Nike Cross Regionals Heartland
Seger, Blomker and Hocker-Singh hang with the best of the best.
With the cross country season coming to a close, and only Eastbay Midwest being the only regional left in the season, there is still a national caliber meet taking place in Huntsville, Alabama on December 4, 2021. In lieu of Nike Cross Nationals, for the second straight year, the freshly sponsored Garmin RunningLane Cross County Championships are back and bringing in even more talent than a year ago. Here’s a little rundown of the field that has signed up as of 11/20.
Boy’s Field
Newbury Park (14:43 5k avg/Greatest HS team of All-Time?)
36 Teams With Sub-16 5k Average
60 Boys Sub-15
399 Boys Sub-16
Girl’s Field
7 Teams w/ Sub 18 5k Average
25 Teams w/ Sub 19 5k Average
15 Girls Sub-17
122 Girls Sub-18
Last year, it took a 14:26 to win the boy’s race, a race which saw the most ever boys under fifteen in one race (32). It took a NATIONAL RECORD to win the girl’s race last year, as Jenna Hutchins ran 15:58 to take down a field that had twenty-three girls under eighteen.
If you know athletes or you are an athlete reading this and don’t have anything planned for December 4th, I highly recommend testing your luck in Huntsville in what is sure to be one of the fastest meets in recent memory.
After a year off due to Covid-19, Nike Cross Regionals returned this past weekend with the Northwest, Midwest and Heartland regionals. As it has been for quite some time, the Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was the host of the NXR Heartland Regional. Typically, this is the qualifying meet for the coveted Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, but for this year only, the “electric feeling” of the national meet will be brought to all nine regional meets across the country.
The Heartland Regional hosts seven states every year, including Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Every year the Championship field is loaded with talent, both individually and in the team race. Kansas has held its own against the region, sending both teams and individuals in the meet’s existence. In 2004 and 2007, Van Rose and Shawnee Mission Northwest sent their team to NXN after a runner-up finish in the Heartland. Kansas has never sent a girl’s team to Portland, but that could very well change next year as Olathe West returns their top six in the Fall of 2022, but I’ll try not to get ahead of myself.
In terms of individual qualifiers, the “Sunflower State” has had some of its best runners represent the region in Portland. Legendary high school athletes like the trio of Molly Born, Emily Venters, and Cailie Logue, along with Jaybe Shufelberger of Washburn Rural and Shawnee Mission West’s Alli Cash. On the men’s side, only Blue Valley West’s Stuart McNutt and Andover’s Ryan Kinnane in 2013 and 2019. The sad thing is, this would have been of the best years for Kansas at Nike Cross Nationals, as they would have sent three runners to Portland, and nearly a fourth.
Girl’s Championship Race
2021’s edition of the Girl’s Championship race was a pretty speedy one, as four girls ran under 17:12 and three of them ran huge personal bests. Perhaps the best performance from the field was that of Ali Weimer, a senior from Saint Michael-Albertville in Minnesota who won her first NXR Heartland title in 17:03.30. Weimer has also committed to run at the University of Minnesota next Fall. Her senior campaign has been nothing but perfection, as she won all eight races and never ran slower than 17:51 in the process. Weimer added her second state championship to her résumé, and her first ever in cross country. Ranked 11th in the MileSplit50 Girl’s Rankings, I can only imagine that Weimer would have been in the mix for a top three finish in Portland. Behind her in second and third were Middleton’s Lauren Pansegrau and Sydney Drevlow of Hopkins. The Michigan commit and the freshman ran strong races, but even the best of the best could not match Weimer’s finish. Pansegrau crossed the line in 17:08.70, her fastest time of the season, as Drevlow set a personal best in 17:10.70, shaving nearly half of a minute off her previous best.
Taking a phenomenal 4th was none other than Olathe North’s Anjali Hocker-Singh. In the fastest field of her life, the sophomore standout ran a twenty second personal best of 17:11.50, as she joined a very prestigious group of runner’s to finish in a qualifying position at NXR Heartland. The last to do so was Washburn Rural’s Jaybe Shufelberger in 2018 when she took 5th in the regional.
