Changing of the Guard: High school cross country champs
September 8, 2025
August 21, 2025, was a sad day.
Foot Locker ended their annual Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.
“[T]his strategic decision reflects our ongoing commitment to evaluating where we can make the most meaningful impact for our business, our customers, and the communities we serve, including the running community,” Foot Locker said in its announcement of the end of the race.
You can read the whole announcement here.
Held each December since 1979, Foot Locker brought together the best high school runners from across the United States to race in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Some of these elite high schoolers became All-Americans, NCAA Champions, and Olympians later in their careers. You might recognize some of the winners’ names: Jordan Hasay, Molly Seidel, Weini Kelati, Adam Goucher, Grant Fisher, and Cole Hocker, to name a few.
Last year’s winners were Elizabeth Leachman and Tamrat Gavenas. For a moment, it seemed like they would be the last two to win a national cross country championship on the beloved Balboa Park course.
But then Brooks stepped in. Or strode in, if you will.
Just one week after Foot Locker announced the end of an era, Brooks and Fleet Feet introduced the Brooks Cross Country Championships, presented by Fleet Feet.
“It was never goodbye,” Brooks and Fleet Feet said in an Instagram post. “Introducing the Brooks XC Championships presented by Fleet Feet. The same Balboa Park course. The same inspiring passion, fight, determination and all-out effort from the nation’s fastest high school runners. Now louder, faster and more electric. XC Recharged. Fastest of the fastest is for the track. This December, it’s time to find out who emerges as the toughest of the toughest.”
Similar to how Foot Locker Cross Country Champs was organized, this championship series will consist of four regional qualifying races: Midwest, South, Northeast, and West. Any high school runner can register for their respective regional, and the fastest runners will move on to compete in the championship race.
Brooks and Fleet Feet chose the same iconic courses for the regionals as Foot Locker had: the UW-Parkside course in Kenosha, Wisconsin; McAlpine Park in Charlotte, North Carolina; Franklin Park in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Mt. SAC course in Walnut, California.
Most importantly, the championship race is still in Balboa Park.
The regionals will take place the last weekend in November and the first weekend in December. The championship will be on December 13. The girls 5K starts at 10:00am, and the boys 5K starts at 11:00am. You can catch me out there cheering them on.
Why Foot Locker chose to end its historical race is not entirely clear to me. Based on their announcement letter, it seems they want to use resources in new ways to support runners. While I am biased that cross country is one of — if not the best — way to support the running community, I suppose all good things must come to an end at some point. But thanks for Brooks and Fleet Feet, that end is not here yet. See you in Balboa.