The Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships have been canceled. The high school national championship meet held in December will end after 45 years, Foot Locker announced on Thursday.
“After thoughtful and careful consideration, Foot Locker has made the difficult decision to conclude the annual Foot Locker Cross Country Championships (FLXC),” Foot Locker’s statement reads. “As we look to the future, this strategic decision reflects our ongoing commitment to evaluating where we can make the most meaningful impact for our business, our customers, and the communities we serve, including the running community.”
The event started in 1979 as the Kinney Cross-Country Championships. In 1993, the name changed to the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships. The race was no contested in 2020. Eastbay became the title sponsor in 2021 before Champs took over in 2022. In 2023 and 2024, the final two years of the event, it went back to Foot Locker.
The event featured four regional championship races—Northeast, Midwest, South, and West—that served as qualifying races for the national championship race. As of 2004, the top ten finishers in the boys and girls “seeded” races from the regional races advanced to the national meet. 40 boys and 40 girls competed at the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships (before 2004, the event had 32 runners in each race), which was held at Balboa Park in San Diego, with the exception of seven years when it was held in Orlando (1981-1982 and 1997-2001).
Foot Locker saw competition was similar high school championship races in recent years. In 2008, Nike Team Nationals, a championship race for high school teams only, was rebranded to Nike Cross Nationals (NXN), which included many top individuals from around the country. Many top runners had to choose between racing at Foot Locker or NXN. In 2020, the RunningLane Championships, held in Huntsville, Alabama emerged as another popular national meet. With a fast course, RunningLane became a popular spot for top athletes to run a fast time.
The list of Foot Locker national champions includes Bob Kennedy (1987), Adam Goucher (1993), Dathan Ritzenhein (1999 and 2000), Sara Hall (2000), Jordan Hasay (2005), Molly Seidel (2011), Edward Cheserek (2011 and 2012), Grant Fisher (2013 and 2014), Weini Kelati (2015), Cole Hocker (2018), and Elizabeth Leachman (2023 and 2024).
Best Hydration Packs Runner’s World. He has led news coverage teams for major running events like the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships, Boston Marathon, and New York City Marathon. A former collegiate distance runner at DeSales University, he still enjoys running, just more slowly now. Before coming to Runner’s World, he covered track and field and cross-country at MileSplit. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, where the two like to explore the city’s rich dining scene.
