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Leon HS and Sukhi Khosla heads to NXN Southeast by Herb Wills - NXN Southeast 2014Published by
November is usually one of the drier months in Tallahassee, Florida. But on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, it had been raining almost continuously since Saturday. In spite of the chilly drizzle, the Leon High distance runners had a workout scheduled on the track. That’s what you do when you’re part of the second-best boys’ cross country team in the state of Florida. It’s what you do when in four days, you’ll be racing at the NXN Southeast Regional in Cary, North Carolina.
400's on the Track by Herb Wills
Not Foot Locker. Nike Cross Southeast.
“I left it up to the athletes,” said Andrew Wills, the Leon coach. “That’s what they want to do.”
Coach Wills hadn’t arrived at the track yet at 2:00 PM. Some of the athletes had a seventh-period class, but four were already there. They began their warm-up, circling the track at an easy 8:00-minute mile pace. A fifth runner joined them on the backstretch. Sukhi Khosla, Hunter Scott, Kyle Buchholz, Maxx Marshall, and Adam Wallenfelsz were all jogging in the rain.
In terms of years, NXN is the junior event to Foot Locker Nationals, although there are other “national championships” that are senior to both--the Junior Olympics and the USA Track & Field Junior Nationals come to mind. From its beginnings over 30 years ago as the Kinney Nationals, though, Foot Locker was always a showcase for individual runners. Cross country being a team sport, Nike introduced the Nike Team Nationals in 2004, inviting the best teams in the country to compete. In 2007 the system of invitation-by-region was replaced by a series of regional qualifying meets, and the first southeast qualifier was held at Spain Park High School in Hoover, Alabama. The following year, Nike renamed the event Nike Cross Nationals, and NTN became NXN. The Nike Cross Southeast moved to the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, where the meet has been held every year since. The 2014 qualifier happens there on Nov. 29.
Matt Cashin arrived at the track about the same time as Coach Wills, just after the first five runners finished their warm up.
“Have you warmed up yet?” asked the coach.
“No,” said Cashin.
“Go warm up.”
Wil Luca is still on his way from class. “Luca and Matt can run together,” the coach advises. Meanwhile, the other five runners have some 400s to do, ten of them.
“We don’t usually do 400s on the track,” explains Coach Wills. “Sukhi seems to blossom when he gets on the track, though. We do twelve 400s during the season and the guys handle it okay. It’s a step down from our usual ten 800s.”
Saturday’s race will be the eighth Nike Cross Southeast. In the first seven years, Florida has distinguished itself at the meet. Melbourne’s Brian Atkinson won the boys’ race in 2008, the first year the regional came to Cary. In 2009, Columbus became the first Florida team to qualify for NXN, placing second at Cary. Columbus wasn’t able to qualify in 2010, but their ace, Armando DelValle, won the race in 15:14.8. In 2011 the Belen Jesuit boys were for the first Florida team to win at Nike Cross Southeast, while their top runner Elliot Clemente won the race in 14:58.5. On the girls’ side, Florida athletes have done well at Nike Cross Southeast, but not well enough to qualify for NXN.
Preparing for that back on the track, the Leon boys were knocking off 400s with a minute rest--64 to 66 seconds in the front of the group, 71 to 74 seconds in the back of the group.
after the 400 workout by Herb Wills
From Tallahassee, Chiles High sent girls’ teams to Nike Cross Southeast in 2009, 2010, and 2011. This will be Leon’s first attempt at NXN. For this year’s senior-laden squad, it could be their last time racing together. But on a rainy Tuesday they were out on the track again, hoping to earn one more chance to race as a team, this time on Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, at the Nike Cross Nationals on 6 December 2014.
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