A Disappointing Footlocker

By Bryan Green

I woke up in time to get online and watch the Footlocker National Championships live over the Internet, but I have to admit I'm a little disappointed in what I saw. Primarily on the men's side, but a little bit with the women, too. (If you missed it, check out this site for a review and videos. Girls results here . Boys here .)

Let's start with the girls' race. As I wrote here, this was the first time the girls' race had ever had three former champions, with Jordan Hasay (2005), Kathy Kroeger (2006), and Ashley Brasovan (2007) all vying to win their second championship. And, as is always the case at Footlocker, it was inevitable that someone else would come from the middle of the pack to make the race interesting.

That person was Allie McLaughlin, out of Air Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. She took the race out hard and, despite the fact that her atrocious form actually made MY muscles hurt, she opened a large early lead on the three favorites, who hung back a bit and measured each other up. A bit suicidal perhaps, but she gave herself a chance and went from 4th at her regional to 5th at nationals. All because she was willing to go for it.

Hasay was the winner, as about 3/4 of people around the Internet predicted . She had a big finish, beating Brasovan handily over the last 200m. Honestly, I thought she was completely out of it when Brasovan went after McLaughlin with 1k to go and broke away from the 2nd group. But Jordan managed to come back for the win. It was impressive...sorta. The 3rd former champion, Kathy Kroeger, never really looked that good. She seemed semi-engaged in the 2nd pack throughout the race, and never went with anyone who made a big move.

At this point, I'm simply left wondering. I wrote in my preview that this could have been the year we saw the girls' equivalent to Ritz, Webb, and Hall. But I doubt it now. The winning time wasn't particularly fast, about 40 seconds off Melody Fairchild's course record. It was also 17 seconds slower than Hasay herself ran 3 years ago. And it's not just because it was tactical. For as good as her finish was, Hasay was unable to go with Brasovan when she made her big move after the 2nd mile. Had Brasovan not faded a bit and been a pure distance girl with little kick, she'd have won her second title--not Hasay.

I have to assume, based on her track times, that Hasay is among the best high school runners ever. But for all her success in cross country, she's never really popped a cross country race that would make me think so, not when I've seen Stamps run 16:41 on that same course. Heck, Hasay's freshman victories seemed much more impressive than her senior victories (in her defense, her 17:22 was faster than 2 boys). As for Brasovan, I don't see a big future for her. I hope I'm wrong, but she's looks too skinny, too slight. I've never seen a high school girl with her build do well in college. She'll be good, but not great. And Kroeger, well, I didn't see enough of her to know. Hopefully this was just a bad race. It's hard to knock a Footlocker record of 1-2-6, so I'm just going to maintain a wait-and-see attitude about her.

I don't mean for this to come off as criticism of any of the women's performances, though. Races unfold in weird, unpredictable ways. Hasay, though a bit weak in the middle, regained enough to win her second title and showed a phenomenal kick. She didn't give up, either, and should be commended for that. Brasovan made a big, bold move, as did McLaughlin. They, too, should be commended for taking their shots. Kroeger ran where she needed to but just didn't have it. It was by no means a bad race. Heck, compared to they boys, it was a thrilling race.

The boys race was...boring. The most enthralling part of it was wondering when the last runner would actually finish (the answer: Brett Johnson finished in 18:41, the slowest Footlocker time ever and good enough for 32nd...in the girls race). Solomon Haile, the champion out of Maryland who has been dogged by allegations all season that he's actually 20 years old, won the race easily. Whatever. If he's really 20, then he probably should have won easily. But he also probably should have run much faster. He only ran 15:15. 15:15?! It's the 5th slowest winning time ever on the Balboa course.

I don't so much blame him, though. Where was the competition? He cruised and won the race by 7 seconds. Trevor Dunbar, of Kodiak, Alaska, was 2nd, but wasn't much in the race after the 2nd mile. This is the kid who ran a 9:01 for 2 miles on a snow-covered track? Didn't look it to me. My pick to win, Jakub Zivec of the Czech Republic, apparently had an ankle injury and finished 5th in 15:27. Fair enough, but why the heck is that good enough for 5th?

And no, the boys weren't running tactical races, either. They went out in 2:14 and 4:46 and the conditions were good. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that either A) every runner out there was psyched out coming into the race and ran based on how they expected to finish or B) none of the top 40 runners in the country are capable of running 15 minutes on that course. I'm guessing B. In contrast, in 1985, 9 guys broke 15 minutes.

Sub-15 is a pretty useful measuring stick at Footlocker. Giusto, Reina, Davis, Williams, Kennedy, Goucher, Keflezighi, Ritzenhein , Webb, Hall , Dobson, Tegenkamp , Solinsky, and Rupp all ran faster than 15 minutes as seniors at Footlocker (a few ran their times in Orlando, on a slightly faster course). On the Balboa course, 22 runners have broken 15 minutes. 11 of them (at least) went on to be NCAA Champs or Olympians. That's 50%! A few never did much. I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but it's definitely a good benchmark.

This doesn't mean that Haile or Dunbar or one of the other runners in the pack won't become a great runner (though I think it's a safe bet Haile won't be running on any Ethiopian Olympic teams). It's just to say that they didn't perform like future great runners yesterday. Hopefully one or two just had terrible days, a la past future Olympians Brad Hauser in '94 (29th - 16:00) or Gabe Jennings in '96 (27th - 16:30).

As for me, I'm still glad I watched the races. I love that companies are able to broadcast them over the Internet to us diehards. Thank you Footlocker and UStream! And I'll be interested to see what the future holds for these kids. I hope Hasay, Brasovan and Kroeger can take their rivalry to the next level at the NCAAs. The sport needs it. And as for the boys, well, I hope they defy the odds. Now it's time for track!

Bryan ran cross country and track and field for UCLA, as well for Japanese ekiden teams while living in Japan. He now pretends to be a runner (mostly on weekends) and a writer (mostly after running). Check out his popular running blog Optimal Training and his distance running lenses at Buraian's Lensography. He welcomes your feedback via comment or email at buraian@lifeofburaian.com