Gibbons 27th, Khosla 35th, Martins 131st At NXN

The nation's top individuals and teams headed to Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon for the 2014 Nike Cross Nationals. The Sunshine State sent three to the prestigious meet with Winter Park freshman Rafaella Gibbons leading the way with a 27th place finish. Our coverage team is on-site and will have videos, interviews, photos, recaps, and more throughout the day!

Gibbons already had plenty to be proud of after becoming the first Florida female to make the national meet.  The 4A Cross Country Finals champion was the second fastest freshman in the 199 girl field. She came through the mile in 5:46.20 and finished the challenging course in 18:17.

Check out her splits:

1:45.8 (1:45.8),5:46.2 (4:00.5),11:44.5 (5:58.4),16:30.5 (4:46.0)

Rafaella poses with her Southeast teammates.

The boy's race went out quick with a bunch of runners chasing after Northwest's Tanner Anderson. Leon's Sukhi Khosla who was the NXN SE runner-up and two time 3A Cross Country Finals champion, was up in the top 15 to 20 spots, with fellow Floridian about 15-20 spots behind him at around the 1k mark. Sukhi fell behind a little and ended the race in a respectable 35th place with a time of 15:59. Martins, a two time 1A Cross Country Finals state champion, who was 4th at NXN SE, ran with "nothing to lose", but couldn't keep up at the end of the race, ending up in 131st place and a time of 16:46.

Khosla had this to say after the race.

"The race was pretty bad. I felt off all week and my core and back have just been aching. My form of running doesn't really work in a muddy course. From step one I was slipping around, literally. Franco and I both slipped when the gun went off and every step from there was just tough. At 400 in I was breathing way too hard and I should've run smarter knowing that I didn't feel good. No excuses it was overall a bad showing for me, however, it was a fun experience and everyone needs to get ready for me on the track because that's what I'm looking forward to."

On a positive note, Oklahoma State assistant (Bobby Lockhart) was at the meet watching Khosla, a presence that didn't go unnoticed. He says he will take an official visit to Stillwater in January and is excited to see the campus and meet the team and coaching staff.