competed over the past few weeks, the Northeast starts a little slower.  With only one or two meets under each athletes belt, the Northeast rankings did not jump around as much this week.  The Pennsylvania girls, Neely Spence and Carly Seymour, are still 1-2, while Brandon Jarrett continues to lead the way on the boys side. 

Each week, from now until Foot Locker Nationals, MileSplit.us presents the top ten ranked boys and girls in the nation.  Highlights and results on each of the top ten ranked boys and girls come out on Mondays, while new top ten rankings are released on Tuesday.  Regional rankings come out every other week. 

A weekend of top notch action concludes, and the new MileSplit Foot Locker Power Rankings - National (Oct. 2) are now ready.  Many of the top ten originals still roam the list, but a few fresh faces enter the mix.  The biggest jump on the list is Katie Flood (So., Dowling Catholic, IA), moving from un-ranked to fourth in the country after a huge win over Emily Sisson at the Roy Griak Invitational.  Meanwhile, Doug Smith (Jr., Gill-Bernard's, NJ) and Kevin Williams (Sr., D'Evelyn, CO) both enter the boys rankings. 

   With many of the top individuals not competing this past weekend, or running in smaller invitationals, few changes occurred on this week's top ten lists.  However, one newcomer jumps onto the list.  Peter Dorrell (Sr., Blacksburg, VA) moves to #10 on the boys side.

While few top individuals lost this past weekend, a few did, thus lifting a few fresh faces into the MileSplit Foot Locker Power Rankings - National.  Three new faces grace the rankings this week in: Rob Finnerty (Sr., Burnsville, MN), Georgia Griffin (Sr., Hanover, NH) and Kathy Kroeger (Jr., Independence, TN).  Also, a new girls US #1 is crowned. 

As the state series meets fall upon us, many of the top harriers in the land ran easy this past weekend, if at all.  The one state champion crowned, US #2 Luke Puskedra, ran away to a meet record at the Utah State Cross Country Championships.  While Puskedra kicked it to another gear, many others did as well.

With dozens of state meets happening over the next two weeks, upsets are bound to occur.  This week, little change took place in the rankings, however new #1 rankings for both boys and girls took place in the MileSplit US National Foot Locker Power Rankings.  Luke Puskedra (UT) and Jordan Hasay (CA) took over the top spots after their stellar performances.

The majority of ranked individuals competed this weekend, as conference and state-series races took place in full force.  Kevin Williams won the Colorado State title, while Georgia Griffin (New Hampshire) and Katie Flood (Iowa) won their respsective state titles as well.

With most of the top teams winning this weekend, little movement occurred on the Oct. 30 installement of the MileSplit National Team Power Rankings.  However, US #10 Wheaton North boys and US #8 Fort Collins girls both lost, with Murrieta Valley (CA) and Dakota Ridge (CO) taking their spots in this week's rankings.

With 15 of the MileSplit Foot Locker National Power Ranking athletes competing this past weekend, and with all of them winning, few changes took place in this week's rankings.  However, a few performances really stood out, thus raising an athletes ranking.

With over half a dozen of the top boys and girls participating in their respective state competitions, a lot of fine performances highlighted the weekend.  The top state performances came from Chris Derrick (IL) and Carly Seymour (PA).  Derrick won the Illinois State Meet with the second fastest mark ever on the course, and the fastest time in thirty years.  Seymour dominated the Pennsylvania State Meet, running the fastest time of the day by 25 seconds in 17:49.

With state meet concluding, and the season starting to point towards post-season races, the MileSplit Foot Locker National Power Rankings expanded to twelve athletes a piece this week.  Newcomers to the list include: Griff Graves (VA), Brian Leung (NJ), Claire Durkin (OH) and Nadya Bishton (AZ).

Many of the top individuals took the weekend off after strong performances at their respective state meets the week before.  However a few of the top runners did compete and finished with amazing results.  Boys US #1 Chris Derrick won the NTN Midwest Regional by nearly twenty seconds, while girls US #1 Jordan Hasay won by over 90 seconds at her Sectional race.

   A fine week of performances keep the MileSplit Foot Locker National Power Rankings interesting.  A few loses by ranked athletes helps new athletes jump into the fray as the Foot Locker regional competitions draw near.