by Larry Eder
The 20th NIKE Cross Nationals were held on December 6, 2025. The site was Glendoveer Golf Course, which has been the home of the NXN for over a decade.
Enthusiasts of the NXN sometimes like to discuss which course was better, the Portland Meadows old course (a horse track) or the Glendoveer Golf Course.
Suffice it to say, for someone who was witness to 17 of the 20 events, each site has had its iconic races, and challenging aspects of the end of the cross country season, with the weather that is Portland, Oregon in early December.
There has been snow, there has been rain, there has been torrential rain, there has been mud, muck and more muck.
The athletes who run the 5k on the NXN courses seem to excel no matter what the weather.
The boys and girls who race at NXN are among the top individuals and top teams in this wonderful high school sport of cross country.
Since 1971, the National Federation of High School Sports (NFHS) has kept track of sports participation in high schools. 556,000 boys and girls competed in cross-country in 50 states in 2025. That is the approximate number. That is a record participation for the sport. Add track and field (1.1 million), and you have 1.656 million boys and girls competing in athletics (cross-country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field).
The NXN has brought about the recognition of the team aspect of cross country like no other event. While the Foot Locker (cancelled in 2025, and picked up by Brooks) celebrated the indivual cross country athlete, with nomimal team competition, NIKE took on the team competition and brings 31 of the finest teams in the country together, with the finest individuals.
The NXN was birthed from the NIKE Border Clash, held from 1999 to 2018. The NIKE Border Clash was the brainchild of then NIKE employees John Truax, a shoe dude, and Josh Rowe, a sports marketing dude. They convinced the higher ups that what NIKE needed to do was sponsor a cross-country race between the top 40 boys and top 40 girls from both Oregon and Washington for bragging rights on who was the very best cross-country runners in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2005, NIKE began the NXN, after dealing with the charming folks at Foot Locker. Foot Locker had a cross-country series that dated back to 1979, and had, over the years had nearly every running shoe company as a sponsor. Foot Locker literally annoyed every shoe brand to the point that they quit after 3 years. NIKE did one step more, they started their own National Champs, the NIKE Cross Nationals.
From the very first, the NXN was unique. The celebration of teams, the amount of swag, the appearance of NIKE athletes to encourage, cajole and entertain the athletes made it different. The truth is this, when NIKE puts its mind to do something, it does it first class.
The regional qualifiers are superb in themselves. This writer went to the NXR Southwest, where 3,500 runners competed, an the Swoosh TC athletes encouraged the runners to compete well. One of the NXR events had 9,000 runners! So, to say that there is enthusiasm for the NXR and NXN is an understatement.
The course at the Glendoveer is challenging. Tall grass, tough footing, some hills, and turns, all in the eyeshot of about five thousand fans, keeps the event entertaining. The production values of the streaming show, done by Runnerspace.com, makes this streaming event second to none. NIKE and Runnerspace pull out all of the stops.
Not only does NIKE bring in the finest teams, but most of the finest individuals. Case in point was Jackson Spencer, the #1 ranked Boys cross country athlete in the country was there. He wa quite impressive in his win in NXR Southweat, where he ran 14:31 on the very flat course (Jackson has run 14:16 for the 5,000m). Tops boys were Calvin Seitz, MW winner, with Lucas Tanner, the only qualifier from Wisconsin, to be watched, among others.
On the girl’s side, nearly all of the top ranked Girls cross-country runners were on the Glendoveer course, from Abby Ritzenhein, Jaelyn Williams, Natasza Dudek, Blair Bartlett among the athletes to watch.
Here’s the secret on the championship races: there are no secrets!First of all, athletes have to endure a very long season, avoiding illness,
