Earlier this year, Nike, in conjunction with the USATF, announced a brand new concept in cross-country running for high school level runners by qualifying 20 girls and 20 boys teams from 8 geographic regions to compete in the Nike Team Nationals with the goal of crowning the victors undisputed "National Cross Country Champions".
After it was all said and done, only one team from Florida qualified for one of the coveted berths; The boys from Winter Park High School whom I warmly refer to as the "Armada", due to their depth, parental fan support, and consistently powerful presence year after year.
In order to appease the various State Athletic Associations and compete at the NTN's, teams had to be registered as USATF club teams and can't officially be associated with their high schools or coaches. Thus, the Winter Park XC Club is comprised of Coach Mike Hill's State Champion Cross Country team and will compete against the best teams in the nation this Saturday morning at 0930 PST (1230 EST) with an eye on being crowned National Champions.
Before the invitation was extended to the Winter Park XC Club, a course needed to be set and the ship needed to be steered in the right direction. Coach Hill went about setting the course by competing against great teams at big meets and stacking their NTN resume with undisputed achievements.
First off, early in the cross-country season, they traveled to California to compete against the best in the West at the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine, California. On a somewhat lightning fast course and still early in the season, they averaged roughly 15:29 per man over the 3-mile course, which showed they were to be taken seriously and their summer base training had paid dividends.
With much anticipation, their next race was the 5th Annual FLRunners.com Invitational at Ed Radice Park in Tampa. The much anticipated 3 way shootout with the two other top ranked teams in Florida fizzled after Coach Boza's Tampa Jesuit A team was resting up for the Great American Meet the following weekend and Coach Whiteside's heralded Pensacola Washington's boys team wasn't allowed to travel due to the turmoil Hurricane Ivan unleashed on the local community.
Armed with this knowledge beforehand, Coach Hill made the wise decision to train through this meet. Regardless of whether they were training through this meet or not, it became very evident at FLRunners V that Winter Park was an outstanding class of harriers, totally dominating the competition and posting a 1:10 margin of victory over their closest competitor.
There is no rest for the wary.
For the 3rd time in as many weeks, the Park "Armada" traveled to Cary, North Carolina, to compete against top-notch competition at Great American. The Park finished 4th in this meet and were duly rewarded the following week as they climbed the Southeast Regional rankings all the way back up to #2. This was vitally important as the #1 and #2 teams at the end of the season gain automatic births to the Championships in Portland on December 4th, and it never hurts to have a teams presence in the national spotlight and bantered on the various message boards. Qualifying for the NTN is as much a testament to the talent of one's team as it is a combination of luck, good scheduling, and media savvy.
Winter Park went on to win their 8th consecutive Conference Championship as well but then their luck started to go south as their #1 runner and eventual 2-time State Champion, Coleman Hoover, suffered a bad ankle sprain during warm-ups for the District Championship.
Without Coleman in the line-up, they ended up losing to a formidable Boone team and saw their ranking go south as well.
Coach Hill decided to rest Coleman during the Regional meet in order to make a run at State and ended up losing to a solid Colonial boys squad. Needless to say, at this point in the season, it would be an uphill battle for the Park to once again climb to the top of the rankings for an automatic berth and trip to Portland.
At Ed Radice on November 6th, the Park didn't disappoint. Coleman Hoover was back in form winning the 4A individual Championship going away and becoming the first school to win 4 consecutive boys championships in the history of Florida Cross Country. They were simply the head of the class in what turned out to be some very deep Florida boy's teams on that given day and had done what they set out to do qualifying for the trip of a lifetime.
Although there were some bumps along the way, this team succeeded in being the first group from Florida to qualify for this prestigious event.
It's common knowledge that Nike events are a first class affair. Everything they promote is always run with perfection and flair. That's one reason why qualifying for the NTN's are so coveted. Some folks even equate qualifying for the NTN as qualifying for "Worlds"; the Holy Grail of team competition and the pinnacle of all the hard work and dedication cross-country running epitomizes.
On Saturday morning they'll compete at Portland Meadows, a renovated thoroughbred horse track with man-made obstacles over a multiple looped course.
The course will truly be European in its design and won't be your average cross-country course. Forget the golf course like conditions found at Ed Radice that only a true flatlander could love. Nike's goal is to make this course fun, entertaining, and challenging. Expect them to pull out all the stops and make this event one for the ages.
Secondly, this course will offer the creature comforts of home. Even though the forecast calls for temperatures in the 40's and rain, spectators need not worry, as they'll be able to see the entire race on huge Jumbo-tron like screens from an enclosed 3,000-seat grandstand.
The runners will never be out of sight or out of touch, as technology will make its presence felt in these championships by enabling supporters and coaches alike to receive instantaneous updates on their runner's race progress through the use of handheld computer devices utilizing FinishLynx tracking technology. Much like the NCAA championships, updates on team positions and scoring will be available every kilometer of the race.
With Nike elite athletes Paula Radcliffe, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Alan Webb, Bernard Lagat and Bob Kennedy in attendance for the festivities, this event will rival the 26th running of the Footlocker Finals for prestige.
You see….cross-country really is a team sport and now there is a means of identifying just how Florida teams stack up with teams across the nation.
The Postal event has come full circle. Instead of mailing results to a central clearing house to see how teams stack up against each other, the NTN's will determine the ultimate champions and culminate a long and hard season of training and competition.
We'll get a glimpse of how the boys from Winter Park enjoy the journey as they go head to head with the very best and culminate the vision and course that have endured many miles and many months of fine-tuning.
We wish them the best as they represent the Southeast Region and the State of Florida as the Winter Park XC Club.