HS Harriers Looking Beyond Minnesota

Regular readers of Down the Backstretch know that, in the fall anyway, Tuesdays are the days we post the Minnesota high school cross country rankings. After Saturday's sun-spangled State Meet however, we need to find something else to report.

Or do we ...

For many prep harriers, the season still has a few weeks to run as they look ahead to Nike Cross Nationals or Footlocker competition. We thought -- it being Tuesday and all -- we'd bring you up-to-date on those events ... and even share the most recent NXN Heartland Region and Harrier Magazine national rankings.

NXN Heartland ... The Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regional meet is scheduled for Saturday at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Teams and individuals can still register for the meet until 8:00 p.m. CST tonight. Details on the event can be found HERE.

The top two teams in the boys' and girls' championship races will automatically qualify for Nike Cross Nationals, to be contested in Portland, Oregon on December 5,

Last year, the Wayzata boys and the Eden Prairie girls' teams won the Heartland Regional and qualified for Nike Cross Nationals -- Wayzata finishing 18th, Eden Prairie placing 11th. The 2008 Heartland individual boys' champ, of course, was Grand Rapids exchange-student Jacub Zivec, who was the runner-up a NXN.

2008 Heartland Region results are HERE. 2008 NXN results are HERE.

Regional and National Polls ... This year, the Eden Prairie boys, the newly minted MSHSL Class AA champions are ranked #1 in the Heartland. The Class AA runners-up Wayzata, are ranked #2 in the most recent Heartland poll, HERE, dated October 16.

On the girls' side, Eden Prairie, the thrid place team in Class AA, is ranked #3 in the Heartland. Class AA champs Elk River is ranked #8.

The Wayzata boys are ranked #18 and Eden Prairie boys #21 in Harrier Magazine's November 2 national poll, HERE. No Minnesota girls' team are in the national top-25.

Footlocker Cross Country ... The Footlocker Midwest Regional is set for November 28 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Zivec was the Footlocker Midwest Region champ in 2008, and finished 5th at Footlocker Nationals.

Footlocker Nationals will be contested December 12 in San Diego, California.

Find Footlocker information HERE.

2008 Midwest Regionals results are HERE. 2008 Footlocker National results are HERE.