Hocker-Singh was the lone Kansas athlete under eighteen on Saturday, but there was a contingent of great racing from the rest of the Kansas entries. Hocker-Singh’s teammate and recent Iowa State commit Kaylee Tobaben was the second fastest Kansas athlete is she took 17th in 18:02.60. The Olathe West duo of Kate Miller and Bree Newport led the way for the Owls with a 19th and 22nd place finish in 18:03.80 and 18:04.40, both personal bests. Grace Meyer of Shawnee Mission East finished in 28th in her first ever NXR race, clocking 18:14.3 on the day. Charis Robinson and Paige Mullen from Olathe West and Shawnee Mission Northwest came in 29th and 33rd as the pair ran 18:16.0 (huge personal best) and 18:17.9. For those keeping track, Olathe West’s 1-2-3 are 18:03.80, 18:04.40 and 18:16.0, and none of the three graduate. Sheesh! Rounding out the top ten finishers from our lovely state were Olathe North’s Shea Johnson (18:32.5), Mill Valley’s Katie Schwartzkoph (18:35.2) and Cecilia Fisher (18:36.7) of Blue Valley Northwest.
In the team race, the ladies of Olathe West suffered their first loss of the 2021 season, taking 4th in a tough field. I’m sure the team title would have been a great way to end the season, but there is plenty of bright spots for the Owls.
They didn’t miss out on NXN and have the chance to take the team next year.
They return their top six next Fall and everyone seems to be getting faster.
They are still one of the most talented teams that the state has seen in a while and will have the chance to do even more next year.
Led by Hocker-Singh and Tobaben, the Prairie Street Harriers (Olathe North) finished 6th, putting two Kansas teams in the top ten. The Huskies (Blue Valley Northwest) and Saints XC (Saint Thomas Aquinas) took 20th and 21st, led by Fisher and Mareike Krebs in 18:38.4 for the Saints. With a lot of these athletes returning next year with even more at stake, I can’t wait to see what unfolds.
Boy’s Championship Race
First off, wow. Three Kansas boys in the top eight and two hypothetical tickets to nationals? I would have had a tough time believing that if someone would have told me that in August. That’s not because our athletes weren’t talented, it’s because the region has been grueling and unforgiving to Kansas boys in the past. In 2018, Ethan Marshall of Saint Thomas Aquinas missed out by eight seconds, and twelve seconds the year before. Marshall was a heck of a runner, one of the best the state has seen, and he didn’t make it out of the region. That example is enough on its own to hopefully get my point across. Things were very different this year though, but sadly a year without NXN.
Similar to what we saw in the girl’s race, as the race went on, a definite pack began pulling away from the field and shrinking every couple hundred meters. At the 1 Mile mark, things were ridiculously close considering there was a ten second spread between first and fifty-ninth. At the 2-Mile mark there was more separation, but still not a definite lead pack with a good amount of distance from the chase pack. Over the last 2k, things began to thin out, eventually ending with Elkhorn South senior Gabe Hinrichs put five seconds in between him and the runner-up, capping off his undefeated season with a lifetime best of 15:00.00 and a NXR Championship. He literally couldn’t have asked for a better result, but I bet he wishes he could have found .01 extra seconds somewhere between the gun going off and breaking the tape. Robbinsdale Armstrong junior Noah Breker took 2nd, running a sixteen second personal best of 15:05.80. Taking 3rd by just three tenths of a second was a familiar name in Logan Seger who came blazing down the final stretch to catch Sam Scott of Minneapolis Southwest. This matches Andover’s Ryan Kinnane, who took an unexpected 3rd in 2019 where he set a personal best of 15:19.80, where he took twenty-nine seconds off of his previous mark.
