Nike Team Nationals - 1st Report

Report from the Newton Centre Athletics Coach, Jennifer Reed:

First installment…..Four days, 12 hours sleep and one Nike Cross Nationals race later and I am back in Newton trying to succinctly (sorry John!) share the experience at Nike Cross Nationals.

It was a dark and a thankfully not stormy morning when Newton Centre Athletics athletes Kelsey Karys, Bridget Dahlberg, Madeleine Reed, Kathy O’Keefe, Olga Golovkina, Mel Fineman, Elizabeth May and Juliet Ryan-Davis left their homes at 5:00am to head to Logan Airport. The final leg of the journey to Portland, Oregon to compete in the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN). NXN brings together the 22 top women’s and 22 top men’s cross country teams from across the country to compete on the same stage. This year’s race also included 45 individual athletes in each race.

The journey out to Oregon was uneventful yet unbeknownst to us slightly fortuitous. Not long after the flight had taken off, we were extremely shocked and pleased to hear the flight attendant announce that “Bridget Dahlberg, from Newton South High School, was on the plane and that is was a special day for her and we would like to wish her a happy 18th birthday.” It turns out the flight attendant was a NSHS grad as were three other passengers on the flight! The second fortuitous announcement came when we had to do an all call through the terminal in Salt Lake City to remind two of the girls to return to our gate for boarding and departure. Two days later, little did we know how cool it would be to hear the name Newton announced so frequently over the loudspeaker during the race!

Nike cared for the girls well and kept them on their toes moving them between the race course at Portland Meadows, the hotel in Tigard and the Nike Campus in Beaverton. It was great to travel by bus and not have to worry about driving and directions. The athletes spent most of their free time on the Nike Campus in the Athlete’s Lounge where there were couches, computers, game tables, a 15x15 screen for rock band as well as plenty of snacks. The highlight of the athlete activities was the panel with the Nike Elite Athletes Shalane Flanagan, Abdi Abdirahman, Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Webb. The icing on the cake was when the girls had dinner with Shalane later that day. Shalane Flanagan was the 10K Bronze Medalist in Beijing and the Northeast Region team Captain.

Race day arrived and Juliet and I woke up at 5:30, had breakfast at 6:00 and at 7:00 headed off for the track in complete darkness. It was strange to have it so dark in the morning. The ground at the Meadows was covered in frost when we arrived but the sky was lightening and showed the promise of a beautiful day. We watched the sun rise over the Meadows and by the time the starter gun on Juliet’s race went off, the sun had melted most of the frost away. Juliet ran a great race despite the fact that she had been sidelined with an injury for the past month and had not trained for the event. The coolest part of her race is that she can say she “ran with the Kenyans.” Five young women from Kenya competed in Juliet’s race. We subsequently flew home with the Kenyan boys and girls teams and the athletes exchanged emails, so hopefully there can be a continued relationship.

The rest of the team arrived and Juliet helped them warm up for their race. By now the crowds were really growing and the excitement in the air was palpable. It was a beautiful 50 degree day, perfect for cross country. At 9:59 the girls queued up for the introductions. Each team was introduced and had a chance to run past the crowd. Fireworks accompanied the start – I’ve never seen this at a race – and the girls were off. I’m sure you’ve watched some of the race and seen the results, but it was very exciting to hear Newton’s name mentioned so frequently throughout the race. Out of 22 teams, Newton Centre Athletics came in sixth overall only one point off of fifth place and 12 points off of 4th place. They also finished ahead of six Regional Champions. The Newton Centre Athletics’ girls exceeded expectations. The Newton team was ranked 8th nationally going into the meet and were not forecasted to be in the top ten, save for Steve Underwood, Senior Editor of Rise, who forecasted they could come in 5-7 if they were having a good day.

The Nike Cross Nationals course is deceptive. The course is relatively flat, but is physically challenging because each section of the course provides tough terrain for the runners: it was slippery (some athletes fell), soft, mucky (some lost their spikes) and sandy plus had the rhythm breaking features. The hay bales at miles one and two came at points on the course when runners were beginning to settle into their race while the “whoopdy-doos” both broke the rhythm and accelerated the girls’ heart rate. The other aspect that the girls found challenging was the density and physicality of the race with runners getting jostled, spiked, and cut. Many of the girls said they’d never run within that density of runners before and didn’t even see the hay bales before they had to run over them.

I am sure that part of the reason the girls ran so well on such a challenging course was the encouragement and support of Steven McChesney’s parents (and now we understand him……) and his brother Kenny as well as an eclectic mixture of fans – NSHS grads, former friends and athletes from Steven’s Oregon days as well as the girls’ relatives. Meeting Alberto Salazar was a post race highlight for the girls.

It was a great day and a great honor to be amongst the best cross country teams in the country and an even greater joy to be traveling with the Newton XC runners – not only the best cross country runners in the nation in our opinion but the most fun to be with!