By Christopher Hunt
For the first time, the Foot Locker Cross Country Northeast Regional will be held someplace other than historic Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, meet director Phil Zodda announced yesterday. The qualifier for the Foot Locker National will still take place on Nov. 28 but instead will be held at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park, the site of last year’s New York State Public Schools Championships.
Half of the parade ground at Van Cortlandt Park was fenced off before the fall season last year as part of a renovation project financed partly through the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant. Phase 2 of the project would fence the other side of the parade ground while drainage and irrigation system is installed. The fence, which is expected to be hoisted this week, will not leave room for a sufficient start for a 5-kilometer race, the distance run at the Foot Locker regional race.
“It’s the nature of contouring a course,” Zodda said. “The kids should have the ability to run the first 200, 300 yards without any sharp turns or quickly being funneled into narrow trails.”
Zodda said he searched for months before agreeing with the park officials at Sunken Meadow. He said he also considered some parks in New Jersey such as Holmdel Park and also considered Rockefeller Park in Westchester. Sunken Meadow was agreeable and also had the capacity for a safe and easy transition from the starting line into the trails.
“As much as I believe in the tradition of Van Cortlandt Park, there just isn’t enough space to accommodate our Foot Locker Northeast Program,” said Zodda, who ran at Spellman in the Bronx and raced at Van Cortlandt in high school. “There’s basically three championship courses: the first is the infamous Vanny, the second would be Bowdoin Park where the federation meet is held and then there’s Sunken Meadow.
“It’s not as though we’re picking a spot that’s never been used before. I’s just so happens that we’re going away from a place that we’ve always been.”
There is still a usable 2.5-mile course at Van Cortlandt that will be used this season. Zodda though,made no promises that the Foot Locker meet will return to the Bronx next year.
“I don’t think Van Cortlandt will be done with their project for another two or three years. I might be completely wrong. But I’m not going to say or even infer that we’re going to go away from Sunken Meadow. They agreed to have us and we wouldn’t want to seem like we’re looking to leave there before we even get there.”
FULL SUNKEN MEADOW STATE PARK INFORMATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kenny Fried, 202-468-8200, kfried@bwfcom.com
Gabriella Citrin, 212.720.3752, gcitrin@footlocker.com
Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional Race Moves to New Location on Long Island
New York, N.Y., Date XX, 2009- Foot Locker announced today, that this year’s Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Northeast Regional Race will move to Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park, Long Island, to be held on Saturday, November 28.
The Northeast Regional Race has been held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, for the 30-year history of the event. More than 65 acres of Van Cortlandt Park, including portions of the cross-country trail are currently being renovated.
“We are very excited to move our race to Sunken Meadow State Park overlooking the Long Island Sound,” said Jeanine Zocks, vice president of sports marketing. “The 5K course features “Cardiac Hill,” sunken meadow creek, and is widely regarded as one of the most difficult cross-country courses in the country. We know our runners will be challenged there.”
The Foot Locker Cross Country Championships is the longest running high school cross country race in the nation, comprised of four regional 5K races in the Northeast, Midwest (Kenosha, Wis.), South (Charlotte, N.C.) and West (Walnut, Calif.), with the National Championships in San Diego, Calif., on Saturday, December 12, 2009. More than 10,000 of the nation’s leading high school runners are expected to compete in the regional meets this year.
For more information on the race visit www.footlockercc.com