In all honesty, I did not expect to see Seger out lean Scott at the line on Saturday. The camera angle that they used was very misleading, and it’s hard to tell how far out runners truly are. I was pretty stoked when I saw the golden jersey charge down the last stretch and catch an empty Scott. After this performance, Seger may have just topped off one of the greatest season’s that we have seen in quite some time. Four wins including his first cross country state championship. All eight races under sixteen, six under 15:30, and four under 15:16, with what would have been a NXN appearance tacked on at the end. I was hoping he would finally get the sub-fifteen performance he has been so close to, but I’m more than sure it’ll come to him.
Along with Olathe North’s Hocker-Singh, Micah Blomker of Shawnee Mission North is just a sophomore and doing things that we don’t often see from all ages. Starting with his Kansas state record of 14:57.00, taking down Stuart McNutt’s record of 14:58.39 from the 2013 season. Additionally, Blomker won five races over the course of the season, which includes his first 6A cross country state championship. Out of his nine races, he won five of them, and broke sixteen in each one. Like Seger, I had no idea that Blomker was that close to the group, but there he was, only one and a half seconds away from a 3rd place finish.
Let’s not forget about Sawyer Schmidt of Augusta, who used momentum from a stellar track season to the grass this Fall. After going undefeated in both the 1600m and 3200m along with both state titles in the Spring, Schmidt has been on a tear this season. He started the season off tremendously, winning two out of his first four, along with getting his best down to 15:27.90. Things took off for the senior at the El Dorado Invitational where he began his stretch of four consecutive wins, including a 15:18.09 at the AVCTL meet, and his first 4A state title in cross country. On Saturday, Schmidt got even faster, running 15:15.90 to take 7th and five seconds away from a qualifying spot. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that this was the first time that three Kansas boys finished in the top ten. Seriously, correct me if I’m wrong because I have exactly zero evidence to back up my claim. I don’t think we can be surprised though, because this has been one of the fastest overall cross country season’s to date that I can remember. So give them a round of applause for simply running out of their mind.
The ten fastest Kansas athletes in the Championship race all ran under sixteen, obviously led by Seger, Blomker and Schmidt. Tanner Lindahl, the Buhler senior and runner-up to Schmidt at state ran 15:35.4 to lead him to a 21st place finish.
Olathe East junior Carter Stewart ran his way to a 25th place finish in 15:37.3, with Olathe West’s Aidan Reyna three spots back in 28th with a 15:40.9. Great Bend’s Kaiden Esfeld took 38th in 15:48.7, followed by Wyatt Haughton (SM East/15:50.0), Carson McEachern (Bishop Carroll/15:54.3, and Tanner Newkirk (Hayden/15:58.1), placing 41st, 53rd and 56th in the field.
The Kansas boys had four teams in the Championship race, led by Saints XC in 15th, followed by The Beasty Goyuls (Olathe East), Southwest Project TC (Blue Valley Southwest) and Falcons NXR (Olathe South) in 16th, 17th and 19th.
Typically overshadowed by the Championship races, the open races are full of the same excitement and energy. One thing they have that the Championship races don’t have is the monumental field size. The Girl’s Open races had 843 runners, with the Boy’s Open capping at 1247. The girl’s race was split up into three sections, and the boy’s in five, but that is still a lot of bodies packed in.
Based off of the numbers, there was a large quantity of Kansas athletes in each race, and for that I am going to condense the results into a much more compact recap. I’ll cover the top ten finishers in the combined races and go over how the top three teams did on each side.
Girl’s Open Race
The top Kansas finisher in all three sections of the Girl’s Open races was Washburn Rural junior Madeline Carter. Fresh off a fantastic second half of her KSHSAA season, Carter used that momentum for an 8th place finish in 18:43.90. She finished off her season by finishing in the top ten every single race, and winning five out of the ten. Carter was the lone Kansas girl under nineteen, but the next nine finishers all finished under the twenty minute barrier. Behind Carter was her freshman teammate, Payton Fink (19:30.00), the second fastest freshman in the state this season. Fink finished her freshman campaign with her ninth race under twenty minutes, and her seventh at 19:30 or faster. Four seconds back of Fink was Blue Valley Southwest freshman Izzy Ross (19:34.80). Like Fink, she had a very successful first high school cross country season, going under twenty in all but three races and placing 8th at state a few weeks ago. Placing 53rd-57th was a Kansas pack, all finishing within 2.7 seconds of one another.
