THIS DECEMBER, for the first time in 30 years, the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships won't be the only game in town. Up the coast in Oregon, the Nike Team Nationals have added an individual component, and the renamed Nike Cross Nationals will doubtless draw some of the nation's top high school harriers, particularly those are members of nationally ranked teams.

But don't feel too sorry for Foot Locker. There promises to be plenty of excitement in San Diego, too, especially on the girls side, where three champions planto return for a rubber match to see which one is the best female cross country runner in the class of 2009.
   JORDAN HASAY, who won as a freshman, KATHY KROEGER, who defeated Hasay the following year, and ASHLEY BRASOVAN, the defending champ, all figure to be in themix, and all have expressed the intention of returning to the site ofthe race that putthem on the national running radar.
   Hasay, of course, has been the brightest blip, in spite of not annex ing another Foot Locker crown in the intervening years. She captured both the 2007 and 2008 USATF junior cross championships in Boulder and San Diego, and she's proven to be even more gifted on the track, making two US. teams for the world junior meet and making it to the Finals of the Olympic trials 1500m run, where she placed l0th in 4:17.36; in the semis there, she set a high school record 4:14.50. Her trials experience, which was originally planned to include just the opening round, delayed her trip to Poland for the world juniors but was "an incredible experience, to be standing on the starting line with runners I've idolized," Hasay says. At worlds, she just missed repeating her medal-winning performance of the previous year by one spot, then returned home for a well- deserved two weeks of rest. "I started off in August and have been slowly building my mileage,' she says."No really hard workouts-I did my first hill session in early September." Still, Hasay feels she's stronger than she's been in the past. "I'm doing mileage and workouts at the beginning of the season that I normally do at the end," she says, noting that she plans a restricted racing schedule until the championship season starts, save a run at Mt. SAC, site of the Foot Locker regional meet.
    Kroeger, Hasay's successor at Foot Locker in 2006, suffered through health problems the following spring and summer, but when she finally began training and racing bounced back strongly, just being edged by Brasovan at the national championships. Avoiding the injury bug last year resulted in a 3200m PR 10:24.53

for fourth place at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. My training's been going really well," getting ready for cross country, she says. "The workouts I'm doing are better than I've ever done them-harder and faster." Kroeger continues to be advised by Olympian JIM SPIVEY, whom she met when he was the women's coach at vanderbilt. "He's extremely knowledgeable and experienced," she says. "He helps me keep things in perspective if I'm frustrated. He's helped me to improve and focus my training. I know I'm training smarter so I have more confidence going into races."
   Brasovan, the most recent Foot Locker champ, also fought the injury bug early last track season, but recovered enough to win the Nike Outdoor Nationals 5,OOOm in a meet record 16:18.93, the sixth- fastest prep time ever. Brasovan is unique among the three former champs in that she is essentially self-coached. "I mostly make my own workout regimen," she says. "I made my own workout plan leading up to Nike Outdoor, and it seemed to workout fine." It took Brasovan three tries to qualifv for Foot Locker nationals, but the third time was the charm, and she's sticking to the formula that got her to the top last year. "I have just added more miles this year, but am basically following a similar schedule to what I was doing last cross country season," she says.
   Unusual in high school sports, fans of high school cross country should get to see a confluence of former titlists at Foot Locker this year. It would be somewhat of a surprise to see someone other than one of them in the winner's circle on Dec. 13 in San Diego; indeed, a 1-2-3 finish (toss the names in the air to predict the exact order) is possible, perhaps even probable. No matter who emerges on top, figure that the30th edition of theFoot Locker championships could be the best ever.-J.G.

Used with permission