Recap of Saturday's exciting NXN races.
Girls NXN
After a three year hiatus, NXN returned to Portland to clear skies and a windy cold day. The girl's race went off first and meet favorite Irene Riggs of Morgantown (WV) took the lead early. The Stanford bound Riggs created a five second gap from the trail runners Brooke Wilson of Valor Christian (CO), Abbey Nechanicky of Wayzata (MN) and Isabel Conde De Frankenberg of Cedar Park (TX). By the two-mile mark Riggs had opened a 16 second lead and now the question is whether the course record would fall. Normally in the past the course is sloppy due to recent rains, but only the wind held back the athletes. Riggs finished at 16:40.9 and missed Katelyn Tuohy's course record by three seconds. Meanwhile defending champion Saratoga Springs won the team race with 81 points as four of their athletes from the 2019 winning squad returned to defend their title. Niwot of Colorado finished second with 109 points and Buchanan of California finished third with 116 points.
The photo gallery of the girl's race is HERE
Boys NXN
Some of the meet favorites in the boy's race came through the one mile mark at 4:333 including Leo and Lex Young of Newbury Park, Hunter Jones of Benzie Central (MI), Devan Kipyego of St. Raphael (RI) and Tyrone Gorze of Crater (OR). At the 4K mark, Leo Young took a four second lead over teammate Aaron Sahlman and Gorze. Leo Young struggled up the last hill before the finish and Sahlman with his 1:48 800 speed went for the win in 14:44.5. Incredibly, NXN was Sahlman's first victory in high school (thanks to the depth of Newbury Park). The victory by Sahlman repeated the individual championship by Newbury Park as Nico Young won in 2019. The Panthers of Newbury Park also repeated the team victory from 2019 with a team score of 66, Jesuit of hometown Portland second with 152 points and Herriman of Utah third with 155 points (Herriman is coached by former Great Oak, CA coach Doug Soles). In fact a California, Oregon and Utah school took the top seven spots.
The photo gallery of the boy's race is HERE