Leading the way was the Bishop Carroll duo of Brooke Martin and Landon Forbes, running 19:42.3 and 19:44. The duo will be back next year as Forbes enters her senior year and Martin begins what will be her second season of high school cross country. DeSoto’s Brooke Bundt (19:44.50), Olathe East’s Whitney Post (19:44.60), and Shawnee Mission North’s Chloee Belgum (19:45.00) rounded out the pack of five. The ninth and tenth Kansas finishers were Brenna Murphy and Allison Babbit of Shawnee Mission North and Lawrence Free State. Murphy ran 19:56.9 while Babbit squeaked under twenty with a 19:59.8.
The top three teams were made up of the Southwest Project TC (BVSW), Shawnee Bison XC (Shawnee Mission North) and NOTO Running (Seaman). The Southwest Project TC finished 15th out of 97 teams, scoring 545 points. Shawnee Bison XC was just five points back, scoring 550 and taking 16th. NOTO Running, led by Bethany Druse (20:16.8) took 18th with 625 points.
Boy’s Open Race
Eli Moore of St. James Academy was the highest Kansas finisher in the Open sections, taking 4th overall and winning his section by seven seconds. Moore had a very solid senior season, finishing in the top twenty-five in all seven races, and in the top fifteen all but once. Moore ran 15:58.40, just over two seconds out of a runner-up finish. Kory Sutton (16:06.10) of Shawnee Heights took 11th in the field, with AJ Vega (16:07.90) of Mill Valley taking 13th. After a considerably short season for Sutton a year ago, he more than made up for it this time around. Sutton collected wins in four out of nine races, along with a personal best of 15:41.80, accompanied by a 20th place finish at the 5A state meet. In just his sophomore year, Vega himself had a very successful season. Along with a a 15:28.90 and a 12th place finish at state, Vega never finished outside of the top nineteen. Lawrence Free State senior Ben Shryock finished 18th in 16:13.9. Over the course of the season, Shryock won four races and took 12th at state. Jackson Esquibel (Shawnee Heights/16:29.9), Kasen Keeler (Gardner-Edgerton/16:30.2), Jordan Kilonzo (Gardner-Edgerton 16:32.7), and Caden Peters (Shawnee Mission East/16:32.9) took 38th. 39th, 43rd, and 46th pretty close to one another. Rounding out the remaining top ten finishers from Kansas were Austin Oakerson and Chase Schieber. Oakerson, a senior from Shawnee Mission Northwest ran 16:36.80 for a 50th place finish, while Schieber, a Mill Valley senior ran 16:40.8 while taking 58th.
In the team race, it was the TrailBlazers (Gardner-Edgerton) who led the way, taking 14th out of 150 teams. Free State RC (Lawrence Free State) was a spot behind in 15th. Team Thunder (St. James Academy) took 19th in the field, rounding out three Kansas teams in the top twenty. The TrailBlazers scored 577 points, with Free State RC totaling 610 and Team Thunder with 706.
Fun fact, second to last time that the NXR Heartland meet was held, a Kansas team walked away with the team title in the Boy’s Open race. The Blues XC Club, better known as Washburn Rural scored a minuscule 156, comfortably ahead of the runner-up Muskego XC with 314 points. Rural put three in the top thirty-three and their four and five in the top 70. With how fast Kansas is getting, I would not be surprised if another team matches the feat next year.
Since the collegiate cross country season has sadly reached its end, we’ll dive into every level from NCAA DI-NJCAA in our next newsletter and cover how our Kansas teams and alumni did on the highest stage.