PORTLAND, Ore. – Nathan Christianson said his team thought about this race every day – every single day – for 365 days. His Boerne XC (Tx.) team thought about the eight points that made the difference between qualifying last year and watching the Nike Cross Nationals webcast at home on a computer.
Then after all the talking and daydreaming, they didn’t just make the national meet, they should atop the award podium as national champions. Boerne XC squeezed South Spokane XC (Ferris, Wa.) out of the national title, 195-201 at Portland Meadows Raceway Saturday. The race was predicted as a virtual toss-up and it proved as such. Anyone could have won with a kilometer remaining. Boerne simply made the strongest move.
The Woodlands (Tx.), who was leading going into the last kilometer finished third with 207, one-point ahead of Wilmette XC. Last year’s champs, North Spokane finished seventh with 239. Christianson, who finished 40th overall (16th among runners that scored), said he remembered watching North Spokane win the race last year after not even being in the top three headed into the last kilometer. He knew the race would be decided in the stretch. They all did.
“I just took off,” he said. “I think I probably passed 15 people in the last 400.”
It was Christianson who made the biggest difference in the scoring for Boerne. He finished 20 points ahead of South Spokane’s second finisher. The Woodlands lead for most of the race but no position was safe as the finish line closed in.
“You run the first two-thirds of the race with your legs and the last third with your heart,” said junior Travis Barclay, who finished 23rd overall (eighth among scorers). He will be the only returner to the senior-laden team.
The race for the individual title was heated from the start and when it came to the last half mile, the gloves came off – literally. Headed into the final kilometer, Joe Rosa of West Windsor Plainsboro North (N.J.) ditched his gloves as he tried to put some distance on the field. California’s Elias Gedyon dropped his gloves next and latched on. Then South’s Craig Lutz (Marcus High, Dallas, Tx.) tossed his too.
“I was them dropped theirs,” Lutz said, “so I figured I’d drop mine too.”
At the very least the symbolism said the race had just begun to get hot. But more specifically it said that whatever the three lead runners had left in their legs would be on display. No reservations.
Rosa couldn’t shake Gedyon or Lutz but held the lead with less than 100 meters left. That was until Lutz made yet another move to take the national title from Rosa, who most picked as the odds-on favorite.
“That last 400 was all heart,” he said. “All heart.”
Lutz had finished third at the NXN South Regional two weeks ago but won the Foot Locker South Regional last week. He planned to simply qualify for both national races but after his disappointment at the NXN Regional he decided that he would go for the win last week instead of hanging back. He said the race last week helped restore his confidence. His dash to the finish with Rosa and Gedyon Saturday helped him discover a new threshold.
“That’s probably the most pain I’ve ever been in,” he said.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
